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.
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