AUTHOR: Beaumont, William (1785-1853) TITLE: Experiments and observations on the gastric juice, and the physiology of digestion, by William Beaumont. IMPRINT: Plattsburgh: printed by F.P. Allen, 1833. COLLATION: 280 p. ill. 23 cm. NOTES: Based upon observations of the digestive processes of Alexis St. Martin. “The first edition of one of the landmarks of American medical literature, and a milestone which led prominently to the experiments of Pavlov almost a century later. This crudely printed and illustrated book, printed at the author’s expense in an edition of 1000 copies (500 sets of sheets were later issued with a new titlepage), has been characterized as ‘the greatest contribution ever made to the knowledge of gastric digestion’ (DAB). Through Beaumont’s experiments and observations of gastric fistula sustained by Alexis St. martin, he was able to establish many facts with regard to gastric physiology and chemistry, the majority of which are still regarded as sound. Dr. Thomas H. Johnson, in his introduction to the Grolier American One Hundred, describes Beaumont’s study as ‘a book that pushed back the frontier of the mind’; and Sir William Osler stated, ‘To the Medical Bibliographer there are few more treasured Americana…’” — William Reese, catalogue no. 160 REFERENCES: Grolier’s One Hundred Influential American Books, 38; Dibner, Heralds of Science, 130; Horblit 10; The Celebrated Collection of Americana formed by the Late Thomas Winthrop Streeter, 4155; Osler 1972; Garrison-Morton 989; Howes, Wright, U.S.iana (1650-1950), B291; Greenly, Michigan 67; Heirs of Hippocrates 1411; Noble Medical Books, p. 187; Sparrow p. 35; Waller 805; Wellcome II p. 123. KEYWORDS: 1. Digestion. 2. St. Martin, Alexis (1797?-1880) LOCATION: QP151.B36 1833 OTHER CALIFORNIA LOCATIONS: UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UCLA, UC San Diego, UC San Francisco