History You Can Digest

Beaumont, a name known through medical society, wrote the study that made him famous right in our own backyard

Story and photo by Kate Via

In block 50, lot 71 of Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis, lies the remains of a man whose name is forever etched into medical history. An army doctor and physician his entire life, William Beaumont, “The Father of Gastric Physiology,” wrote the study that made him famous in a building on the corner of Margaret and Bridge streets in Plattsburgh.

Though the original building and few other remnants remain, Beaumont’s contributions to medical science and his strong ties to Plattsburgh live on.

"Because of the work he's done in medicine, he's considered to be a real pioneer. Beaumont is in any medical history—you will see his name."

“He was a doctor virtually all his life,” says James Dawson, distinguished service professor of earth and environmental science at SUNY Plattsburgh. “Because of the work he’s done in medicine, he’s considered to be a real pioneer. Beaumont is in any medical history — you will see his name.”

It was for this reason the college decided in the early 1970s to name their newest science building — Beaumont Hall — after him. Then-President Charles Warren asked Dawson to organize the dedication of the building. With the help of the late professor emeritus of history Eugene Link, Dawson conducted a two-day symposium on the history of Beaumont.

Not only does Beaumont have his own academic building, but he also has a medical center — the William H. Beaumont Medical Arts Center — located on Margaret Street, close to where he wrote his study, “Experiments and Observations on the Gastric Juice and the Physiology of Digestion.” A short drive from there, one can also turn onto Beaumont Street.

Born in Lebanon, Conn., in 1785, Beaumont was the second of nine children. His schoolmaster, Silas Fuller, became a medical doctor serving in the War of 1812, and was perhaps the catalyst to the path Beaumont would soon follow.

“Beaumont was born here in Lebanon, but he left when he was 17,” says Donna Baron, director of the Lebanon Historical Society. Beaumont’s next stop was Champlain, where he began studying under Dr. Benjamin Moore. Following his studies, Beaumont apprenticed under Drs. Benjamin Chandler and Truman Powell at St. Albans, Vt. He soon enlisted as a surgeon in the U.S. Army, where he was assigned to the Sixth Infantry Regiment in Plattsburgh.

After the War of 1812 ended, Beaumont left the army and began his private practice in Plattsburgh. But in 1819, with finances tight, he re-enlisted as a post surgeon and was sent to Fort Mackinac on Mackinac Island, where a chance encounter would change his life and the course of medical history forever.

"He asked the man, if in exchange for food and ward, he could stay close to him and monitor his stomach."

There, in 1822, Beaumont met Alexis St. Martin, a French-Canadian trader-trapper, who had suffered a severe, accidental musket wound. Beaumont treated the man’s wound, but expected the injury to be fatal. “Beaumont realized that this man’s stomach wound had a flap of flesh that sort of sealed it, and so when he sealed him up he left an opening,” says SUNY Plattsburgh historian Doug Skopp. “He asked the man, if in exchange for food and ward, he could stay close to him and monitor his stomach.”

This flap, Dawson explains, was what is today called a fistula, an abnormal passageway between two organs or vessels that don’t normally connect.

Beaumont and St. Martin relocated from Fort Mackinac to Fort Niagara, where they began their first experiments.

In a symbiotic relationship, St. Martin submitted to Beaumont’s experiments for 11 years. “Beaumont would have him drink milk or eat meat or eat berries or some other specific element of a diet, and then he would draw acid out of his wounded stomach,” Skopp says. “Based upon the stomach acids, he would then learn about the digestive system.”

Through his experiments with St. Martin, Beaumont discovered that gastric juices have solvent properties and that exercise helps both produce and release these juices, which aid in digestion.

In 1826, Beaumont was assigned to Fort Howard, in Michigan Territory, though at that time St. Martin had returned to Canada where he married and had children. Following Fort Howard, in 1828, Beaumont was transferred to St. Louis, though a four-year stopover left him in Fort Crawford, Wis. In 1829, St. Martin and his wife and family returned to Beaumont, and the experiments continued.

“I don’t think he necessarily had any interest in (digestion) before the opportunity arose,” Baron says. “I think it was mostly good fortune.”

In 1833, Beaumont returned to Plattsburgh, reuniting with his wife, Deborah Green Platt, and their family. He began work on publishing his observations of digestion, which were printed later that year. Following publication and one last Army post at Jefferson Barracks in 1834, Beaumont continued his private practice in St. Louis.

"He left Plattsburgh on the strength of this particular book. His reputation was very high. It was an opportunity that had otherwise never been taken advantage of."

“He left Plattsburgh on the strength of this particular book,” Skopp explains. “His reputation was very high. It was an opportunity that had otherwise never been taken advantage of. Nowadays, if you wanted to ask any gastroenterologist about digestion, they would draw upon information that began coming into science through William Beaumont.”

Though the original building where Beaumont practiced and wrote his famous work is long gone, a plaque commemorating his medical triumph hangs on the wall of what is now Ashley Furniture HomeStore.

“Beaumont is recognized in Plattsburgh by that plaque, and of course by the hall at Plattsburgh State,” Plattsburgh City Historian Jim Bailey says. “This was a big deal in the 1830s, discovering how the stomach works.”

Did you know what made William Beaumont famous?

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