Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.djvu/173

 BEAUMONT

BEAUMONT

blood was shed. It is difficult to realize the dense ignorance of the medical pro- fession of stomach digestion in 1832, the date of Beaumont's publication, Dunglison's "Human Physiology" quotes five theories, concoction, putrefaction, trituration, fermentation and macera- tion. He also quotes with approval William Hunter's remark, "some physi- ologists will have it that the stomach is a mill; others that it is a fermenting vat, but in my view of the matter it is neither a mill, a fermenting vat, or a stew pan, but a stomach, gentlemen, a stomach. " Dr.V.C. Vaughan (" Transactions of Mich- igan State Medical Society, 1896, p. 1.) says that, considering the conditions un- der which he labored and the results he left behind, Beaumont is one of the great historic characters of the world. In the nearly three-fourths of a century that have passed his discoveries are still approved by both chemists and physiolo- gists. So exact was his study of the physical and chemical nature of gastric juice that excepting pepsin, the closest investigation of modern times with mod- ern physics and chemistry has added little to Beaumont's work. Practical physicians during all these years have utilized Beaumont's studies in prescrib- ing the diet of their patients. In 1833 the Columbian University of Washington, District of Columbia, gave Dr. William Beaumont the degree of M. D. honoris causa. In 1837 he was appointed pro- fessor of surgery in the medical depart- ment of St. Louis University. In 1S3S he was vice president of Missouri Medical Society and in 1841 its president. Many medical societies elected him honorary member.

In 1821 Dr. William Beaumont mar- ried Debora Piatt of Plattsburg, New York, a descendant of Gen. Greene of revolutionary fame. She was a strong woman full of sympathy with her hus- band's work. When a young girl she vol- untarily went to the "pest house" and took small-pox that she might be able to nurse smallpox patients during the war of 1812.

Dr. Beaumont died at his home in St. Louis, Missouri, April 25, 1S53, from a carbuncle on his neck following a fall.

The first published account of St. Martin's case appeared in the "Philadel- phia Medical Recorder," January, 1825.

The unpublished records of the Mich- igan Medical Society," 1819-1S48, show that in August, 1827, a report of the case of Alexis St. Martin was made to this society. The report was accompanied by a statement of observations on the be- havior of the stomach during digestion and experiments on its digestive powers. Dr. C. G. Jennings of Detroit possesses these records, to whom the writer is indebted.

Beaumont's paper of 1S25 was published in German at Hamburg, in 1826; also in Paris in 1828 in the " Archives Generates de Medecine."

In 1833 was published in Plattsburg, New York, by F. P. Allen, "Experiments and Observations on Gastric Juice and the Physiology of Digestion," by William Beaumont, M. D., surgeon in the United States Army.

In 1834 copies of the Plattsburg edition of the above were issued by Lilly Wait & Company, of Boston, Massachusetts.

In 1834 a German edition was issued of the above.

In 1837 a second edition was issued from Burlington, Vermont, minor de- fects being corrected by Dr. Samuel Beaumont, a cousin of William.

L. C.

1854. Dr. T. Reyburn, St. Louis Medical and Surgical Journal.

1887. Story of William Beaumont's Life, by Dr. A. J. Steele (told at the first Com- mencement of Beaumont Medical College, St. Louia, Mo.).

1896. "William Beaumont and Ho Work." "Trans. Mich. State Med. Soc," p. 1, 26, by Victor C. Vaughan, Press. Address. 1900. The l'hys. and Surg., Dec. 1800, Ann Arbor, Mich., three papers on Beaumont; 1. by Dr. John Read Bailey on "Beaumont, Annv Surgeon;" J. by Dr. Frank J. Lutz, on " Beaumont the Practitioner," and 3. by (has. S. Osbora, Esq., on "Beaumont the Citizen." These papers were read at the celebration of the erection of a monument I., \\ Mi .n Beaumont on the Bite of his