ut nausea. Montegre mentions a distinguished member of
the Faculty of Paris, who, by his own volition and without nausea or
any violent efforts, could vomit the contents of his stomach. In his
translation of "Spallanzani's Experiments on Digestion" Sennebier
reports a similar instance in Geneva, in which the vomiting was brought
about by swallowing air.

In discussing wounds and other injuries of the stomach no chapter would
be complete without a description of the celebrated case of Alexis St.
Martin, whose accident has been the means of contributing so much to
the knowledge of the physiology of digestion. This man was a French
Canadian of good constitution, robust and healthy, and was employed as
a voyageur by the American Fur Company. On June 16, 1822, when about
eighteen years of age, he was accidentally wounded by a discharge from
a musket. The contents of the weapon, consisting of powder and
duck-shot, entered his left side from a distance of not more than a
yard off. The charge was directed obliquely forward and inward,
literally blowing off the integument and muscles for a space about the
size of a man's hand, carrying away the anterior half of the 6th rib,
fracturing the 5th rib, lacerating the lower portion of the lowest lobe
of the left lung, and perforating the diaphragm and the stomach. The
whole mass of the discharge together with fragments of clothing were
driven into the muscles and cavity of the chest. When first seen by Dr.
Beaumont about a half hour after the accident, a portion of the lung,
as large as a turkey's egg was found protruding through the external
wound. The protruding lung was lacerated and burnt. Immediately below
this was another protrusion, which proved to be a portion of the
stomach, lacerated through all its coats. Through an orifice, large
enough to admit a fore-finger, oozed the remnants of the food he had
taken for breakfast. His injuries were dressed; extensive sloughing
commenced, and the wound became considerably enlarged. Portions of the
lung, cartilages, ribs, and of the ensiform process of the sternum came
away. In a year from the time of the accident, the wound, with the
exception of a fistulous aperture of the stomach and side, had
completely cicatrized. This aperture was about 2 1/2 inches in
circumference, and through it food and drink constantly extruded unless
prevented by a tent-compress and bandage. The man had so far recovered
as to be able to walk and do light wo