OF DIGESTION. 163 



the temperature, so as to imitate as nearly as possible the circum- 

 stances under which chymification takes place ; and at the end of 

 some hours he found the alimentary mass, submitted to this artificial 

 digestion, transformed into a pulpy matter, similar in all respects to 

 that which would have been formed in the stomach by a natural 

 digestion; thereby proving that the action of the gastric juice 

 upon the food is the principal cause of its transformation into 

 chyme. 



A very curious case has recently occurred by which immediate 

 access was had to the living stomach, and the experiments which 

 were performed have been published by their author, Dr. Beaumont, 

 of Plattsburgh, in this State. 



A young man, of a good constitution, when eighteen years of 

 age, was accidentally wounded in June, 1822, by a musket loaded 

 with buckshot. The shot tore away a piece of his left side, about 

 a hand's-breadth in extent, making a hole into his stomach. For 

 seventeen days everything that was taken by the mouth passed out 

 at the hole ; but after that period, by means of properly adapted 

 bandages, the food was enabled to be retained. The wound 

 gradually diminished until it became of the size and nearly of the 

 appearance of the natural anus ; and about a year and a half after 

 the accident, the lining membrane of the stomach came to form a 

 valve which prevented anything from running out, although the 

 finger, or a tea-spoon, or a tube could be readily introduced. By 

 two years after the accident, he had completely recovered his health 

 and strength, and Dr. Beaumont conceived the idea of making use 

 of the extraordinary opportunity thus put into his hands of examin- 

 ing into the nature of digestion. 



When the stomach was empty and at rest, the interior of its 

 cavity could be examined to the depth of five or six inches, and '* 

 food and drink could be seen entering it, through the ring at the 

 entry of the gullet. The solvent power of the gastric juice was 

 ascertained in the most conclusive manner. Almost every variety 

 of aliment, whether animal or vegetable, when submitted to the 

 action of the fluid taken from the stomach when fasting, and kept 

 at a temperature of about 100, was found to become reduced to a 

 paste in a few hours, which resembled very nearly the contents of 

 the stomach after the same kinds of aliment had been eaten. The 

 rapidity with which substances were dissolved by the gastric fluid 

 out of the body, was always in proportion to the purity of the fluid, 

 and the tenderness and state of minute division of the substances 



