Dr. William Beaumont (and the gastric fistula)
In memory of Dr. Beaumont, the subject of the Radiolab episode titled "Guts". http://www.radiolab.org/story/197112-guts/
He is known for performing experiments on a man who was shot in the stomach. The wound never fully healed, leaving a passage into his stomach. Dr. Beaumont would then place food in the man's stomach to observe it being digested. The Plaque ignores the part about Dr.Beaumont making this man an indentured servant. It reads:
"IN THAT PART OF LEBANON KNOWN AS VILLAGE HILL SOME THREE MILES
FROM THIS SPOT ON THE ROAD LEADING FROM LEBANON TO WILLIMANTIC
WAS BORN ON NOV 21, 1785
DR WILLIAM BEAUMONT
A SURGEON IN THE UNITED STATES ARMY WHO LATER BECAME ILLUSTRIOUS
AS A PIONEER INVESTIGATOR OF THE PHYSIOLOGY OF DIGESTION THROUGH
HIS PAINSTAKING AND VALUABLE OBSERVATIONS CONTINUED THROUGHOUT
MANY YEARS AND LARGELY AT HIS OWN COSTS UPON THE PERSON OF
ALEXIS ST MARTIN WHO RECOVERED UNDER THE SKILLFUL TREATMENT OF
DR BEAUMONT FROM A SEVERE GUNSHOT WOUND OF THE ABDOMEN WHICH
HEALED WITH A PERMANENT GASTRIC FISTULA.
IN APPRECIATION OF HIS VALUABLE SERVICES TO SCIENCE AND TO
HUMANITY THIS TABLET HAS BEEN PLACED HERE BY
THE BEAUMONT MEDICAL CLUB"
Submitted by: Tim Malone