DIGESTION AND FOOD. 23 



and flesh hung over this unnatural passage-way, and closed 

 it, and retained the contents of the stomach. But it could 

 be raised at any time, and the cavity of the stomach exposed. 



35. Dr. Beaumont took St. Martin into his family, and 

 tried a great variety of experiments upon him, and made re- 

 peated observations in regard to his digestion, during the year 

 1825, and from 1829 to 1833. Dr. B. had thus an opportu- 

 nity, which has been afforded to no other man on record, 

 of watching the processes of digestion, and observing every' 

 step as it occurred. St. Martin masticated his food in his 

 mouth, and swallowed it in the usual way. But it could 

 be examined or taken out through the aperture, at any stage 

 of digestion in the stomach. Food or fluids could be put 

 into the stomach, gastric juice could be taken out, a ther- 

 mometer passed in, and the temperature ascertained. 



36. St. Martin took the various kinds of food usually 

 eaten. These were prepared in all the common methods 

 of cookery. Dr. B. closely watched them after they were 

 eaten, and noticed the changes as they successively took 

 place in each of the different articles which had been taken. 

 He watched the effect of every kind of food upon the 

 stomach, the flow of the gastric juice, the action of this fluid 

 upon the matters presented to it, and the movements of the 

 sack, He observed, also, precisely the time required to 

 digest or to change each article into chyme. Subsequently 

 Professor Lehmann, of Leipsic, and other chemists and 

 physiologists of Europe, and Dr. Dalton, of New York, 

 and others in this country, have tried many experiments, 

 and made many observations on men and animals, in order 

 to determine the law of digestion. These philosophers have 

 generally confirmed the opinions of Dr. Beaumont ; but they 

 have made the farther discovery, that only parts of the ele- 

 ments of the food are digested in the stomach, while the 

 others are digested in the intestinal canal below. All of 

 these observers kept minute records of their observations, 

 and have since published the results. 



