Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 1411

WILLIAM BEAUMONT (1785-1853) Experiments and observations on the gastric juice and the physiology of digestion. Printed by F. P. Allen 1833 280 pp., illus. 22.2 cm.

Beaumont, an Army surgeon from Connecticut, was stationed at Michillimackinac, Michigan Territory, in 1822, when an accidental gunshot wounded a French-Canadian guide, Alexis St. Martin. Although the wound healed, it left a permanent fistula. Beaumont recognized the possibilities of studies of the gastric juice and the digestive process and, for the next ten years, made the most of them. This unimpressive-looking little book, cheaply printed and bound, is a cornerstone of modern physiology and a great American medical classic.

Cited references: Cushing B206; Garrison-Morton 989; Osler 1972; Waller 805; Wellcome II, p. 123

Gift of John Martin, M.D.