Experiments and Observations on the Gastric Juice, and the Physiology of Digestion

Beaumont, William

Plattsburgh: F. P. Allen, 1833

First edition. Three woodcut engravings in text, 280 pp. Octavo. original beige boards with blue cloth spine; covers detached, ownership signature excised from top of title page, foxing throughout. 

A pioneering work on digestion, based on experiments with patient Alexis St. Martin, whose stomach was exposed by a gunshot wound. Beaumont (1785-1853), a United States Army surgeon, was the first to study digestion and the movements of the stomach in a living person. During the patients recovery, through a permanent fistula, Beaumont was able to observe the process of digestion.  "...Beaumont was the first to study digestion and the movements of the stomach in vivo. His work on the subject was the most important before Pavlov."- Garrison-Morton 989. Dibner 130. Fulton, pp. 186-190. Horblit 10. Lilly, p. 185. Norman Library 152. Norman, One Hundred Books Famous in Medicine, 61.