The physiology of digestion, with experiments on the gastric juice / By William Beaumont.

  • Beaumont, William, 1785-1853.
Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The physiology of digestion, with experiments on the gastric juice / By William Beaumont. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the same opening, the last three inches in length. They were all entire, and evidently separated from the false ribs. The discharge, pain and irritation, during the four or five weeks these cartilages were working out, greatly reduced the strength of the patient, produced a general febrile habit, and arrested the healing process of the original wound. Directly after the discharge of the last cartilage, in- flammation commenced over the lower end of the ster- num, which, by the usual applications, terminated in . a few days in a large abscess, and from which, by laying it open two inches, I extracted another cartilage, three inches in length. The inflamation then abated ; and in a day or two another piece came away, and the discharge subsided. | To support the patient under all these debilitating circumstances, I administered wine, with diluted mu- riatic acid, and thirty or forty drops of the tincture of assafcetida, three times a day; which appeared to pro- duce the desired effect, and very much improved the condition ef the Stalad: On the third of January, 1823, I stented another cartilage from the opening over the sternum, an inch and a half long; and on the fourth another, two inches and a half in length, an inch broad at one end, and less than half an inch at the other. This must have been the ensiform cartilage of the sternum. After this the sinus closed, and there was no return of inflam- mation. From the month of April, 1323, at which time he had so far recovered as to be able to walk about and do light work, enjoying his usual good appetite and diges-