Observing Alexis Martin's Stomach 1833

For thousands of years, the processes of digestion and the way the stomach worked remained shrouded in mystery. The great Scottish anatomist and physician William Hunter complained, "Some have described the stomach as a mill, others as a fermentation tank and still others as a casserole pot" .

One of the Most Interesting Stories in Medical History

A significant event in understanding how the stomach works occurred when American Fur Company employee Alexis St. Martin was accidentally shot in the abdomen. Treated by US Army surgeon William Beaumont, St. Martin survived with a permanent opening in his stomach. This allowed Beaumont to make many pioneering observations about its functioning. 

After Alexis Martin recovered, Beaumont employed him as a craftsman so that he could continue his experiments. Beaumont tied strings to pieces of food, inserted them through the opening in Martin's stomach and periodically removed the digested food to examine the extent of digestion. Beaumont also studied the effects of exercise, temperature and even emotions on digestion. His experiments were published in 1833 in Experiments and Observations on the Gastric Juice and the Physiology of Digestion, his book on experiments and observations concerning gastric juice and digestive physiology.

When Alexis Martin died 58 years after the accident, family members decided to deliberately allow his body to decompose before burying it in a deep, unmarked grave, to prevent doctors from carrying out further examinations. It was remarkable that Beaumont continued to study digestion carefully even in an improvised military hospital at a small frontier post in Wisconsin. His research definitively established that digestion depends on a powerful chemical process, and he became the first American to gain international recognition for physiological research.

Today, we know that the stomach secretes proteases – protein-digesting enzymes such as pepsin – and hydrochloric acid, which destroys many bacteria and provides an acidic environment to facilitate protease activity. We also know that various digestive system hormones control stomach secretions and movements. 

Description of the article image: The image on the left shows a stomach diagram prepared by Henry Gray from the classic work Gray's Anatomy (1918 edition). The coeliac artery, the first major branch of the abdominal aorta, is also shown. This artery supplies blood to the liver, stomach and other organs. The image on the right shows Alexis St. Martin.

Historical figures mentioned in the article: William Hunter (1718–1783), William Beaumont (1785–1853), Alexis St. Martin (1794–1880)

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