A PHYSIOLOGICAL CURIOSITY - Man with a bullet hole in his stomach

From a 1856 newspaper. Man shoots himself in stomach creating a visible hole.

A PHYSIOLOGICAL CURIOSITY

Many of our readers will remember a series of experiments, published by Dr.Beaumont, of the United States Army, almost twenty years ago, on the physiology of digestion, in which be he aided materially by a person named St. Martin, a Canadian voyageur. This man had been wounded, it will be remembered, by the accidental discharge of a gun loaded with buckshot, one of which, entering the lung from behind, traversed it and emerged at the stomach, leaving an opening which could never be united again, and through which Dr. Beaumont was enabled to witness the whole process of digestion, and to make the series of experiments with which his name is honorably connected.

This opening made by the bullet was about three-fourths of an inch in diameter, and the stomach was torn by the lead in such a manner that healing by natural or artificial process was impossible.

Dr. Beaumont tried to effect a cure by keeping St. Martin without food for two days, but without the desired effect. The gastric juice secreted by the mucous membrane of the stomach would not allow the reunion of the torn walls of that organ. The consequence has been natural — a fistula or opening from the stomach — so that if St. Martin does not keep a compress to the aperture in drinking water or swallowing anything else, the whole contents of the stomach will pass out through that opening. Through that opening comes out a small part of the stomach, i.e., the inner coat, which shows its different appearances - thick or swollen when under the work of digestion, and thinner when the digestion is over.

This same St. Martin, having been lost sight of by the scientific world, after nearly a quarter of a century has suddenly turned up again as a subject for digestive experiments. He is now in this city, on his way to Europe, under the auspices of Dr. Bunting, of Montreal, who proposes to extend more minutely the series of experiments so successfully commenced by Dr. Beaesment, and also to enable the savans of the old world to witness the experiments. Mr. St. Martin is at present a little upwards of fifty years of age, of a spare frame, but apparently capable of considerable endurance. He is in excellent bodily health, and has much vivacity of manner. His early life was spent upon the frontiers, and since leaving the employ sf Dr. Beaumont he has married and resided at Montreal. The opening in the stomach has had no injurious effect upon his health, nor has it prevented him from pursuing active and severe labors, Indeed it is possible that his daily knowledge of the effect of food upon the stomach may have prevented him from abusing this important organ for the gratification of momentary taste. He is a man of simple tastes in his diet, and drinks, it is said, no ardent spirits.

On Saturday afternoon a meeting of several eminent physicians of the city was held at the New York Hospital, for the purpose of being introduced to Dr Bunting and his celebrated patient, and of witnessing some of his experiments. Among these present were Dr. Van Buren, Dr. Markoe, Dr. Buckley, Dr. Grahmm, Dr. Cook, Dr. Vanderveort, of the hospital, Dr. Issacs and Dr. Elliot, of the Medical College, Dr. Derby, Dr. Buck, Dr. Wood and others.

The first experiment performed was that of introducing the thermometer into the stomach through the opening, from which its temperature was ascertained to be 101 Fahrenheit. Dr. Bunting next introduced into the stomach the gum elastic catheter, and extracted nearly an ounce and a half of gastric juice, which was presented to Dr. Griscom, and examined by him and others, as to its taste and other properties. The third experiment consisted in causing the patient to drink two tumblers of water, which was immediately afterwords poured out through the orifice into a basin held by Dr. Bunting. The experiment being concluded, various questions were propounded to Doctor Bunting in regard to the time consumed in the digestion of various foods. In reply, he observed that the carrot would consume between five and six hours, while rare roast beef would thoroughly digest in an hour and a half. Melted butter would not digest at all, but float about in the stomach. Lobster was comparatively easy of digestion. Upon the application of the gastric juice to a piece of purple tissue paper the color at once faded. In relation to the patient’s health, Dr. Bunting observed that it had been uniformly excellent, having, since his recovery from the first effects of the wound, supported a large finally by his daily labor.

These experiments do not differ materially from those made by Dr. Beaumont. The latter ascertained the differences between natural and artificial digestion by a very simple and beautiful experiment.

He took from the empty stomach, at an early hour in the morning, two ounces of gastric juice, which he divided into two equal parts and placed in separate vials, in each of which he placed, a given quantity of roast beef. The one was placed in a sand bath at 99 degrees, and the other in open air at 29 degrees. He likewise put the same quantity of meat into a like portion of clear water, and intermixed a similar portion with gastric juice, previously extracted, of the temperature of the air.

The meat in the fresh gastric juice, placed in the warm bath, proceeded towards digestion as if contained in the stomach, and was finally wholly digested by the addition of a further quantity of gastric juice. That contained the water was simply macerated, and that in the gastric juice having a low temperature was affected but slightly.

The series of experiments instituted by Dr. Beaumont, to ascertain the time required to digest various articles of food, are familiar to the medical and scientific men. Boiled rice was found to require only one hour to digest, and pork five hours, these two being the extremes.

These experiments also, as a general rule, confirmed the opinion previously entertained, that farinaceous vegetables are more easily digested than succulent, and wild game, and the meat of full-grown animals, than those which are young.

Another very important law of digestion developed was that fluids, like soups and broths, require to have their nutritious particles converted into a solid substance before they can be acted upon by the gastric juice; the consequence is that all such ailments are less adapted for weak stomachs than more solid food. Occasionally St. Martin’s temper, although usually placid, became violently ruffed. The effect upon the digestive process was instantaneous and decided. Digestion proceeded, but instead of the formation of healthy chyme, the stomach contained a thin, gruel-like substance, much tinged in bile, which, under ordinary circumstances, is not to be found within it.

The ease of St. Martin is altogether a passionate one, the like, singularly enough, not being found on record. It is at the same time one of marked interest, not only on account of what ha already been contributed by it to our knowledge of digestion but what we may hereafter reasonably expect from it.

It is worthy of remark that St. Martin’s life has been a regular one, and that, consequently, the experiments made in advanced. years are as valuable as those prosecuted in his youth.