same, to a point due north from Sturgeon Bay; thence south to the said bay; thence by the nearest line to the western boundary of the said territory, as the same was established by the act of Congress, passed, January 11, 1805, entitled 'An act to divide the Indian Territory into two separate governments'; thence with the same, to a point due west from the southwestern corner of the said county of Macomb; thence due east to the southwestern corner of the said County of Macomb; thence with the western boundary of the said county, to the place of beginning, into a separate county, to be called the county of Michilimackinac.

"And I do establish the seat of justice of the said county of Michilimackinac, at the Borough of Michilimackinac.

"Given under my hand, at Detroit, the twenty-sixth day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eighteen, and of the Independence of the United States, the forty-third.

CHAPTER XVII

DR. WILLIAM BEAUMONT AND ALEXIS
ST. MARTIN

'N 1822 an accident occurred to an employee of the American Fur Company at Mackinac Island which was destined to have results of world-wide importance. The victim was a young voyageur, named Alexis St. Martin. The story of the accident and of the subsequent physiological investigations which the case afforded to Dr. William Beaumont, the army surgeon then at Fort Mackinac, is unusually well told in the scholarly and interesting volume on the Life and Letters of Dr. William Beaumont, by Dr. Jesse S. Myer, published by the C. V. Mosby Company of St. Louis, which has been generously drawn upon in the account here given: 1

1

"Early in the month of June, 1822," says Dr. Myer, "Indians and voyageurs were returning to Mackinac with the results of their winter's catch. The little village had awakened from its long sleep, and the beach was again crowded with tents and wigwams and a seething mass of strange humanity. New arrivals of canoes and bateaux were being heralded, and friends who had been stationed far apart in the wilds of the North were familiarly greeting one another. Some were pitching tents in which to sleep when not otherwise engaged in carousing; newer ar

1 Life and Letters of Dr. William Beaumont, by Dr. Jesse S. Myer, p. 102. The C. V. Mosby Company, St. Louis.

rivals were unpacking pelts, watching their appraisal by the officers of the fur company, and eagerly awaiting the figures that were to indicate the results of their winter's work; others, whose fate had already been decided, were engaged in games or watching the fight of two of the brigade bullies for the proverbial "black feather"; others still were crowding into the retail store of the American Fur Company in an effort to buy buckskin coats, moccasins, flannel shirts, and gaudy neck bands. It was in this little throng that a tragedy occurred on June 6th which was to leave its imprint on the pages of medical history for all time to come. A gun was accidentally discharged, and a young voyageur dropped to the floor, with a cavity in the left upper abdomen that would have admitted a man's fist. He proved to be a young French Canadian about 19 years of age, who had recently come down from Montreal, doubtless with one of the expeditions of Mr. Matthews."

Dr. Myer cites the following account of the accident given by an eye witness, Mr. Gurdon S. Hubbard: 2

"The late Major John H. Kinzie had charge of the American Fur Company's retail store at Michilimackinac. I was in the habit of assisting him occasionally when a press of customers needed extra clerks. The store comprised the ground floor near the foot of Fort Hill, on the corner of the street and the road leading up to the fort. The rear part of the store was underground, built of stone, which is still standing.

"This St. Martin was at the time one of the American Fur Company's engagés, who, with quite a number of others, was in the store. One of the party was holding a shotgun (not a musket), which was accidentally discharged, 2 Ibid., p. 103.

the whole charge entering St. Martin's body. The muzzle was not over three feet from him-I think not over two. The wadding entered, as well as pieces of his clothing; his shirt took fire; he fell, as we supposed, dead.

"Dr. Beaumont, the surgeon of the fort, was immediately sent for, and reached the wounded man within a very short time-probably three minutes. We had just got him on a cot and were taking off some of his clothing.

"After Dr. Beaumont had extracted part of the shot, pieces of clothing, and dressed his wound carefully, Robert Stuart and others assisting, he left him, remarking, “The man can't live thirty-six hours; I will come to see him by and by.' In two or three hours he visited him again, expressing surprise at finding him doing better than he anticipated. The next day, I think, he resolved on a course of treatment, and brought down his instruments, getting out more shot and clothing, cutting off ragged ends of the wound, and made frequent visits, seeming very much interested, informing Mr. Stuart in my presence that he thought he could save him.

"As soon as the man could be moved he was taken to the fort hospital where Dr. Beaumont could give him better attention. About this time, if I am not greatly mistaken, the doctor announced that he was treating his patient with a view to experimenting on his stomach, being satisfied of his recovery. You know the result.

"I knew Dr. Beaumont very well. The experiment of introducing food into the stomach through the orifice, purposely kept open and healed with that object, was conceived by the doctor very soon after the first examination."

With the last statement made by Mr. Hubbard, that the wound was purposely kept open for the purpose of experi

menting, the record of the case kept by Dr. Beaumont does not seem to accord. This is pointed out by Dr. Myer, who gives in his book the complete record from which the following extract is made.3

Says Dr. Beaumont: "I was called to him immediately after the accident. Found a portion of the lungs as large as a turkey's egg protruding through the external wound, lacerated and burnt, and below this another protrusion resembling a portion of the Stomach, what at first view I could not believe possible to be that organ in that situation with the subject surviving, but on closer examination I found it to be actually the Stomach, with a puncture in the protruding portion large enough to receive my forefinger, and through which a portion of his food that he had taken for breakfast had come out and lodged among his apparel. In this dilemma I considered any attempt to save his life entirely useless. But as I had ever considered it a duty to use every means in my power to preserve life when called to administer relief, I proceeded to cleanse the wound and give it a powerful dressing, not believing it possible for him to survive twenty minutes. On attempting to reduce the protruding portions, I found the Lung was prevented from returning by the sharp point of the fractured rib, over which its membrane had caught fast, but by raising up the Lung with the front of the forefinger of my left hand I clipped off with my pen knife, in my right hand, the sharp point of the rib, which enabled me to return the Lung into the cavity of the Thorax, but could not retain it there on the least efforts of the patient to cough, which were frequent.

"After giving the wound a superficial dressing, the pa

Ibid., pp. 107-115.