1. WARM-UP: Name as many body systems that you can!
Intro to human body systems
St Martin’s Stomach
Introduction to YOUR Digestive System

2. Intro to Human Body
Watch video and complete worksheet

3. St Martin’s Stomach

4. The year was 1822… Alexis St Martin (age 28) – Canadian Fur Trader
Gun shot wound to abdomen
Lung hanging out
Rushed to army hospital
Saved by Dr. William Beaumont
Twenty-eight year old Alexis St Martin was standing in just the wrong place at just the wrong time. That place was just in front of a careless duck hunter with a shotgun, and the time was The gun went off, and Alexis was rushed to a nearby army hospital. The rush was purely for show. Such a wound was almost always fatal, and Alexis had been so close to the gun that his shirt had caught fire from the blast. At the hospital, Dr. William Beaumont tried his best to save Alexis — and was surprised to see that his best was good enough.

5. Human experimentation
Dr. Beaumont recorded EVERYTHING that St Martin ate
Took samples of partially digested food out
Took out samples of gastric fluids

6. August 1, 1825 Experiments
Tied ¼ ounce food to string and dangled food in stomach hole.
Beef
Salted beef
Salted pork fat
Raw beef
Boiled corn beef
Stale bread
Raw cabbage

7. August 7, 1825 Temp of stomach – 100 degrees C
Removed juice and placed in test tube
Put corned beef directly in juice and piece in stomach
Stomach = 2 hours to digest
Vial = 10 hours to digest
Repeated with chicken (digests slower then beef)
RESULT - GASTRIC JUICE HAS SOLVENT PROPERTIES

8. September 1825
St Martin Returns to Canada and gets married. He has 6 children

9. June 1829 – Experiments resume
How does weather impact digestion?
Does gastric juice need heat to work? (YES!)
Does anger alter digestion? (YES!)
April 1831– Experiments Stop

10. Late 1832 – final experiments
Tried different foods
Raw oysters
Sausage
Mutton
Boiled salted fat pork
Did not look at SALIVA’s impact on digestion!!!

11. April or may 1833
St Martin returns to Canada after the death of his child.
St Martin and Dr. Beaumont never saw each other again
Dr Beaumont published a book – “Experiements and Observations on the Gastric Juice and the Physiology of Digestion”

12. In the end. . . St Martin lived to be 83 years old (1880)
Married and had 6 children
Went back to fur trading and farming
Dr Beaumount died in 1853 after slipping on ice and hitting his head.

13. Digesting System Introduction