Terrifying & True | The Man With a Hole in His Stomach: Beaumont’s Human Experiments

William Beaumont and Alexis St. Martin stand at the center of one of the most famous and ethically troubling stories in the history of human experimentation. After an accidental musket blast on Mackinac Island in 1822 tore through St. Martin's ribs, lung, diaphragm and stomach, Army surgeon Beaumont saved his life. The wound healed into a permanent gastric fistula - a living opening through which Beaumont could observe human digestion directly.

Beginning in 1825, Beaumont tied food to silk thread and lowered it into St. Martin's stomach, extracted gastric juice through tubes, measured temperature and recorded the effects of illness...