The mysterious case of Alexis Saint Martin

Today in history:1June 6, 822, being shot directly in the abdomen is generally not conducive to life-this fact makes the story of Alexis Saint Martin even more impressive, because when he was 20 years old on June 6, 822, 1822, he was not only shot in the above organs, but also bravely lived for another organ for half a century.

So how did all this happen? Martin, an illiterate French-Canadian indentured servant who worked as a fur catcher in an American fur company, was shot in the gut by a fellow hunter at the Mackinac Island trading post. It is not clear what happened, but basically everyone agrees that the whole incident was just an unfortunate accident, because the same hunter accidentally unloaded his weapon.

Less than half an hour later, william Beaumont, an army doctor stationed on Mackinac Island, began to inspect St. Martin's Island. What he saw was not beautiful:

[Duck's gunfire] Enter from the back, and it's obliquely forward and inward. In fact, it blew away muscles and muscles as big as a human hand, broke and took away the first half of the sixth rib, broke the fifth rib, tore the left lower lobe, the diaphragm and penetrated the stomach.

All the materials taken from the rifle, together with clothes and ribs, were hit on the muscles of the chest and chest cavity. ...

He went on to say:

It was found that a part of the lung was as big as a fire egg, protruding from the external wound, cracking and burning; Then, another protuberance, which was proved to be a part of the stomach by further examination, split all the coats and poured the food he had for breakfast into a hole big enough to accommodate his index finger. ...

Naturally, Beaumont could hardly see the hope that Saint Martin would live through the night, but in any case, he tried his best. To everyone's surprise, Saint Martin survived.

However, when trying to make St. Martin eat and drink, a problem appeared. You see, fortunately, there is a big hole in his stomach, and what he swallowed soon comes out of the hole.

Bold and enterprising Beaumont only spent a few weeks feeding St. Martin through "nutritional enema" ...

This method has worked.

A few weeks later, Beaumont reported that rectal feeding became unnecessary, although there was still a hole in the stomach. They solved the problem by sticking "layering and tape" on St. Martin's body, "so as to keep his food."

Obviously, Beaumont also pointed out that "in the whole process, there was no disease or abnormal stomach * * *, and even no nausea; After the fourth week, the appetite became better, the digestion was normal, the time was natural, and the functions of the system were perfect and natural.

Five weeks later, St. Martin recovered well, except for the disturbing hole in his stomach. It did not heal naturally, but more or less attached to the pores of the skin, forming some kind of sphincter, and had a slight gastric prolapse. Because of this, St. Martin needs to continue to apply for a diet.

Eight months later, Beaumont is still trying various methods, sometimes very painful. He suggested cutting off the stomach from the skin and then trying to sew everything up, but by this time St. Martin had had enough. Besides, most of them are healthy and fully functional, except for the holes in the abdomen and stomach, he refused the operation.

At the same time, Saint Martin was released. Because there was no money to pay, he signed a labor contract and was driven out of the hospital. However, Beaumont saw an excellent opportunity to study the human digestive tract in St. Martin ... we mean individuals. For example, once he really put his tongue into the hole and noticed, "Stick your tongue on the mucus layer of the stomach, and in its empty state, you won't feel the taste of acid ..."

So far, people know little about the working principle of human digestive tract. Doctors have done similar animal experiments in the past, but this inevitably led to the death of animals, so it is not entirely feasible to observe the digestive tract. Similarly, dissecting the human body is one thing, but, similarly, observing the digestive process of living things is not very helpful.

In order to try to solve this problem, some doctors try some methods, such as tying a rope on a net bag full of food, and then swallowing it-wait a while, and then take the food out of your mouth. But no one has ever played with a guinea pig like Saint Martin.

That's it. Beaumont proposed to sign Saint Martin as his indentured servant, mainly as Beaumont's laborer, but also agreed that Beaumont could experiment on Saint Martin in any way he wanted. Moreover, considering the terms of the agreement and St. Martin's extremely low class status, this is actually "he can do whatever he wants", and it seems that St. Martin's feelings about what happened after signing the contract are rarely considered.

Although the original contract terms are still unclear today, he signed a contract with Beaumont and survived. In return for Saint Martin's servant service for Beaumont and his guinea pigs, Beaumont will be responsible for Saint Martin's accommodation and pay him 150 USD (about 2800 USD today) every year.

A few years later, St. Martin broke his contract and left without authorization to go to the Canadian family where he started working. Although Beaumont was depressed, he still wanted to study Saint Martin. He spent a lot of money following St. Martin and then persuaded St. Martin fur company to let him come back. Then, he provided some things to St. Martin's company, such as a substantial salary increase, land approved by * * *, money to move (or more money to abandon his wife and children). However, in private, he wrote gloomily: "When I take him in alone again, I will try my best to take care of him." He also called Saint Martin's children "living animals" in a letter, and lamented Saint Martin's "evil stubbornness and ugliness" in a letter to American surgeons. In addition, when writing about Saint Martin, people usually call him "boy" instead of calling him by his first name.

But before that, because of the above-mentioned example of St. Martin avoiding the doctor's less gentle care, he made mistakes from time to time. Beaumont basically takes the time to throw something or push something into St. Martin's stomach and see what happens-we say "see" because he often uses instruments to open the hole as wide as possible, so that he can observe the entry of food and drink, and then observe what happens afterwards. So that he can see.

In addition to sticking his tongue into the wound, he occasionally extracts something, including stomach tissue and food. For the latter, after extraction, he sometimes even tastes them. For example, he once wrote that partially digested chicken tastes "plain and sweet" …

Beaumont also spent a long time extracting gastric acid, and then conducted experiments separately, including sending samples to other doctors who wanted to do experiments. As for this uncomfortable process, he wrote when introducing the test tube:

The liquid soon began to flow, first dripping, then flowing intermittently, sometimes flowing continuously in a rainy stream for a short time. Moving the pipe up and down or back and forth will increase the flow. The amount of liquid usually obtained ranges from 4 drachmas to 1.5 ounces or 2 ounces. ...

When extracting liquid, there is usually a special feeling in the fundus of the stomach, called sinking, accompanied by a certain degree of fainting, so the operation must be stopped. The usual juicing time is early in the morning. Before he eats, his stomach is empty and clean.

Interestingly, although the wound never healed, Beaumont reported a rather strange incident, which happened about one and a half years after the initial injury:

At this time, at the upper edge of appetite, a small fold or double fold appears in the mucosa of the stomach, which is slightly prominent and gradually increases until the appetite is full, replacing the pressure of retaining the contents of the stomach and the necessity of bandage. The formation of this valve adapts to the unexpected mouth, thus completely preventing the stomach contents from flowing out when the stomach is full. ...

Therefore, although the holes in St. Martin's stomach and abdomen still exist, the stomach tissue constitutes an effective sphincter, which makes St. Martin no longer need to wrap cloth to prevent the contents of his stomach from falling off. Beaumont's experiments on Saint Martin for many years finally made him known as the "father of stomach physiology", which laid the foundation for our modern understanding of human digestive process.

Surprisingly, Saint Martin lived to the age of 78, and his six children and other lives were quite normal. If most of them are poor, they live.

As for later, although he died when the doctor asked for the remains of St. Martin, his family had long expected this. It is reported that his body was dried in the sun for a period of time until it was completely decomposed, and then it was buried in a secret place to prevent anyone from digging him up for autopsy. As for the specific inquiry, a doctor boldly sent a medical bag to St. Martin's family and asked them to send their stomach back. Instead, they just replied to a telegram saying, "Don't come for an autopsy, you will be killed."

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