Alexis St. Martin
Alexis St-Martin | |
---|---|
Born | Alexis Bidagan dit St-Martin April 8, 1802 |
Died | June 24, 1880 Saint-Thomas, Quebec, Canada | (aged 78)
Occupation | Voyageur |
Known for | Digestion experiments carried out on him by William Beaumont |
Alexis Bidagan
Work with Beaumont
On June 6, 1822, St-Martin was accidentally shot with a musket at close range at the fur trading post on Mackinac Island. The charge of the musket shot left a hole through his side that healed to form a fistula aperture into his stomach.[3][4][5][6]
William Beaumont, a
When the wound healed itself, the edge of the hole in the stomach had attached itself to the edge of the hole in the skin, creating a permanent gastric fistula. There was very little scientific understanding of digestion at the time and Beaumont recognized the opportunity he had in St-Martin – he could literally watch the processes of digestion by dangling food on a string into St-Martin's stomach, then later pulling it out to observe to what extent it had been digested. Beaumont continued to experiment on St-Martin off and on until 1833, performing an estimated 200 experiments in 10 years.[3]
St-Martin allowed the experiments to be conducted, not as an act to repay Beaumont for keeping him alive, but rather because Beaumont had the illiterate St-Martin sign a contract to work as a servant. Beaumont recalls the chores St-Martin did: "During this time, in the intervals of experimenting, he performed all the duties of a common servant, chopping wood, carrying burthens, etc. with little or no suffering or inconvenience from his wound."[1] Although these chores were not bothersome, some of the experiments were painful to St-Martin, for example when Beaumont had placed sacks of food in the stomach, Beaumont noted: "the boy complained of some pain and uneasiness at the breast."[4]: 118 Other symptoms St-Martin felt during experiments were a sense of weight and distress at the epigastric fossa and slight vertigo and dimness of vision.[citation needed]
After the experiments
Beaumont published the account of his experiments in 1838 as Experiments and Observations on the Gastric Juice, and the Physiology of Digestion.
Eventually Beaumont and St-Martin parted ways: St-Martin wrote to Beaumont from Berthier, Canada, on June 26, 1834, refusing to return to Beaumont.[7] As an army doctor, Beaumont was posted to the Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1834. He became Professor of Surgery in the Medical Department of Saint Louis University in 1837 and resigned from the army in 1839.[8] Repeatedly, Beaumont tried to get St-Martin to move to St. Louis.[3] Beaumont died in 1853.[1]: 296
When Alexis St-Martin died at Saint-Thomas, Quebec, in 1880 his family delayed his burial until the body began to decompose in order to prevent his "resurrection" by medical men, some of whom wished to perform an autopsy.[3] Alexis Bidagan dit St-Martin is buried at Saint-Thomas Parish Cemetery in Joliette, Quebec, Canada.[9]
The eminent physician Sir William Osler took a great interest in retracing the details of this early incident in the history of gastric physiology and published his research in the form of a well-known essay entitled A Backwoods Physiologist.[6] He also attempted to have the famous stomach placed in the Army Medical Museum in Washington, DC.[10]
Notes
References
- ^ a b c Myer, Jesse S., ed. (1912). Life and Letters of Dr. William Beaumont. St. Louis: C. V. Mosby Company. p. 1.
- ^ Ancestry.com. "Alexis Bidaguin dit St- Martin baptism: Quebec Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621–1967: Berthierville: 1802". Archived from the original on June 7, 2022. Retrieved June 29, 2009.
- ^ a b c d e f g Price, Catherine (2018). "Probing the Mysteries of Human Digestion". Distillations. 4 (2): 27–35. Archived from the original on August 23, 2020. Retrieved October 30, 2018.
- ^ a b c Beaumont, William (1833). Experiments and Observations on the Gastric Juice and the Physiology of Digestion. Edinburgh: Maclachlan and Stewart. p. 1.
gastric juice.
- ISBN 978-0-7148-2096-5.
- ^ S2CID 45586623.
- ^ "St. Martin \[Berthier, Canada\] to W. Beaumont \[Plattsburgh, NY\] refusing to join Beaumont because of wife's objections. June 26, 1834". Washington University School of Medicine, Digital Commons@Becker. Archived from the original on October 31, 2018. Retrieved October 30, 2018.
- ^ "Beaumont, William". Washington University School of Medicine. Archived from the original on October 31, 2018. Retrieved October 30, 2018.
- ^ "William Beaumont: A Voyageur's Open Wound That Revolutionised Gastric Physiology". STSTW Media. September 22, 2018. Retrieved May 20, 2019.
- ISBN 978-1-891053-84-9. Archivedfrom the original on June 7, 2022. Retrieved October 30, 2018.
Bibliography
- Beaumont, William (1838). Experiments and Observations on the Gastric Juice and the Physiology of Digestion. Edinburgh: Maclachlan and Stewart. p. 1.
gastric juice.
- Myer, Jesse S., ed. (1912). Life and Letters of Dr. William Beaumont. C. V. Mosby Company (St. Louis). p. 1.
- Selzer, Richard (1979). "Alexis St. Martin". Confessions of a knife. Michigan State University Press. ISBN 978-0-87013-605-4.
- Tanner, David E. (2000). "Narrative, Ethics, and Human Experimentation in Richard Selzer's "Alexis St. Martin": The Miraculous Wound Re-Examined". HEC Forum. 12 (2): 149–160. S2CID 45586623.