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BEAUMONT

repass from fort to fort and block houses, exposed to a cross fire of round and grape shot in dressing the wounds of the injured, but none failed to exhibit a soldier-like bravery. Dr. Beaumont stood actual test of facing death in caring for the injured. In 1S15 he resigned and engaged in general practice at Ogdensburg, New York. On November 4, 1819, he re- entered the army as post surgeon and was assigned to Mackinac Island, Michi- gan, reporting to Gen. Macomb, June, 1820. While surgeon's mate he won the confidence of Dr. Lowell, the first surgeon- general, and was offered but refused a thousand dollar clerkship in his consult- ing-room at Washington and many favors were given him during his army service helpful in his investigations of stomach digestion. On June 6, 1S22, occurred the accident to Alexis St. Martin, which left the walls of the stomach open by a valve, permitting a complete study of the pro- cesses of stomach digestion in both normal and abnormal conditions. In a mem- orial to the United States Senate, Beau- mont describes the wound as "being under the left breast made by the accidental discharge of a shot gun at about two feet. A large portion of the side was blown off, ribs fractured and openings made into the pleural cavity and the abdomen, through which protruded portions of the lungs and stomach, much lacerated and burnt. The diaphragm was lacerated and a per- foration made directly into the cavity of the stomach through which food was escaping when first seen." At the end of ten months the wound was partially heal- ed, but he was altogether helpless. The Civil authorities refused to longer provide for his needs and proposed to send him to his home in lower Canada more than fifteen hundred miles distant. Knowing thai such a journey would be fatal to St. Martin, Dr. Beaumont took him into his own home, and for two years clothed, fed, nursed, doctored, and sheltered the helpless, suffering, and destitute invalid. In May, 1S2"), St. Martin \va - al.le Id v alk and help himself a little, though unable to provide for his necessities. Now

Beaumont kept him for the purpose of making observations and experiments. Two years later (1827) Beaumont com- municated his studies to the Michigan Medical Society, of which he had been an honorary member since June 4, 1825. In 1900 the Michigan Medical Society erected a monument of stone, hard by the spot where these immortal studies were begun, and in a memorial meeting expressed its appreciation of Beaumont's contribution to the world's progress. In June, 1825, Beaumont was ordered to Fort Niagara, New York, taking St. Martin with him and continuing his studies. In August they visited Plattsburg, New York, and Burlington, Vermont, where St. Martin took "Dutch" leave of Beaumont. While at Fort Niagara, June and July, 1S25, Beaumont was principal witness in the court martial trial of Lieut. E. B. Griswold, for trying to shirk duty by feign- ing sickness. Beaumont, suspecting a fraud, prescribed a mixture of 20 grains of calomel with 6 grains of tartar emetic. On hearing the nature of the prescription ordered for his illness, Griswold returned to duty. The court found Griswold guilty but the president reversed the de- cision and criticised Beaumont. The doctor's reply to the president is a model (General order No. 9 of February 18, 1S26). "Whether the plan adopted be justifiable or not I leave to medical men and candid judges to decide. It had the intended effect of returning Lieut. Gris- wold to his duty without prejudice to his health. Neither is it of very great moment to me whether a successful ex- periment be of more or less doubtful pro- priety, that .speedily returns a soldier from a sick report to effective service of the government, be he private, non-commis- sioned or commissioned officer; neither do I think it of very great consequence pyhi ther it be done secundum arlem, sec- undum naturam or terrorem, provided it he well done." In May, 1826, Beau- mont was transferred to Fort Howard on i [reen Bay, and in I s - s to Fort Crawford, on the upper Mississippi. After nearly two years of constant search, Beaumont