CHYMIFICATION. 603 



Alexis San Martin, eighteen years of age, received a charge of buck- 

 shot in his left side, which carried away integuments and muscles 

 of the size of the hand; fracturing, and removing the anterior half of 

 the sixth rib; fracturing the fifth; lacerating the lower portion of the 

 left lobe of the lung and the diaphragm, and perforating the stomach. 

 When Dr. Beaumont saw the lad, twenty-five or thirty minutes after 

 the accident, he found a portion of the lung, as large as a turkey's 

 egg, protruding through the external wound, lacerated and burnt; and, 

 immediately below this, another protrusion, which, on inspection, proved 

 to be a portion of the stomach, lacerated through all its coats, and suf- 

 fering the food he had taken at breakfast to escape through an aperture 

 large enough to admit the forefinger. It need scarcely be said, that 

 numerous untoward symptoms occurred in the cicatrization of so formi- 

 dable a wound. Portions of the ribs exfoliated; abscesses formed to 

 allow the exit of extraneous substances; and the patient was worn down 

 by febrile irritation. Ultimately, however, the care and attention of 

 Dr. Beaumont were crowned with success, and the instinctive actions 

 of the system repaired the extensive injury. The wound was received 

 in 1822, and on the 6th of June, 1823, one year from the date of the 

 accident, the injured parts were sound, and firmly cicatrized, with the 

 exception of the perforation leading into the stomach, which was about 

 two inches and a half in circumference. Until the winter of 1823-4, 

 compresses and bandages were needed to prevent the escape of the food. 

 At this period, a small fold or doubling of the inner coat of the stomach 

 appeared forming at the superior margin of the orifice, slightly pro- 

 truding, and increasing in size until it filled the aperture. This val- 

 vular formation adapted itself to the opening into the organ, so as to 

 completely prevent the escape of the contents, when the stomach was 

 full; but it could be readily depressed by the finger. Since the spring 

 of 1824, San Martin has enjoyed general good health ; he is active, 

 athletic, and vigorous ; eating and drinking like a healthy individual. 

 From the summer of 1825, Dr. Beaumont had been engaged in the 

 prosecution of numerous experiments upon him ; some of the results 

 of which he has given to the world. In the winter of 1833, he was in 

 Washington, when the author at the time, Professor of Medicine in 

 the University of Virginia was politely invited to examine him for 

 physiological purposes. Many of the results of this examination are 

 given by Dr. Beaumont, and have already been, or will be, referred to 

 in the present work. Dr. Beaumont's researches into the comparative 

 digestibility of different alimentary substances belong to another de- 

 partment of medical science, and have accordingly received attention 

 from the author elsewhere. 



What, then, it may be asked, are the changes wrought on the food in 

 the stomach by the gastric secretions? Dr. Prout 1 classes them under 

 three operations; the reducing, converting, and organizing and vital- 

 izing. The first of these is probably the main operation. In order to 

 decide, whether the action of the stomach in digestion be a simple solu- 

 tion, or a total or partial conversion, certain compounds of organization, 

 easy of detection as gelatin, albumen, and fibrin were introduced, 



