quotes with approval William Hunter's remark, "some physiologists will have it that the stomach is a mill; others that it is a fermenting vat, but in my view of the matter it is neither a mill, a fermenting vat, or a stew pan, but a stomach, gentlemen, a stomach." Dr. V. C. Vaughan ("Transactions of Michigan State Medical Society," 1896, p. 1) says that, considering the conditions under which he labored and the results he left behind, Beaumont is one of the great historic characters of the world. In the nearly three-fourths of a century that have passed his discoveries are still approved by both chemists and physiologists. So exact was his study of the physical and chemical nature of gastric juice that excepting pepsin, the closest investigation of modern times with modern physics and chemistry has added little to Beaumont's work. Practical physicians during all these years have utilized Beaumont's studies in prescribing the diet of their patients. In 1833 the Columbian University of Washington, District of Columbia, gave Dr. William Beaumont the degree of M. D. honoris causa. In 1837 he was appointed professor of surgery in the medical department of St. Louis University. In 1838 he was vice president of Missouri Medical Society and in 1841 its president. Many medical societies elected him honorary member.
In 1821 Dr. William Beaumont married Debora, daughter of "Friend Israel Green, innholder in Plattsburgh, N. Y." She was a strong woman full of sympathy with her husband's work. When a young girl she voluntarily went to the "pest house" and took smallpox that she might be able to nurse smallpox patients during the war of 1812.
Beaumont's life was a stormy one from beginning to end, full of encounters, which he seemed to enjoy, and in which he usually came out victorious. He remained active and energetic to the last and died at his home in St. Louis, Missouri, April 25, 1853, as the result of an accident.
The first published account of St. Martin's case appeared in the Philadelphia Medical Recorder, January, 1825.
The unpublished records of the Michigan Medical Society, 1819–1848, show that in August, 1827, a report of the case of Alexis St. Martin was made to this society. The report was accompanied by a statement of observations on the behavior of the stomach during digestion and experiments on its digestive powers. Dr. C. G. Jennings of Detroit possesses these records, to whom the writer is indebted.
Beaumont's paper of 1825 was published in German at Hamburg, in 1826; also in Paris in 1823 in the Archives Générales de Medecine. In 1833 was published in Plattsburg, New York, by F. P. Allen, "Experiments and Observations on Gastric Juice and the Physiology of Digestion," by William Beaumont, M. D., surgeon in the United States Army.
In 1834 copies of the Plattsburg edition of the above were issued by Lilly, Wait & Company, of Boston, Massachusetts. In 1834 a German edition was issued of the above. In 1837 a second edition was issued from Burlington, Vermont, minor defects being corrected by Dr. Samuel Beaumont, a cousin of William, and in 1838 an edition was issued in Scotland by Dr. Andrew Combe.
Beck, Carl (1856–1911)
Carl Beck, professor of surgery at the New York Post-Graduate School of Medicine and visiting surgeon to St. Mark's Hospital, was born in Neckargemünd, Germany, April 4, 1856. After graduating at the gymnasium of Heidelberg in 1874 he studied medicine at the universities of Heidelberg, Berlin and Jena and obtained the degree of Doctor of Medicine from the last named university in 1878. For a few years he practised medicine in his native town but emigrated to America in 1882 and settled in New York. He soon gained a name as a skilful surgeon. When Roentgen discovered the X-rays Beck was one of the first to introduce their use in surgery. He wrote numerous articles on this subject in English and German. For the last twenty years of his life Beck was professor of surgery at the New York Post-Graduate School of Medicine. He was also president of the German Medical Society of New
