PROBABLY the best means of ascertaining food best adapted to the human stomach, has been given us by Dr. Beaumont, in his experiments.

While stationed at Michilimackinac, Michigan Territory, in 1822, in the service of the United States, he was called upon to take charge of Alexis St. Martin, a young Canadian, eighteen years of age, of good constitution and robust health, who was accidentally wounded by the discharge of a musket, June 6th, 1822.

“The charge,” says Dr. Beaumont, “consisting of powder and duck-shot, was received in the left side, at the distance of one yard from the muzzle of the gun. The contents entered posteriorly, in an oblique direction, forward and inward, literally blowing off inguments and muscles the size of a man’s hand, 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, the diaphragm, and also perforating the stomach!”

On the fifth day, sloughing took place; lacerated portions of the lung and stomach separated, and left a perforation into the latter “large enough to admit the whole length of the middle finger into its cavity; and also a passage into the chest, half as large as his fist.” Violent fever and further sloughing ensued, and for seventeen days, everything swallowed passed out through the wound, and the patient was kept alive chiefly by nourishing injections. By and by the fever subsided, the wound improved in appearance, and after the fourth week the appetite became good, digestion regular, the evacuations natural, and the health of the system complete. The orifice, however, never closed; and at every dressing the contents of the stomach flowed out, and its coats frequently became everted, or protruded so far as to equal in size a hen’s egg; but they were always easily returned.

On the 6th of June, 1823, a year from the date of the accident, the injured parts were all sound except the perforation into the stomach, which was now two and a half inches in circumference. For some months thereafter, the food could be retained only by constantly wearing a compress and bandage; but early in winter, a small fold or doubling of the villous coat began to appear, which gradually increased till it filled the aperture, and acted as a valve, so as completely to prevent any efflux from within, but to admit of being easily pushed back by the finger from without.

Here, then, was an admirable opportunity for experimenting on the subject of digestion, and for observing the healthy and undisturbed operations of nature, free from the agony of vivisections, and from the sources of fallacy inseparable from operating on animals. Dr. Beaumont was sensible of its value, and accordingly pursued his enquiries with a zeal, perseverance, and disinterestedness, highly creditable to his character, both as a man and as a philosopher.

Dr. Beaumont began his experiments in May, 1825, and continued them for four or five months, St. Martin being then in high health. In the autumn, St. Martin returned to Canada, married, had a family, worked hard, engaged as a voyager with the Hudson’s Bay Fur Company, remained there four years, and was then engaged at a great expense, by Dr. Beaumont, to come and reside near him, on the Mississippi, for the purpose of enabling him to complete his investigations. He came accordingly in August, 1829, and remained till March, 1831. He then went a second time to Canada, but returned to Dr. Beaumont in November, 1832, when the experiments were once more resumed, and continued till March, 1833, at which time he finally left Dr. Beaumont. He now enjoys perfect health, but the orifice made by the wound remains in the same state as in 1824.

The following table exhibits the general results of all the experiments made upon St. Martin, posterior to 1825; and the average is deduced from those which were performed when the stomach was considered, by Dr. Beaumont, to be in its natural state, and St. Martin himself subjected to ordinary exercise.