BEAUMONT 27 



mark that the man couldn't live 36 hours. The doctor called again in 

 the course of two or three hours and found the patient better than he 

 had anticipated. The patient was removed to the fort hospital where 

 he eventually recovered, leaving, however, a permanent gastric fistula. 

 Beaumont's own account of the accident is told in the introduction 

 to his work on "Experiments and Observations of Gastric Juice." 



"Alexis St. Martin, who is the subject of these experiments, was a Canadian 

 of French descent at the above mentioned time (1822) about 18 years of age, of 

 good constitution, robust and healthy. He had been engaged in the service of 

 the American Fur Company as a voyager and was accidentally wounded by the 

 discharge of his musket on the 6th of June; the charge, consisting of powder and 

 duck-shot, was received in the left side of the youth, he being at a distance of not 

 more than one yard from the muzzle of the gun. The contents entered posteriorly 

 and in an oblique direction, forward and inward, literally blowing off integuments 

 and muscles of the size of a man's hand, fracturing and carrying away the anter- 

 ior half of the sixth rib, lacerating the lower portion of the left lung, the dia- 

 phragm and perforating the stomach. The whole mass of materials forced from 

 the musket, together with fragments of clothing and pieces of fractured ribs, 

 were driven into the muscles and cavity of the chest. I saw him in 25 or 30 min- 

 utes after the accident occurred, and on examination found a portion of the lung 

 as large as a turkey's egg protruding through the external wound, lacerated and 

 burned; and immediately below this another protrusion which, on further ex- 

 amination, proved to be a portion of the stomach lacerated through all its coats 

 and pouring out the food he had taken for his breakfast through an orifice large 

 enough to admit the forefinger." 



Beaumont's hospital and bedside notes give a complete history 

 of the case. 



Being destitute and without friends or relatives, Alexis St. Mar- 

 tin became a pauper on the town of Mackinac. It was at last decided 

 to ship him to his native town, Montreal, nearly one thousand miles 

 away. Beaumont, however, rescued him from misery and inevitable 

 death by taking him into his own family. "During this time, says 

 his benefactor, I nursed him, fed him, clothed him, lodged him and 

 furnished him with every comfort and dressed his wounds daily and 

 for the most part twice a day." It should be realized that Beau- 

 mont endeavored to close the wound; that when all other means 

 failed he suggested incising the edges of the wound and, "bringing 

 them together by sutures, an operation to which the patient would 

 not submit." 



Not until three years after the accident did the idea of perform- 

 ing a number of experiments appear to occur to the mind of Beau- 

 mont. In 1825 he began to realize the importance of this case which 

 had fallen to his care, when it occurred to him what a great service 

 to humanity might result from this accident. About this time Beau- 

 mont describes the situation as follows: 



'He (St. Martin) will drink a quart of water or eat a dish of soup and then 

 by removing the dressings I frequently find the stomach inverted to the size 

 and about the shape of a half-blown rose, yet he complains of no pain, and It 

 will return itself or is easily reduced by gentle pressure. When he lies on the 

 opposite side I can look directly into the cavity of the stomach and almost see 

 the processes of digestion. I have frequently suspended flesh, raw and wasted, 

 and other substances into the perforation to ascertain the length of time re- 



