History Of The Day - Alexis St. Martin Becomes Medical Marvel (1822)

[TFD]

In 1822, St. Martin, a Canadian fur trapper, was accidentally shot with a musket at close range, leaving a fist-sized hole in his stomach. Dr. William Beaumont, a US Army surgeon, saved his life. However, the wound never healed properly, and the small hole that remained enabled Beaumont to experiment on digestion by inserting and removing food to study the effects of gastric juices. Why, when St. Martin died at age 86, did his family wait to bury him until his body began to decompose? Discuss



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