30 PATHFINDERS OF PHYSIOLOGY 



plained the contradictory statements of other authors; at one time it 

 was said to be very fluid clear and neutral in reaction ; then alkaline, 

 then acid. Prout in 1824 declared the gastric juice to contain free 

 hydrochloric or muriatic acid, the result of an experiment made on 

 the contents of the stomach of an animal killed soon after eating. 

 Gmelin and Tiedeman also established the presence of free hydroch- 

 loric acid. The fluid of the empty stomach was found to be slightly 

 acid, sometimes neutral and the acidity was in proportion to the quan- 

 tity, becoming very acid when food had been swallowed. According 

 to Gmelin and Tiedeman, the salts of gastric juice were principally 

 sodium chloride and potassium chloride in small quantities, hydro- 

 ^ chlorate of ammonia and a little sulphate of potassium. The com- 

 i munication concludes with the assertion that "no organ for the special 

 [secretion of the gastric juice has yet been discovered." 



Berzelius' Reply Disappointing: Through Professor Silliman, 

 Beaumont eventually heard from Berzelius, whose letter was dated 

 July, 1834. The communication upon which such great expectations 

 were placed was wholly disappointing. It was in the main an apology 

 for the writer's inability to work with the gastric fluid with prospects 

 of results of any value, owing to the time which had elapsed since 

 its secretion and its arrival at his laboratory, to the possible alteration 

 on account of summer heat, and to the inadequate quantity received. 



Nothing but the utmost zeal and love for the work could account 

 for the persistence with which Beaumont pursued his researches. He 

 felt not only the handicap of inadequate resources and facilities for 

 experimentation, but St. Martin was a source of canstant annoyance 

 to him. He would leave his master and benefactor, often absent for 

 several years, when by overtures in the shape of money he would be 

 prevailed upon to return and furnish the precious fluid for his mas- 

 ter's investigation. Beaumont's lot was cast at a time when it was 

 difficult, almost impossible, to obtain government grants for the pro- 

 motion of education. His work, therefore, has been accomplished al- 

 most entirely at his own expense. 



Attains Fame Through His Stomach: St. Martin lived the life 

 of the French Canadian habitant mostly in poverty, though physically 

 he was, the larger part of his life, in good condition. Nine years after 

 his notable accident, we are told, he took his family in an open canoe 

 via the Mississippi, passing St. Louis, ascended the Ohio River, then 

 crossed the state of Ohio to the lakes and descended the Erie and 

 Ontario and the River St. Lawrence to Montreal, the trip consuming 

 the interval from March to June. He was able to engage in manual 

 labor requiring considerable strength and endurance. Perhaps his ex- 

 treme poverty is due to lack of thrift and to intemperance, for we are 

 told that he indulged immoderately in the "glass that cheers." 



The longevity of the habitant is evidenced in St. Martin, for 

 he lived twenty-eight years after the death of Beaumont. St. Mar- 

 tin's death occurred in his eighty-third year. Sir William Osier, at 

 the time, (1880) a resident of Montreal, reading of his death, wrote 

 the local physician and parish priest urging them to secure for him 

 the privilege of an autopsy, and at the same time offering a goodly 

 sum for the stomach, which he intended to place in the Army Medi- 

 cal Museum at Washington, but his entreaties were of no avail, the 



