William Beaumont and His Work

WILLIAM BEAUMONT AND HIS WORK. BY VICTOR C. VAUGHAN, M. D. ANN ARBOR, MICH- REPRINTED FROM THE TRANSACTIONS OF Michigan State Medical Society, 1896 PRESS OF SEYMOUR & MUIR PRINTING CO. GRAND RAPIDS, MICH. THIRTY-FIRST ANNUAL MEETING OF THE Michigan State Medical Society HELD HT MT. CLEMENS, June TrtU. and sth, IH9O. ANNUAL ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. WILLIAM BEAUMONT AND HIS WORK. VICTOR C. VAUGHAN, M. D Ann Arbor.. Fellow Members of the Michigan State Medical Society-* In our busy lives as practitioners of medicine and surgery, we too seldom think of those whose labors have placed certain departments of medicine among the exact sciences. The heal- ing art had its origin in the priestly superstitions of primitive men. From what it then was to what it now is, medicine has been advanced by the patient labor and persistent toil of many men, who have devoted theirlives searching for the truth. We are better able to cope with disease than were the medical priests of ancient Egypt, the astrologers of Chaldon and the theorists of two hundred years ago, because certain men have pursued the experimental study of physics, chemistry and biology with earnest purpose and well directed skill. It is my intention to devote the time allotted to this address, which your favor, well appreciated by its recipient, permits 2 me to give, in calling your attention to one of our honored dead, and to his work which was of great service in the de- velopment of physiological knowledge. I have chosen for the subject of this paper, William Beaumont and his work. I have been induced to make this selection because, in the first place, his studies were begun in the then Territory of Michigan; secondly, American medical biographers have not, in my opinion, done the memory of this man justice; and thirdly, the fact that he accomplished so much under great difficulties may cheer some of us in carrying our burdens, which at times grow exceedingly heavy, and may lead some of our younger members to realize that it is the duty, as it should be the pleasure, of every medical man, however lim- ited his facilities may be, to add something to the sum of that knowledge which surpasses all other, inasmuch as it is util- ized in the saving.of human lives. William, the son of Samuel Beaumont, a New England far- mer, was born at Lebanon, Connecticut, in 1785. I have been unable to find any record of the student life of the young man. However, that he was diligent in the persuit of knowledge is evidenced by the fact that soon after reaching his majority he became a school teacher at Champlain, Clinton County, N. Y. At the same time he began the study of Med- icine, which he continued later under the direction of Dr. Benjamin Chandler, of St. Albans, Vt. There is no evidence, so far as I can find, that Beaumont ever attended a medical school. On December 2nd, 1812,he enlisted,as surgeon’s mate, in the 16th Infantry, and was transferred to the 6th Infantry, June 6th, 1813.* A few months later the young medical assis- tant saw something of the wounds of war at the capture and destruction of York (now Toronto), where the retreating English exploded a magazine containing a hundred barrels of powder under the feet of the advancing Americans. At the close of the war in 1815, Dr. Beaumont resigned his commission and began the practice of medicine at Plattsburg. *ln giving these data, I have two sources of information: (1) The records of the Sur- geon General’s office, kindly furnished me by Surgeon General Geo. JM. Sternberg and Asst. Surgeon General Chas. Smart, to both of whom my best thanks are due; (2) “A Memoir of .the late William Beaumont” by Thomas Reyburn, M. D., St. Louis Medical and Surgical Journal, 1854. There are several contradictions, all of minor importance, in these author- ities. In such cases I have followed the official records from the Surgeon General’s office. 3 During his service as surgeon’s mate he had won the esteem and friendship of Dr. Joseph Lovell, who in 1818 became the first Surgeon General of the U. S. Army. The first of Beau- mont’s letters on file in the Surgeon General’s office is dated at Plattsburg, N. Y., Dec. 18th, 1818, and it expresses thanks for the offer of a thousand dollar clerkship in the office at Washington, which was at first accepted, but later declined. In 1820 Dr. Beaumont again entered the medical service of the army. This time he had the rank of Post-Surgeon, and was assigned to duty at Michillimackinac, (now Mackinac Island), where he reported to General Macomb in June. Two years later, on June 6th, 1822, the accident which permanently opened the walls of the stomach of Alexis St. Martin, and enabled Beaumont to satisfactorily study gastric digestion, happened. The wound is described as follows: u The charge, consisting of powder and duck shot, was received in his left side, he being at a distance of not more than one yard from the muzzle of the gun. The contents entered posteriorly, and in an oblique direction, forward and inward, literally blowing off the integuments and muscles for several inches in circumference, fracturing and carrying away the anterior half of the sixth rib, fracturing the fifth, lacerating the lower portion of the left lobe of the lungs, as well as the diaphragm on the left side.” This wound was carefully treated by Dr. Beaumont, and finally, as is well known, it healed, leaving a permanent gastric fistula, which was ordinarily closed by a valvular flap of the mucous membrane. In May, 1825. nearly three years after the accident, the first experiments were made. In June of the same year Dr. Beaumont was ordered from Mackinac to Fort Niagara. He took St. Martin with him and continued the studies. In August the two visited Burlington and Platts- burg, and at the latter place the patient, doubtless feeling that he was now of more service to the doctor than the doctor was to him, departed without ceremony. At Fort Niagara in June and July, 1825, there happened the events which led to the trial of Lieut. E. B. Griswold by court martial, in which Dr. Beaumont was the principal wit- 4 ness. The most important charge against Lieut. Griswold was that he had attempted to shirk duty by falsely reporting himself sick. This charge was substantiated by the evidence of Dr. Beaumont. The court found Lieut. Griswold guilty, and sentence was passed in conformity with this finding. The President reversed the finding of the court, and in doing so took occasion to criticize the testimony of the surgeon. Dr. Beaumont replied, in a circular written tersely but with dig- nity, to the President’s criticism, which may be found in General Order (No. 9) of Feb. 18th, 1726. I cannot forbear quoting one paragraph from Dr. Beaumont’s circular Sus- pecting that Lieut. Griswold was feigning illness, he pre- scribed a mixture of 15 or 20 grains of calomel and 5 or 6 grains of tartar emetic. It seems that the Lieutenant, having been informed of the nature of the prescription, returned to duty in preference to taking the medicine. The doctor was criticized for this treatment, and to this criticism he replied “ as follows ; Whether the plan adopted, either in a moral or professional point of view, be justifiable or not, I leave for medical men and candid judges to decide ; it was salutatory and had the intended effect of returning Lieut. Griswold to his duty without prejudice to his health or constitution ; neither is it of very great moment with me whether a suc- cessful experiment be of less or more than doubtful propriety, that speedily returns a soldier from the sick report to the ef- fective service of the government, be he private , non-commissioned or commissioned officer ; neither do I think it of very great done artem se- consequence whether it be secumdiim , cumdum naturam or terrorem, provided it be well done." In May, 1826, Dr. Beaumont was transferred to Fort How- ard, on Green Bay, and in 1828 to Fort Crawford, on the Upper Mississippi. During these years the doctor was con- stant in his endeavor to locate his truant patient. Finally he learned that St. Martin had become the possessor of a wife, and the father of two children, and was domiciled in lower Canada, nearly two thousand miles from Fort Crawford. At his own expense he induced agents of the American Fur Company to transport the family through this distance, and 5 in August, 1829, after an interruption of four years, the experiments were again begun. The work was continued until the spring of 1831, when St. Martin and his family were al- lowed to go to lower Canada, with the promise that he would return when required. In August, 1882, Dr. Beaumont was granted a leave of absence ; he proceeded to Plattsburg where he met St. Martin by agreement, and the time from Novem- ber, 1832, to March, 1834, was spent in Washington in carrying on the experiments. In the fall of this year the first edition of “ The Physiology of Digestion with Experiments on the Gastric Juice,” was published. Early in 1834 Dr. Beaumont was ordered to Jefferson Bar- racks, now St. Louis. He had but recently started for his new post when the Secretary of War, Louis Cass, received from Edward Everett the following petition, signed by more than two hundred members of Congress ; “Being informed that Dr.

Load more