How far would you go to get to the truth, or perhaps more pertinently, to the bottom of things?
William Beaumont was one dedicated scientist. Some might say ethically… ambiguous, but hey, he was born in 1785, so, old school. Later becoming known as the Father of Gastric Physiology, Beaumont did whatever he had to do in order to understand the juicy details of the digestive system.
But did he go too far?
Although not medically trained in the traditional sense, Beaumont began his career as an apprentice with a doctor. Recognised as a judicious and safe practitioner in the different applications of the medical profession, his dedication to understanding the anatomy of the human body prompted Beaumont to keep a journal describing daily events and the symptoms and treatments of patients.
He also kept a very detailed journal of the 10 years of experiments he did on a poor old soul named Alexis Bidagan, otherwise known as St. Martin.
St. Martin was a young Canadian man, horrifically shot in the stomach at close range, leaving him half-dead with a gaping hole in his stomach. Luckily for St. Martin (or perhaps unluckily?) Beaumont was the man at the scene.
No one thought he’d live more than 36 hours, but St Martin carried on an entire year thanks to a few handy poultices and the attentive care of Beaumont. And then he got better. Kinda…
St Martin didn’t really get back to normal. In fact, the hole in his stomach never quite closed up, leaving him with what can only be described as another digestive hole. Or if you’re Beaumont, an incredible opportunity to understand the digestive system.
So the terribly “kind” Beaumont took St Martin on as his very own chore boy and thus began the experiments. 10 years of prodding, poking and shoving meats, cabbage and more into a hole that no one should have.
There was nothing Beaumont wouldn’t do… or taste for that matter.. to get to the bottom of the digestive system.
SOURCES:
Science History Institute: Probing the Mysteries of Human Digestion
Smithsonian Magazine: This Man’s Gunshot Wound Gave Scientists a Window Into Digestion
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Surgery: A DEBT TO ALEXIS: THE BEAUMONT-ST MARTIN STORY
Wikipedia: William Beaumont
Encyclopaedia of World Biography: William Beaumont Biography
My North: The Gruesome Medical Breakthrough of Dr. William Beaumont on Mackinac Island
Guinea Pig Zero: Alexis St. Martin (1794-1880): The Intrepid Guinea Pig of the Great Lakes
PODCASTS MENTIONED:
-
Will 00:00
So how far would you go? If a discovery, an accidental moment dropped into your lap? How far would you go to plumb the depths of knowledge that wasn't there before? Would you have a look? Would you have a smell? Would you have a taste? Well, some people go all the way. Let's have a listen.
Rod 00:25
William Beaumont, born in Connecticut in 1785. He grew up on his family's farm, went to the local village schools as one did at the time. But then at 21, he left home to become a village schoolmaster in Champlain, New York. He started, he was doing the school math thing, but then in his spare time, he thought, yeah, I'm going to study medicine. 1700 style.
Will 00:53
It's not exactly the most bookish era. No studying medicine. No.
Rod 00:56
And in 1810, he became an apprentice to a doctor in Vermont.
Will 01:00
Oh, the old apprenticeship medical systems, not the university, but the apprenticeship
Rod 01:05
you're just hanging out with one. So while he was living with a doctor, he would perform household duties. I assume that means clean stuff.
Will 01:13
Yeah. Do you start by cleaning up after operations? Yeah. And then after a while, it's like, okay, your job is now to polish the clean the hair? I don't know. I'm just thinking for the apprentices I think about you know
Rod 01:27
cleaning the hair. I want to be a doctor, first you clean air. So you got a bunch of experience, he watched and occasionally assisted the doctor as you would hope. And while he was a student with this guy, because of the doctor, he Yeah, he began a lifelong habit of keeping a journal describing daily events and the symptoms and treatments of patients. Okay. And it seems he was very meticulous, yes. 1812. So two years later, the third Medical Society of the state of Vermont.
Will 01:54
Third, I love it. A little bit of local colour here. But there are two competing mandolin orchestras here in Canberra.
Rod 02:04
The fact that there's one whole one is amazing,
Will 02:07
I love it. I love it. But I also love the medical societies. There was one and there's there was a splitting event. And then there must have been another split
Rod 02:16
a bunch of outsiders were gonna be better than those first two screw.
Will 02:19
Why not join one of the two?
Rod 02:20
I don't know. So they recommended him to be a medical practitioner because they examined his knowledge on the anatomy of the human body and the theory and practice of physic and surgery. They recommended him as a quote judicious and safe practitioner in the different applications of the medical profession
Will 02:37
That's good. So he can do it
Rod 02:38
Snap, you're a doctor. Yep. Then he went, he went to become a surgeon's mate. In the War of 1812
Will 02:48
Is that above surgeons apprentice?
Rod 02:50
I don't know. Because like, that was my favourite source and other source said, Assistant. Okay. But surgeons like, what are you, a surgeons mate? Are you?
Will 02:59
that's again, that's the one that cleans the hair using a scalp massage. While that while they get cut.
Rod 03:03
It's a little more hair cleaning and medical training than I was aware. In his journal, he would describe long and exhausting days and nights spent treating the wound and obviously in its detail. So war ends or at least he leaves it. He goes back and he does private practice in Plattsburgh, New York. 1820, he reenlists, becomes an army surgeon and he sent to Fort Mackinac on Mackinac Island,
Will 03:27
I know where that is
Rod 03:27
you know that Michigan?
Will 03:29
It's right at the tip of Michigan. It's between Michigan and Canada
Rod 03:31
Yes, it is. It's there. And apparently, it's sometimes called makelele. Mechanik because obviously didn't know that. Neither did I. I'd never heard of Mackinac either. Until now.
Will 03:41
It's weird how much I've looked at the map of Michigan.
Rod 03:47
one source didn't say at the top of the mitten.
Will 03:48
Exactly, exactly. It's it's I mean, there's a boat and there's a mitten. I don't know if there are any other countries shaped like clothes.
Rod 03:55
Australia is shaped like a codpiece. Don't count Tasmania that shape. Like actually, that's more like the cod piece to be honest. After the war, he done that blah, blah, blah. He was like he was the only doctor in the territory where he was off in that in Mechanik. And so he would treat soldiers their families, Native Americans, trappers settlers, basically all comers. This is 1820. In 1821, he bolted back to Plattsburgh to marry Deborah Platt of the famous Plattsburgh Platts.
Rod 04:21
I get it. I can't reach the town was named the local dignitaries or yes, they're the only people in the town.
Will 04:26
It could be that.
Will 04:27
Yeah, it's just Platt.
Rod 04:28
This is Plattsburgh? No, it's your house. Then he went back to Mechanik and it was great that he did because on June the sixth 1822 young Canadian man was shot in the stomach and brought to see him for help. Oh, god. Yeah. And it didn't look good for Alexei begun. They were very slow bullets back then though. Yeah, took time to dig through for days to just get in there.
Will 04:49
The bullets weren't a lot of power back then they sort of just sort of dent your sides a little bit. I mean, I'm not I don't want to have it done to me.
Rod 04:57
You're gonna change your mind and a tick. Okay. I went was not unfazed because he thought look, this isn't great because gut wounds aren't great of course, but Bowman said screw this I'm gonna knuckle down and I'll see what I can do for him
Will 05:15
Welcome to the Wholesome Show. A podcasts that will sample anything that comes out of the whole of science you can
Rod 05:28
You are
Will 05:29
I'm Will Grant
Rod 05:30
I'm Roderick G Samplier
Will 05:33
I actually would sample quite a lot of things
Rod 05:35
You're not gonna sample this stuff. I'm gonna I'm gonna stake some money on that you won't. I mean now you know you're gonna win money but
Will 05:45
no there are things I can't be paid to do. So
Rod 05:48
paid to do? incentivized yeah right. So this I should say up front I'm not sure how famous this is like this story to me is quite famous but I move in certain circles. this one is going to be given the awesome flavour
Will 06:00
of course it will.
Rod 06:01
So Alexis are actually it's spelt Alexis but pronounced Alexei apparently diggin became known for whatever reasons I don't know as Lexi St. Martin was some somewhat pan or something is French Canadian. So he was born in 1794 and Berthier, which is a village north of Montreal in Canada. Sorry, Montreal. So he was a third generation Canadian. Canadian parents, but they didn't know much more about him other than his birth certificate, and even that was a bit those
Will 06:33
His parents didn't know any more about him?
Rod 06:34
I don't know. No one interviewed them. I don't know why. Okay, they should have after this. But really, people didn't know much about him until he got shot. They had two names. He had parents. Definitely Canadian.
Will 06:47
Okay, okay. And then he got shot. All right. Fair enough. I get that it's old timey. People didn't keep their records
Rod 06:53
what depends how you count. I mean, in the old days they had they had a different yearing system. Yeah, like there was Imperial years there's sort of about one and a half years each of the modern year
Rod 06:53
Late 1700s. Oh, and he was illiterate. So even if they did keep records, he couldn't go that's wrong. Yeah. All right. Yeah. Apparently pretty hardy. And he's described as strong about 555 feet, five inches, dark hair and dark eyes. All the reports around from around this time, so he was about 18 when he was shot. Turns out he's probably about 30
Rod 07:27
maybe even two Yeah, also he was a voyager Voyager was his job so which means travelling Porter canoe man basically row big cargo canoes up and down the river and then they had to carry the he and his fellow Voyager has had to carry the vessel and its cargo along the banks which was a waterfall or something
Will 07:45
all the way up and go around carry.that's a cool job. That is that is an AH NO NO, yes tough. Of all the types, like that's a nice way to carry cargo. think the waterfall like when at anytime you're in it. When's the last time you were in a canoe?
Rod 08:02
Monday.
Will 08:03
Okay, did you feel happy in a canoe?
Rod 08:05
happy in a canoe
Will 08:06
So it must have been great if you're doing it 40, 50 or 60 hours a week
Rod 08:11
90 hours a day
Will 08:11
and carrying really heavy things? It must be only better. see I would be you know go get a canoe now and set up a canoeing freight situation in Australia
Rod 08:23
wanna push pause and go grab one?
Will 08:25
you know that there might be some hipsters doing that you just go right down the Murray Murray River or down the Mississippi or or down the Thames or European river and you can you can be the the only canoe freight service. listener if you have anything that needs to be carted from Canberra downriver. Only downriver, we will consider
Rod 08:52
I have lots of asides on that. But I shant from now. The men went in teams. The Voyager would work in teams.
Will 08:58
I don't know why you're doing that.
Rod 08:59
So it's pronounced it's a French accent.
Will 09:00
That is not a French accent.
Rod 09:05
So they had songs and legends and tales of voyages. We sing songs And this whole bunch of dangers because stuff. So in 1822, Alexei was working for the American company. So mid 1882 June the sixth to be precise. He's standing in line at the company store because he wanted to do a bit of trade. You know, I've got these cigarettes want to swap it for a rabbit's head and then I'm going to turn it into food or whatever they
Rod 09:28
Yeah I get it. That's what you do.
Rod 09:29
Yeah. And someone's musket went by accident. Not so great. And he was three feet away from it. Oh, wow. Oh, wow. So the bullet went straight through his side ripped a hole through the wall of his stomach. And it was at such close range that his shirt caught fire as he was hitting the ground.
Will 09:48
Fire like that. That is that is an adding insult to injury thing.
Rod 09:51
Gunpowder flare was close enough that oh, so he didn't enjoy that.
Will 09:55
I don't think a lot of people it doesn't sound like a thing you survived very often. Getting shot that closely and your shirt catches on fire.
Rod 10:02
It's a very specific fetish that you can enact probably twice if you're lucky. Everyone figured he was rooted basically we'll see later Alexei. Yeah, that time stunning
Will 10:11
modern medicine in that era and not being very modern. They could put the put the shirt out.
Rod 10:19
The could. 4 Burly Men stamped up and down until the fire was out. Thus saving his life.
Will 10:24
Smokey the bandit came in and stamped on him
Rod 10:27
smokey and the bandit is Burt Reynold movie, two separate people.
Will 10:30
That's why I'm confused
Rod 10:31
Smokey the Bear is one anthropomorphized beer.
Will 10:34
Oh, there you go. Okay,
Rod 10:35
so you can learn things on the show. That's it. So they sent for Beaumont, the surgeon Dr. chap, so he arrived just as Martin or Alexei was being put into a like a cot, and in Beaumont's words, Sir Martin was
Will 10:49
on fire or put out?
Rod 10:51
I think he was not burning any more. But he did have other things to think about distracting him from the fire.
Will 10:55
Have a little lie down. Sir you're feeling shot,
Rod 10:59
what you need is rest. Have a snooze.
Will 11:01
Well it's better than going back to work? I guess.
Rod 11:04
I don't think it is. We'll wake you up if you die. We'll let you know if you die.
Will 11:07
So the doctors arrived,
Rod 11:08
doctors arrived and he described someone he said he was about 18 years of age. It wasn't good constitution. He'd been engaged in the service of the American for companies as a voyager. Correct. he was accidentally wounded by the discharge of a musket. On the date. The charge consisting of powder and duck shot was received in the left side of the youth at a distance of not more than a yard literally blowing off the integuments and muscle of the size and the size of a man's hand and fracturing the fifth rib. I found a portion of the lung as large as the turkeys egg protruding through the external wound lacerated and burned.
Will 11:43
I do love you know, it is good science communication, of course, to put a complicated numerical sort of amount into something that you can viscerally understand, you know,
Rod 11:54
I've never seen a turkey's egg
Will 11:56
That is my problem. Like I've not is a Turkey's egg, like bigger than chickens egg? Smaller? It's got to be bigger.
Rod 12:01
You know what's weird. Until I read that. I went fuck that. That's right. Turkeys lay eggs,
Will 12:06
as opposed to giving birth to live young.
Rod 12:08
I just thought they spontaneously existed as baking size. what's a turkey? Look like?
Will 12:16
I do like that the idea back then they've got they've got a good set of eggs all the way down from quail through chicken to duck to Turkey to cassowaries
Rod 12:27
But anyway, he also wrote immediately below this another protrusion, which, on further examination, proved to be a portion of the stomach lacerated through all its coats, and pouring out the food he had taken for his breakfast. through an orifice big enough to meet the forefinger.
Will 12:44
Do you suddenly feel hungry? It's like, Oh, no. No, I gotta eat my breakfast again. Where did my breakfast?
Rod 12:51
Maybe I can re eat it. Oh, so Bowman thought this guy is not going to survive for 36 hours like at best, at best.
Will 13:00
Like I get it. I get old timey world. That seems like a horrific injury. And in fact, it seems like a horrific injury now. I imagine that emergency departments are like, Okay, hit the hit the big button that says bring a few people and maybe a priest as well.
Rod 13:18
They're not very good medicine.
Will 13:19
nondenominational.
Rod 13:20
Yes, it's just someone who can mumble meaningfully over the journey to the great beyond for the pre corpse. After replacing the stomach and lungs as far as practicable, Beaumont continues
Will 13:33
pushing them back in.
Rod 13:34
I applied the carbonating, fermenting poultice and kept the surrounding parts constantly wet with a lotion of ammonia and vinegar.
Will 13:49
I love poultices though. I'm a fan of poultices
Rod 13:52
They sound good. They sound like they should be good. Yeah, exactly.
Will 13:54
Like get some get some gross goo and sort of smear it on you
Rod 13:58
take three poultices and call me in the morning. You'll feel better after
Will 14:02
poultices are a smearing jelly
Rod 14:05
You rub them on some kind of delicate material.
Will 14:09
Yeah, yeah. A gauze with poultice
Rod 14:13
I'm thinking more muslin, or denim.
Will 14:16
A denim poultice. not common, not common.
Rod 14:21
If you want to look cool. Just for hipsters, cowboy. A working man's poultice. A day later, Sir Martin was struggling for his life. So pneumonia and fever sit in, which isn't great. Yeah. So Beaumont bleeds him then administers a cathartic
Will 14:39
told him a story. Yep. Something to make you feel better release the emotions. Yeah, Romeo and Juliet. Have you heard that story? It's gonna hurt ya.
Rod 14:48
So he administers the cathardic and it comes out the hole.
Will 14:54
like an internal enima, like a stomach enema sort of idea.
Rod 15:01
A purging, and but the problem is it purged itself out the whole before we could do its job. Beaumont continues on the fifth day,
Will 15:12
and it's doing right. Okay?
Rod 15:13
A partial slowing took place or slowing depending on how you wanna pronounce it.
Will 15:17
Oh you mean, stuff coming off? What bits?
Rod 15:21
and it left a perforation into the stomach large enough to admit the whole length of his forefinger. So five days later, you could still and he tested it.
Will 15:28
You still admit you're whole four fingers? Yeah, that is a nice scientific test.
Rod 15:33
It's better than four fingers. Yeah, that's true. Still, on the 11th day. still chugging along, a more extensive slowing took place. The febrile symptoms subsided. So fever.
Will 15:44
Yeah. Okay. That is a long way beyond 36 hours. No one can really use no one can convert 36 hours into days, but it's definitely a lot. It's like shorter, less. Yeah.
Rod 15:54
And not so no one won the sweepstakes. The whole surface of the wound assumed a healthy and granulating appearance.
Will 15:59
How would you feel if people are betting on the day you're going to die?
Rod 16:01
I think you're too busy thinking about other stuff.
Will 16:04
I'd be pissed.
Rod 16:06
honestly, I'll be there. Why haven't we invented morphine?
Will 16:09
Unless my supportive friends would be like No way man. He's gonna pull through I'm betting on day 78,000 from now. Yes. If someone if you're good if a friend of mine said look, he's gonna make it two and a half days. I'd be like, dude,
Rod 16:22
thanks cunt. that'd be the bottom line. There's there's no way that wouldn't be I'd looked him in the eye briefly.
Will 16:30
I'm gonna haunt you
Will 16:32
you're fucked mate. On the 11th day, a more extensive slowing took place. Cicatrisation, scarring. and contraction of the external wound commenced in the fifth week and left the perforation resembling in all but a sphincter, the natural anus with a slight prolapse. Basically, a date on his side.
Will 17:03
read that again. Read that again. this is the side where the stomach has an extra door
Rod 17:12
so that the perforation resembled in all but a sphincter the natural anus I didn't actually have a sphincter muscle that you know contracted. So okay, okay, well just like a date without the muscle
Will 17:21
in in all but the key bit
Rod 17:25
doesn't have a sphincter but it looks like a butt
Will 17:27
all but the key bit resembled a butt.
Rod 17:29
But you can make things that look like about that don't have a sphincter.
Will 17:32
no no. If someone says give me a drawing of an anus
Rod 17:37
and you draw the sphincter This is bullshit.
Will 17:39
I would be like come on man, that is the bit
Rod 17:44
you told someone draw me a sphincter, what do they look like?
Will 17:47
two cheeks and there was no bit there and it was just like a gap. I'd be like
Rod 17:51
So it's a circle.
Will 17:52
Yeah.
Rod 17:54
this was circular
Will 17:57
decorations. I don't know what word to call them. I don't know what the medical term is for the decorations.
Rod 18:11
embellishment, biological embellishment
Will 18:14
I just feel like to say something resembles anus except for the anus bit like I feel like
Rod 18:23
I don't think that's hard to do. Give me some playdough. I'll do that right now. It's not a sphincter but it'll look like a date though. I'm very good with playdough to be fair, so any food or drink that Alexei would consume would leak right back out through the hole.
Will 18:36
But, but you could sort of dam it up and you could push food straight back in like and push it further
Rod 18:41
you could. Beaumont decided to sustain him by means of nutritious injections per anum. not once a year. Up the butt. I'm going to keep you alive by sticking food up your bum.
Will 18:54
Okay, how far does one have to stick food? And are we talking like a chicken drumstick sort of thing?
Rod 18:59
I'm confident you've got to go a long way
Will 19:02
to get the nutrients out like I mean
Rod 19:04
my mind does boggle
Will 19:06
could one experiment here and and discover how long one could survive by food per anum?
Rod 19:14
Yeah, well we could. I'll keep a bag of oats or something like a bag of oats or bag about a whole bag because they expand in the stomach on contact with moisture because that'd be a problem.
Will 19:27
All right. So what are we talking here?
Rod 19:29
They don't go into detail. No source I saw went into detail
Will 19:33
A banana?
Rod 19:35
it was goo goo it was like a liquidity. Oh, and then he did that as long as he couldn't wait until he could comply apply compresses and adhesive straps around the gut date and keep it tight enough so food wouldn't escape.
Will 19:47
Okay, little gate. Yeah,
Rod 19:48
yeah. Yeah. So Beaumont goes on after trying all the means in my power for eight or 10 months to close the orifice by exciting adhesive inflammation.
Will 20:01
It's kind of I imagine it's like,
Rod 20:03
fingering the hole.
Will 20:04
No, no, no, no no it's like it's like rubbing it so that things stick to it better.
Rod 20:07
I don't think you saw the finger movements you made. That was not rubbing. There was more circling.
Will 20:13
Anyway what I'm saying you know, like sometimes when you're fixing a puncture your bike tire Yes, you need to get a little bit of sandpaper rough it up so it'll stick better.
Rod 20:26
Yep. He roughened up the gut date.
Will 20:29
That wasn't a proper sphincter
Rod 20:32
loser, loser hole. So he excited adhesive inflammation. I gave it up as impractical in any other way then that of insizing and bringing them together by suture. So sew him shut
Will 20:44
Can I just get an idea of the sort of physical location of patient doctor and other patients coming in? Is he in the back of his surgery? Because I'm guessing there isn't a hospital here? Is he sort of in a back room?
Rod 21:02
Probably behind the trading store like you know sitting in the storage shed with the dry goods
Will 21:06
still in the same spot and he just comes and visits
Rod 21:08
Wouldn't surprise me. maybe maybe he's in Beaumont, you know, I don't know, toilet room. House.
Will 21:13
I'm just imagining log cabins, log cabins. And you know, a new patient comes in I got a sore tooth I gotta whatever. And in the back is
Rod 21:22
a dude shooting through his gut
Rod 21:25
Yeah, I looked like weirdly that didn't go into it. So he basically said look, there's nothing else I can do. If I really want to make this work, I got a dumbing it down, sew it up, which was an operation to which the patient would not submit? Really, you'd had enough of being fiddled with because we were talking weeks and months, eight to 10 months. And he's like, I don't want you to do anything else. I'm done with this shit.
Will 21:46
They didn't try like a flap of skin a while ago get like a turkey skin
Rod 21:52
You're gonna be happy. You're gonna be happy. You're gonna love it for the month of April 1823. One year after the accident. The injured parts were all sound and firmly healed by scarfold with the exception of the hole and then a bit later getting into 1824 a small fold or doubling of the coats of the stomach appeared. So this again quoting valvular formation adapted itself to the accidental orifice so as to completely prevent the E flux of the gastric content so he grew a flap. apparently the flap of skin prevented food from escaping but was easily depressed by the finger so you could stick it in and pop it open. Valve really
Will 22:42
weird things happened to bodies back in the olden days.
Rod 22:44
Yeah, not anymore. That wouldn't happen now. No, it wouldn't because we don't have muskets
Will 22:48
No, but we would also sew it up like a flap grows and be like okay, that's fine. It what it intends to be is covered over doesn't intend to be
Rod 22:55
you have a hole where one should not be we shall like not a hole. So Alex, he was obviously started, he was improving. And he had the special benefit access gut flap. bonus, which is great. It's great for him. But of course, his condition meant that he couldn't work as a voyager anymore. And been even as that job he was essentially an indentured servant with the company.
Will 23:22
and there's only so much sick leave. They've got I seen that came with 12 months,
Rod 23:27
eight to 10 minutes.
Will 23:28
It was It was rough times back then no flaps, no flaps, no flaps on the canoe transport business.
Rod 23:32
So he lost his job, which would have meant he needed community support, but he wasn't considered a Mackinac Island local by the authorities. Okay, so they said not you're a pauper. Why don't you fuck off back to Quebec?
Will 23:44
Course? Of course. Yeah. How does he deserve any help?
Rod 23:47
You're a bum. But Beaumont, being the philanthropist said, No, that's not right. He wouldn't survive the trip. I'll take him on as a chore boy. Okay. But now that mean Alexei was completely dependent on Beaumont.
Will 24:02
So just to confirm he can he can move around the house.
Rod 24:05
He can I can even walk around and stuff. function,
Will 24:07
so he's not lying in bed.
Rod 24:10
Well, he can walk around like you and me. So this is obviously a completely selfless act of care by by Beamonth on this. utterly selfless?
Will 24:20
Are you saying this something? Are you implying that this is something a little bit more sinister here
Rod 24:23
Not at all. I just want to digress for a moment and talk about digestion and the understanding of digestion in the 1800s. Okay, what did we think? So for a very long time, like centuries, doctors and other folk thought of food as a fuel, and as basically was used as internal heat, but they thought of it like coal in a train or something it would burn cooked in the stomach and the intestines they thought of digestion is basically causing fermentation. Others thought none of putrefy is food.
Will 24:47
Well, it turns out, we know that eventually. And so there's there's got to be some sort of purification
Rod 24:54
pootrification, just means gross. You're welcome. It just looks like it means gross. Some folders because there's some kind of grinding going on in their guts, grinding, grinding. I don't know how long they've been though, but he ground. And to keep it adversarial, of course, it was also there was an enduring popular view called vitalism, which assumed life was caused by vital spiritual forces. And something as miraculous as digestion could not be explained in mechanical or chemical terms. There's just like, oh, there's a bit of magic. It just you eat it. Stuff happens. You stay alive.
Will 25:26
I like I like the idea. It's a theory that says, we don't know. Plus, also, we can't know. So don't look into it. Like, like, it's,
Rod 25:35
there's just sort of No, walk away. Walk away from the curiosity.
Will 25:39
Do you really need a theory to do that? I get why people might go, you know, 1600s and you go out, whatever. I don't need to know that. That's we know where I got other things to focus on. Yeah, fair enough. But also actively going. No, no, my theory is that you can't know
Rod 25:53
there's no point looking magic. Here Be Dragons, very many. So debates raged up into the 19th century across Europe about whether digestion was a chemical or mechanical process and also what the fuck our digestive juices,
Will 26:08
you sort of can feel inside and feel if there's like a little you know, like a windmill, a grinding mill or something in there or bing bang together. I feel like we'd find out pretty quickly if it was mechanical.
Rod 26:21
I would too, but apparently not. We're, that's because we're educated men
Will 26:25
these people were much more likely to see the insides of each other. So I feel like it's a bit of a weird guess. you get teeth at the top and maybe there's a bottom teeth as well, that grind things up.
Rod 26:38
So they didn't know what it was and they thought maybe gastric juices were a solvent. Some thought it was just basically shitloads of saliva. And another theory that I love indigestion back then the stomach digested each type of food sequentially.
Will 26:51
Of course it does. It does.
Rod 26:52
carrots they're going first then beef,
Will 26:54
no, but you got to do your savoury and then your dessert like that. That just makes sense. Exactly. It's like a little conveyor belt
Rod 27:02
stomach kind of puts them into waiting rooms. Next, my stomach nurse walks out and goes you next. And so they basically said Don't eat too many different kinds of foods at once because it confuses the guts of confuses the guts. Yeah. So this is the backdrop and so basically Bowman white thought, boy, do I have an opportunity here. Okay, okay.
Will 27:23
I can do some science. Yep.
Rod 27:25
So by the time he took Alexei on his his chore, boy indentured servant, unique patient, whatever
Will 27:30
chores, but also, every so often, I just need to know
Rod 27:35
I want to fiddle with your not sphincter. As he put it. When he lies on the opposite side of the wound, I can look directly into the cavity of the stomach and almost see the process of digestion. And he was very excited about saying this. Here's a warm up comment. From Beaumont, I can pour water with a funnel into the or I can put food in with a spoon and then I can draw them out again with the syphon. That's exciting.
Will 28:00
How far is he putting it in
Rod 28:01
all the way into the stomach? More specifically, the usual method as he put it in one of his writings of extracting the gastric juice goes like this. You place the subject on the right side, depress the valve within the aperture
Will 28:16
I sent something coming
Rod 28:17
introduce a gum elastic tube about the size of a large Quill, we all know the thing goes five or six inches in, okay. And then turn him on his left side take and drag it out and see what's going on. So that's a bit of a warm up. Let's let's get explicit. Here's an experiment one of the very, very early ones at 11 o'clock in the morning after the lad had been forced to fast for 17 hours he doesn't say forced but he was I introduced the glass tube of a thermometer through the perforation.
Will 28:46
What's it cooking down there.
Rod 28:48
In less than 15 minutes. It got to about 100 degrees Fahrenheit which is 37 ish Celcius, God's preferred scale. and then it was even off that would just stop about 37, 38
Will 28:58
God uses Kelvin
Rod 29:00
Good point. Of course he does. Good point I start with absolute 0 for I am absolute I am the Alpha and the Omega
Will 29:05
How would God use anything other than that?
Rod 29:07
true. You're right. You're right. I do slouch correct. So you check the temperature. Then he goes okay, I now introduced a gum elastics. So a natural rubber vault that hadn't been vulcanised tube drew off one ounce of pure gastric liquor was the language liquor. It was unmixed with any other matter, because obviously he'd been fasting except a little bit of mucus.
Will 29:36
So this is the first time someone's actually got access to the goo. I mean, I hadn't you know, there was no moment in my life where I thought what I want to do in science is get access to the goo. But still, I agree. That was the first time that someone got access
Rod 29:50
Also in medicine which didn't trigger me for a while why I thought Who the fuck goes into proctology
Will 29:54
it doesn't work like that
Rod 29:55
dates.
Will 29:56
No, it doesn't work.
Rod 29:57
I just want to do No,
Will 29:58
I don't think people, no.
Rod 29:59
some did. someone went to medicine they go, what do you think you're going to be a GP? brain surgeon?
Will 30:04
what needs to be done? No it's like if people sign up to the army saying, I just want to kill a lot of people, usually they say, not for you buddy. perhaps you should go somewhere else. I feel like if someone signs up to medicine saying I really want to look at dates, I don't I don't think they're saying anything. I think there's a okay buddy. Maybe go elsewhere.
Rod 30:27
What do you have to say to that?
Will 30:30
No. So I think instead, it's people that feel a duty. A date related duty.
Rod 30:37
Dates need attention too
Will 30:38
they do.
Rod 30:40
I then took a solid piece of boiled recently salted beef, weighing three drachms, which is apparently a unit of weight formally used by apothecaries, which is a great word fuck I love that word. equivalent to 60 grains, obviously, or an eighth of an ounce.
Will 30:58
Give me something the real money though.
Rod 31:00
One ounce of 28 grammes divided by 8. 3
Will 31:03
3 and a half
Rod 31:04
so he took the piece of boiled recently salted of the beef and put it in the vial.
Will 31:08
I always find it funny that they go straight to a fairly okay 18th century they love this kind of food.
Rod 31:15
Also, they're in a sort of an outpost
Will 31:17
I get it, but But why don't you go with something simple like strawberry? Jam, strawberry milk, cheese, a turkeys egg,
Rod 31:26
so drops them in the goo. corked it. Then put it in a saucepan filled with water and raised temperature to 100 Fahrenheit that's temperature with the stomach, okay? And he kept it at that point on an icy regulated sandbath. Let's see what happens. See what happens are we stewarded stomach temperatures okay. After 40 minutes the fluid had become quite opaque and cloudy ah. Delicious. External texter of the beef salted began to separate become loose
Rod 31:55
Ahh ok Yeah, yeah, that's 40 minutes. We're cooking stomach style. Yeah. I imagine like a molecular gastronomist would be like into this cooking like your stomach
Rod 32:06
Blumenthal says, you know, how are we going to cook this first we'd have to shoot you in the stomach.
Will 32:09
No, no, no, we're gonna make it feel like it's already in your stomach. I present to you
Will 32:14
I still don't know what chyme is
Rod 32:14
specialised pre eaten food. So that was 40 minutes after 60 minutes chyme, which is the pulpy acidic fluid which passes from the stomach to the small intestines consisting of gastric juices and partly digested food. So after an hour chyme began to form
Rod 32:23
it's what shit turns into after a while.
Will 32:26
Ok. Pre shit.
Rod 32:26
a couple of hours later, after the start.
Will 32:38
Please tell me he ends up with like a nice turd. At the end like it like a
Rod 32:45
there's no talk of turds in Beamont's work at all
Will 32:49
It's not my goal. But I like the idea that someone cooked up in a saucepan. It's not my goal
Rod 32:56
to fiddle with food and a saucepan until it turns into poo somehow magically. After after two hours, the texture seems to be entirely destroyed as a cellularly. It's destroyed leaving the muscular fibres loose and unconnected, floating about in fine small shreds. Very tender and soft. Okay, we've broken down. Yes, so that's two hours. So then another two hours, the muscular fibres had diminished about a half and by seven o'clock, so eight hours later. It's entirely broken down. There's just a couple of little fibres in the fluid and by nine o'clock so 10 hours later, completely digested. The gastric juice when he took it from the stomach was clear and as transparent as water. So that's nice. first experiment, another one. In fact, the next one. I assume the next day I suspended another piece of solid boiled recently salted beef weighing three drachms again into the stomach through the aperture. How did he suspend it? A piece of silk string like a fishing rod on fishing and drops after now he pulled it out and found it was basically as digested as it was in the vial that he'd done.
Will 34:07
I hope that our friend with the stomach hole the chores he has to do a pretty light
Rod 34:12
watch TV
Will 34:13
Yeah, something like that. Like I'm hoping he's not like right, you are building me a shed. And then next I'll I feel like I don't
Rod 34:22
want to make you sad, so I wouldn't tell you anything yet. So he pulled it out after an hour and said it's pretty much the same as an hour in the vial. They put it back into the old stomach and other air he pulled it up with the meat was gone was digested. So I was like, oh, it's faster in the stomach.
Will 34:36
There's some extra magic
Rod 34:38
and movement helps. Okay, the third one. I introduced through the perforation The following articles with a piece of silk string
Will 34:47
shit what I could find in the house.
Rod 34:49
Some lint, a paperclip
Will 34:51
yeah sure a quill, my hat
Rod 34:54
on one string he has he put it appropriate distances. He connected all these things together. So it's like a long trawl line
Will 35:00
Oh God,
Rod 35:02
small enough and at the right distance so they could pass through him without being painful. Here's what he put in a piece of high seasoned and alamode beef obviously, a piece of raw salted fat pork raw.
Will 35:17
Do they eat anything but meat?
Rod 35:19
No. OH no they do. Well get that piece of raw salted lean beef because you know, I can think of two types of beef which is lean, but lean, athletic.
Will 35:28
It's really beef, pork, beef.
Rod 35:31
also a piece of boiled salted beef. Beef, pork, beef, beef. For meats. A piece of stale bread. Okay. You're gonna find with the meal styling, and a bunch of raw sliced cabbage.
Will 35:44
Ah, there you go.
Rod 35:45
Got vegetables. Good for him
Will 35:47
beef, pork, beef, beef, bread, cabbage. What a friggin diet.
Rod 35:51
That's the title of the episode after an hour, putting all that crap and then he pulls it out. The cabbage and bread about half digested and the meats untouched. So ah, pop them back in again.
Will 36:01
It did do the cabbage first. like there was a conveyor belt. They said no, not touching the beef yet. cabbages for entree. Yeah, bread is for
Rod 36:12
we'll have those for entrees. I mean, it's a thing. So pops them back in a couple of hours later
Will 36:16
really should have put some dessert on the end though.
Rod 36:18
he should. Trifle. And tiramisu
Will 36:21
Yeah, exactly. trifle on your string and see how that gets
Rod 36:23
tiramisu and a chocky. So as a pops back in a couple of hours later, the beef was partially digested the ALA mode beef and the raw beef was a little bit munched on the surface but not much. So he goes on to say here's some remarks from his experiment. Pure gastric juices fluid clear, transparent without odour, a little salt and perceptibly acid. Also, the smell and taste of the fluids of the stomach was slightly rancid. I can't believe you thought about that.
Will 36:55
I had a little sample myself.
Rod 36:57
Beaumont licked St. Martin's empty stomach discovering that it didn't have an acid taste until it was actively working digest food. So I assume he didn't get his tongue in there. But I hope he did. He did he did he did put or put the finger.
Will 37:09
No, no, no, no. He put his mouth to the hole. And
Rod 37:15
sucked enthusiastically.
Will 37:17
He can get his tongue in
Rod 37:18
fucking horrible, licked the juices. Cause scientist
Will 37:22
Well, proper scientist, scientists these days will be all like, I don't know. It's unhygenic
Rod 37:28
I'm gonna get my postdoc to do it more to the point
Will 37:33
postdocs the right level for that I think
Rod 37:35
know they're gonna be qualified yeah exactly but still panicked about their future. They'll do anything you know the contract you just took up is about to expire the moment
Will 37:46
unless you lick this stomach
Rod 37:48
inside of your stomach not the outside like like my stomach that's a warm up now go to this guy
Will 37:52
that's a warm up. it's not a warm up. It's not necessary
Rod 37:56
to be honest licking the outside of a man's stomach is a warm up to licking the inside of his stomach.
Will 38:01
it is not a warm up it is not a one way drug. No go straight to go straight all the way over if I could just go there. Yeah, yeah, well, what are you there is no benefit to learning how to lick your stomach.
Rod 38:11
You Don't Know that
Will 38:12
therefore licking the inside
Rod 38:13
you don't know what I offer as a reward.
Will 38:14
I don't care. I'm going straight to the proper science.
Rod 38:18
So I'm not Sylvester Stallone enough for you. I see I see what's going on here. So anyway, the food all goes back in the hole by the time they pull it out again, this is a part of the problem. Alexei would complain of considerable distress uneasiness of the stomach and head pain. Okay, so it wasn't great.
Will 38:35
I have considerable distress as you're as you're looking the inside of my stomach
Rod 38:38
I feel shit and I have a headache. So the food that he pulled out was basically in the same same kind of condition but there was more fluid more rancid and sharp flavour but to be fair, being a humanitarian because Beaumont cares about people he said look the boys still complaining so I didn't put them back in his guts. good good guy. Good guy ethics.
Will 39:00
he might be hungry, though
Rod 39:03
So this is a good point to talk about what Beaumont thought of Alexis as a person. I don't think there was a lot of difference. So apparently, look, there's no question that he suffered Alexei suffered, and Beaumont didn't really care for his physical, emotional well being hard to imagine. early 1800s Doctor and you're some thug. He thought of St Martin as a party animal worthless except for what his stomach could do, according to some sources, some sources. In letters he often referred to his patient as villain, drunkard and ungrateful
Will 39:41
Oh Jesus, villain. I didn't see anything in him being a villain before. He was just a canoe guy.
Rod 39:50
So throughout the experiment, so Alexi would have to put up with many multiple 17 hour fasts constantly poked and prodded by Beaumont. He was made to do things like carry vials of his stomach contents tucked into his armpits to keep it at body temperature. So it's kind of like man a piece of beef or cabbage in a vial of his own stomach juices keep it on your arms.
Will 40:09
But sew some teeth into your arm so you're pretending to grind it up.
Rod 40:17
Beaumont would also freely placed objects of questionable sterility, including thermometers and spoons into the hole
Will 40:23
guard. And question also it's not questionable. No, it's just not they're not sterile. They're not sterile.
Rod 40:31
Maybe because I've been eating my porridge.
Will 40:34
I wiped it on my shirt.
Rod 40:36
So often, Alexei was lightheaded, nauseas constipated and often had a headache.
Will 40:41
How did he get constipated?
Rod 40:42
I don't know. But constipated came up, which is surprising. But also know you asked about this earlier in the intervals of experimenting so between them who do other duties like chopping wood carrying burdens and apparently according to Beaumont, little or no suffering and no inconvenience from his wounds, which makes me think you could have gone back to being a voyager.
Will 41:06
But he didn't I bet his tickets a little bit better here.
Rod 41:09
Well, part of the reason was people would like be mean to him.
Will 41:13
Yeah, out in the canoo land
Rod 41:14
He'd be called fistulous Alexei.
Will 41:17
Would he really?
Rod 41:20
There's a burn. You're fistulous Alexei. And you're the man with a lid on his stomach. Oh, you've cut me. It's true though. Kids are cruel, man. Yeah, well, it's just like you're a dude with two feet like fuck you. Oh, no, I am. So there are a lot of tos and fro so over over a 10 year period, these experiments etc. And this relationship went on for a decade. So the many times blindman would have to or chose to move around and tried not always successfully to get Alexi to come with him or come and meet him in places. So he went from he went to like Fort Niagara. He went to Burlington, Vermont Plattsburgh again, obviously, and it was like
Will 41:59
he's working as a doctor in these places.
Rod 42:00
He's working as a doctor but it also when when he could take Alexei with him and experimented with him the whole time. The whole time he was there as his chore boy. But once he got to Plattsburgh at least once he was so close to Canada that Alexei said, Look, I'm gonna go home. And Bowman put it like this. From the latter place. Plattsburgh he returned to Canada, his native place without obtaining my consent. Hey, how dare you sir? How fucking dare after all I've done to you. For you.
Will 42:29
Exactly. It'd be it would be tough having your participants run off like that.
Rod 42:34
Your willing informed consent participates
Will 42:36
with your nice stomach hole. Where am I gonna get another guy with the stomach hole?
Rod 42:40
Oh, I'm gonna go and shoot a bug. Sorry, organise for an accident. fucking horrible. So about two years after he'd buggered off to Canada without consent. Beaumont managed to track the guy down with help from a third trader friend, alleged to Beaumont who said that you're ungrateful boy was now married and poor and miserable beyond description.
Will 43:00
Hey, there you go. So no one looking into his stomach anymore.
Rod 43:04
No, because I want to I do also I don't think money was easy to earn in his condition.
Will 43:08
Yeah maybe here maybe but you might feel a sense of meaning if people are looking into your stomach.
Rod 43:12
I think it's unfair. I guess that took another couple of years but Beaumont finally convinced him to come back and continue with the experiments and one of the one of the interesting ones so in 1832 So we're talking close to a decade but I want us he had six months leave of absence from his I think it was military job but it might have been other he takes Alexei to Washington as in the town for a series of extensive experiments. Okay. And one source the only source I could find that talked about this probably they say the oddest period the doctor and the voyager spent together was during a stay in Washington DC. And they put it like this the illiterate French Canadian and the proper doctor who spoke no French proper isn't. Yeah, they were alone together for long periods of time, including Christmas day kind of sitting there staring blankly at each other apparently. Which is pretty funny. Beaumont, apparently from his records. It turns out that the relationship didn't go well. And apparently some mutton was somewhat that was drinking heavily angry and impatient. And these moods showed up in his digestion.
Will 44:16
What
Rod 44:17
That's a problem.
Will 44:18
How did his moods show up in his digestive? Little emojis?
Rod 44:22
The poo emoji but with a smiley upside down face. But it's not it's not completely one way so it seems that the relationship was complicated. So even though Beaumont seems to be a bit of a dickhole Yeah. He felt some obligation Alex he still felt some obligation to him so apparently he wrote a letter in 1843 to Beaumont saying Look he's literate now. Sorry. Yeah. I do wonder about I'll probably be dictated to village amazing man.
Will 44:48
I'm just showing that I paid attention.
Rod 44:50
So the letter arrived. You're right. You're right. Maybe the letter did not be written by him but was dictated, explained his unwillingness to travel and reveals perhaps the patient's attempts to remind the Doctor of his human condition. So Alexei says, I haven't forgotten you. There's been some sickness in my family he had I think six children lost two of them. And I wasn't that well for the best part of a year. So he was saying look, I remember you and you know, blah blah blah, but then he goes on apparently he was super poor and the money helped. And that's great, but also it seems, at least according to some sources that Alexei felt some kind of duty to the doctor because he saved his life.
Will 45:27
Sure, I get it. Can I just acknowledge him doing pretty well on the six children front with a hole in his stomach?
Rod 45:38
You he didn't get shot in the kingdom? He got shot in the tum tum. he thanks the doctor is at least indebted. And so in 1832 Martin who is remember sorry Alexei illiterate signs a contract that said he would quote submit to such physiological or medical experiments as the said William shall direct or cause to be made on or in the stomach of him. The said Alexei will obey the exhibiting and showing of his said stomach, okay, which is cool. I submit
Will 46:11
what's he getting in return?
Rod 46:13
Well, this became a bone of contention because eventually Alexei said I want more cash and Bowman said not fuck ya. So Beaumont had all these other ideas in mind for experiments. I mean, what's left and even longer string with more meat, I assume.
Will 46:26
Fruit
Rod 46:27
cutlery.
Will 46:30
I went into the stomach and I cut stuff up in there
Rod 46:34
Alexei returned to Canada forever in 1834. According to at least some sources all but disappeared into the backwoods. He just buggered off. And he was hounded when possible by other folks who wanted to peek into his stomach, but he never agreed again. So after 10 years he said, I'm out I'm gone. Fuck you. It's done. Which I think is quite fair. Fair enough. So the legacy basically, the Surgeon General of the US and the Secretary of War were really into this project. So they gave money to Beaumont Secretary of War. Yeah.
Will 47:05
What are we going to find there's going to help us fight a war I don't know. Like, I don't some sort of will know their gastric juices
Rod 47:12
It's a good question.
Will 47:13
And if the Redcoats return, we can gastric juice them
Rod 47:17
We can digest them
Will 47:19
well what is the thing in general, I'm very happy with very happy with that, like
Rod 47:27
it's mysterious. But the Surgeon General in particular and the Secretary of War even more helped out by giving St Martin a commission as a sergeant in the Army and his only job was to submit to experiments
Will 47:45
right great you can have a job your only your only job submit to
Rod 47:49
Lie there and get shit put through your gut hole. But ultimately, this all led to Beaumonts Book, experiments and observations on the gastric juice and the physiology of digestion published him I don't have to tell you this but for other people 1833. The books in two parts one talks about the experiments themselves and the other talks about digestion as a process. And this book blew people's minds they were like fucking amazing.
Will 48:15
Finally, we've discovered it's not a mechanical process
Rod 48:17
Holy shit. There is no god in there. I get it like this is the tricky part with this because it actually helped people learn shit
Will 48:27
I get it. I get the I get the question.
Rod 48:30
No, it's tricky. The rights or wrongs of it now whatever. So
Will 48:34
the old time people don't have ethics
Rod 48:36
They're dead now so who cares? Exactly. So but I wanted at least 200 experiments on Alexa 10 years
Will 48:44
thinking up 200 different experiments is a lot of experiments with what can I drop into the stomach?
Rod 48:48
I feel like difference doing a lot of heavy lifting to like, okay, salted pork. So
Will 48:52
there's there's either taking gastric juices out or lowering stuff in and I feel like I've got okay I'm up to 2. massaging like like you sort of put stuff in and then you massage is
Rod 49:07
I'm gonna work your glutes. It's gonna be fine
Will 49:13
it's gonna take me a bit it's it's one of those creativity exercises, you know, you're going to draw 100 different ants or something like that creativity show how many different things you can do your ants doing this ants doing that like so. So where's the know that one 200 experiments you can do on an open stomach
Rod 49:28
Over 200. he recorded 51 conclusions about digestion now, okay, now I'm going to read them I'm not gonna read them all.
Will 49:36
What did we learn beat? What's the big one things
Rod 49:38
like the process of mastication in salivation and deglutition. The act of swallowing and the processes of swallowing, basically said, Look, all these acts saliva chewing and swallowing do not affect the digestion of the food. They don't matter.
Will 49:54
What yes, they bloody do
Rod 49:56
apparently not according to 1833 work.
Will 49:59
Why would you have teeth? I don't know. Maybe you say don't die maybe that's it could matter I solved it
Rod 50:06
not dying could matter. Yeah, a choke. So um when the food goes straight into the stomach whether it's basically cut up into little bits or left larger digests anyway so basically says look first up they didn't know this the first stage of digestion is in the stomach not before saliva doesn't play a role does not etc etc. And also saliva does not possess the properties that gastric juices do so they're like okay that would they different I didn't know that. Other things I just you know, cherry picked a few stimulating condiments are injurious to healthy stomach aka chilli can fuck your guts
Will 50:40
I think we've had that before
Rod 50:43
But they hadn't before 1833. The use of ardent spirits always produces disease of the stomach if preserved in so basically too much strong booze if you keep going is bad for your guts, okay, everyone knows that. gastric juices are capable of combining with a certain and fixed quantity of food and when more element is presented for its action, then we will be able to dissolve this disturbance and or indigestion okay, if you pig out you get the hurty burps I ate too much owe
Will 51:16
I didn't know the hurty burbs was the thing.
Rod 51:17
Oh, yeah, they're a thing. You've had the hurty burbs . you're overeating. You drink too much and get burnt out and that stung.
Will 51:23
I hadn't named them.
Rod 51:24
That's because of St Martin. Sorry.
Will 51:27
No, I hadn't and I hadn't thought they needed a name
Rod 51:30
but you've had them. everyone knows what a hurty burp is now. gastric juices never found free in the gastric cavity. It's always excited to discharge by the introduction of food or other irritants so it's not your stomach isn't a bubbling cauldron of goo waiting for stuff to be made on command. It's like our foods here but okay, let's shoot some shit out. This action is facilitated by the warmth and motions of the stomach. So gentle activity helps. I mean like Yeah, but before that the action of the stomach and its fluids are the same on all kinds of diet. So that means all wellness warrior influencer nutrition advice people are entirely wrong in every way. Nothing else matters. But I don't know if that's true. these are Bowman's paraphrased, words.
Will 52:17
Sure.
Rod 52:19
His most notable conclusions were about gastric juice, which at the time was fucking cutting edge like people like what the fuck is gastric juice? What does it do? Blah, blah, blah, which they call a powerful and wondrous substance. Examine it through many, as many senses as possible. When you take it directly out of the stomach unmixed with other fluid, it's clear transparent in odorous, a little salty, and perceptively acid, as I said, when you apply to the tongue, it's Yeah, so basically describing the juices was a big deal. It was a big deal. So in the end, Beaumont, basically, he proved once and for all digestion in the stomach was chemical.
Will 52:56
There you go, not feel mechanical, not magical.
Rod 52:59
Yeah, he proved all that. All right. And this made him a big deal. He was he was considered at least by many as the father of American physiology, which is pretty cool. And they're also amazed that he had fuck all medical training and no scientific training. So he did this with his own sort of instinct
Will 53:14
got the membership. He's fine.
Rod 53:16
Yeah, but that's not science that's like can you know, put leeches on a ding dong, and off you go.
Will 53:22
That's the level of science in those days,
Rod 53:24
but retrospectively people go on. That's pretty impressive. Okay. So after Alexei, left, et cetera, he lived in St. Louis St. Louis. He was comfortable. He's happily married. He had three children. He loved them. His book didn't make a lot of money, but it made him famous people went holy fuck, this guy's astounding. And he died in 1853. Because he fell visiting a patient on an icy step and hit his head and took about a month for him to toddle off,
Will 53:49
did a experiment on him while he was dying,
Rod 53:51
because he was the guy and he was gone. So you know, couldn't happen. But it turns out that St Martain outlived the doctor by 27 years, like he lived way longer. And when he died in 1880, his family went okay, we're going to leave his body out to decomposing the sun before they bury him, so that people wouldn't dig him up and play with his body.
Will 54:11
Thanks, family.
Rod 54:12
I know. They buried him in an unmarked grave. Eight feet deep rocks on the casket. So people couldn't get to him.
Will 54:18
rocks don't stop things. eight feet deep.
Rod 54:21
Deeper than six
Will 54:21
I get the leaving mountain the sudden
Rod 54:23
they get to six feet like the grave robbers who is not here. It's a kind
Will 54:27
of cool recipe for being buried. Alright family, you gotta leave me in the sun
Rod 54:33
Dig me a bit deeper. Put rocks on me. And also, this is a nice little addendum in 1962 Canadian physiological Society said look, it's time to go and mark the grave. He was unmarked until that point, okay, because they didn't want him to get nicked. And so they did a bunch of investigating to find him and find out about him
Will 54:51
dig him up and have a look in his stomach
Rod 54:53
just in case out of respect. Yeah. Out of respect
Will 54:56
that stomach hasn't been looked at in 200 years, what are we doing here?
Rod 55:00
Does he still have a gut date? It turns out from their investigations he was actually about 28 When this is all going on not 18
Will 55:07
How do they find that from digging him up?
Rod 55:09
No they did other stuff to find him every other report mostly from Beaumont basically said he's 18, Fuck I don't care which is great, which is great. So he never bothered to check his age he checked his stomach contents he made him do things we've never bothered to check that out. So basically old school ethics really go well here. Main sources so there are there a bunch but sciencehistory.org distillations probing the mysteries of human digestion. Thanks. That's great. Smithsonian mag did a great story on him as well. And my fave was from the Australian and New Zealand journal or surgeons, a debt to Alexei Beaumont, St Maarten story, and it goes on all the links and that there are others as well because of the podcasts I mentioned, I think Radiolab sawbones, and the dollar also covered this one, but I didn't listen first because I wanted to make this purely Wholesome.
Will 55:58
Well, there you go.
Rod 55:58
It's a popular story. What's the woman who does awesome stories about travelling to Mars and other such things? Mary Roach featured him in a book too, on a book on digestion stuff called Gulp. But I haven't read that either because I'm busy.
