In 1822, a young man, Alexis St. Martin, was accidentally shot in the stomach. Miraculously, he survived, and even more amazing was the hole between his chest and stomach became permanent. This allowed a US Army surgeon - William Beaumont - to spend a decade studying St. Martin’s digestive system, making Beaumont the "Father of Gastric Physiology". This is the very weird story of the gunshot that changed medicine.

Sources

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/grisly-story-human-guinea-pig-alexis-st-martin-180963520/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexis_St._Martin

https://www.sciencehistory.org/stories/magazine/probing-the-mysteries-of-human-digestion/

Images:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_Beaumont_painting.jpg

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Portrait_of_Alexis_St._Martin,_aged_81_Wellcome_L0011057.jpg

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