A Stomach with a Window
Dr. Somedatta Ghosh (Pal)
Medical Writer (Medicomarketing)| Diabetology | Chemistry Expert | Skilled at Science Communication
In the early 17th century, physicians knew little about how food was digested inside the human body. They were unaware of the digestive juices secreted inside the stomach. However, they observed that good digestion kept people healthy. They were curious to know more. But it was impossible to watch inside of the stomach of a living human being.
William Beaumont was a US Army surgeon. He was working at Fort Mackinac (now in Michigan). On 6th June 1822, a 19-year-old boy, named Martin came to him for treatment. A shotgun blast wounded him. He had several injuries including a hole in his belly.
He was treated by Dr. Beaumont for quite a long time. After one and a half years, his all wounds were healed, except one. That is the big hole in the stomach.
The shot had removed a portion of the abdominal wall. The wound was healed, but the hole was not completely sealed. A loose flap of skin was developed to cover it. It was like the washer in a football.
The doctor could press the skin and peep into Martin’s stomach!! He could see the activities happening in the stomach.
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Beaumont felt that he got a treasure!! It will help him to gain more knowledge about the digestion process.
He observed liquid juices being secreted inside the stomach. He was able to take out the stomach juices and half-digested food from the stomach using a pipe.
He did experiment with the stomach juice. One day he took out the juice using a tube at 8.30 am. He placed 20 tiny pieces of boiled fish in 10 milliliters of the juice in a glass. He kept the glass at a temperature similar to our stomach. At 2 pm, he noticed that pieces of fish had dissolved.
Dr. Beaumont repeated this experiment with different food items. He gave Martin the same food at the same time and then compared how long time it took for completing the digestion in the glass and Martin’s stomach.
He observed that foods were digested faster inside the stomach than outside
He observed many features of digestion. He found that digestion became slow if Martin was sad. He confirmed about the acidic nature of the stomach juice.
Dr. Beaumont’s experiment became very famous in the world. Do you know for how long time he did those experiments? It took 9 years !!!