Copy 2

Experiments and observations on the gastric juice, and the physiology of digestion / By William Beaumont. Reprinted from the Plattsburgh edition, with notes by Andrew Combe.

  • Beaumont, William, 1785-1853.
Date:
1838
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Experiments and observations on the gastric juice, and the physiology of digestion / By William Beaumont. Reprinted from the Plattsburgh edition, with notes by Andrew Combe. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    16/356 (page 8)
    ties points of doctrine in regard to which positive proofs were previously inaccessible, he has given to what was doubtful or imperfectly known, a fixed and positive value, which it never had before, and which being once obtained, goes far to furnish us with a clear, connected, and consistent view of the general process and laws of digestion. Other physio- logists have attempted to effect the same end by expe- riments performed upon the lower animals, but these are open to so many forcible objections, that we can- not always adopt their conclusions, even where they seem to be most clearly deduced. Not to mention the cruelty inseparable from the performance of such experiments, the pain which the animal suffers ne- cessarily disturbs the regularity of the function under examination, and in a greater or less degree vitiates the results. And even if this were not the case, the difference between the digestive organs in man and in the lower animals is so great, that it would often be unsafe to assume conclusions as applicable to the former which have been verified only in the latter. In perusing the present volume, it is proper to bear in mind the circumstances under which the ex- periments were made, and the account of them was written. Dr Beaumont was far from enjoying the leisure, resources, and scientific co-operation so easily accessible to the physiologists of any of our Euro-