St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-12-03

of the operation" Another, ian able
bodied American of thirty-two." said he |
had some knowledge of medicine and |
surgery, and was willing to undergo the !
operation on condition that he be in
formed in advance as to the nature
thereof, and that he be secured as re-
CARDS payment OF the $5.000-to himself !
if be survived. and to those whom he |
should designate in case of fatal ter
mination. .
The reporter took a handful of the
letters and started out to interview the
writers. One man SAID he had never |
earned over SIS week, and the 5000 !
was big temptation. He was not suf-
fering from any special misfortune, but
was willing to take the risk. An En-
glshman, who had formerly been
flannel manufacturer III his own coun-
try, had failed in business, and had
been sent to America by firm of wire
makers as agent. He had secured an
ADVANCE of money, which was to be
paid out of his commissions. but the
wire sent had proved unstable, and
now he was heavily in debt.
He was well educated, strong and
health by, and saw in the $1,000 way of
getting out of debt should he live. or at
least of providing for his wife should
the worst eventuate. A third had for
years been cripple, one of his legs
having been shrunken as the result of a
clumsily-performed operation. Other
wise he was in good condition, and was
quite ready to face the knife, the OILY
thing he feared being mental impair
ment.
Or the whole number seen, and they
numbered dozens. the only ones who
would consent to having their names
made public were Arnold Betke. of 1876
Bedford avenue. Brooklyn, and Freder-
| lex Schultz, of Johnson street, the
same city. The former, a well-educated
young man of superb physique, has
been out of work tor months. His aged
| mother, who is janitreSs of a fiat in
viii CHI they live. is in extremely poor
/, health, and it was with the view of Sc
curing for her needed medical treat
ment that Betke applied for the chance
| to risk his life.
Schultz had studied medicine in Ber-
lin, where his father had died intestate,
! forcing the student and his young wife
| to come to this country. He had only
! been able to secure odd jobs, and his
wife and baby were in need. A tele-
! graph operator who had for several
! years suffered from complaint which
| the doctors did not seem to understand
was willing to take the risk in the hope
| of Surviving the operation and securing
| successful treatment for his disease. A
| gambler who was among the applicants
| said he had all his life been accustomed
to taxing desperate chances, and being
| at present ION his uppers" was "willing
| to play one more long shot"
A FAMOUS CASE IN MICHIGAN.
| Physicians who were seen neSitated
| to give unqualified answers as to the
pugilists chances of surviving the Or
deal which awaits him, although in the
main they seemed to think that with
| Skillful operators he was likely to live
They all referred to the st. Martin case,
which has already been alluded to-
Alexis st. Martin was young man in
! the service of the American Fur CON-
pany at what is now Mackinaw, Mich.
| In the year 1922, when he was eighteen
years of age, he was accidentally shot,
| receiving the whole charge of musket
| in his left side, which fractured two
ribs, lacerated the lungs and entered
the stomach. DR.. William Beaumont,
the surgeon in charge, restored him in
year to good health, with all his for
mer strength and spirits. But the open
| ing in his body was never closed.
From 1926 to 1888 Dr. Beaumont began
a series of experiments on the stomach
of st. Martin, studying Its operations,
! secret lions, etc., his patient during all
| these years presenting the remarkable
| spectacle of man in good health, good
appetite, and good spirits, with an ap-
! erture opening into his stomach through
which the whole action of the orggn
might be observed. The doctor thus
discovered the presence of the gastric
| juice in the human subject, and demon
| Strated beyond doubt its chemical
| properties and digestive powers.
He made other interesting discoveries:
for instance, that the color of the mem
brane of the stomach is pale pink, that
its appearance is velvet-like and that
| the stimulus of food causes the gastritic
| follicleS to enter into activity and to
pour out the acid gastric juice. The
doctor would poke food into the stomach
and draw it out and examine it at diff
ferent stages of digestion. One day he
would watch the action of the stimu-
ants. another day the action of the
sedatives. He tried opium. alcohol; he
experimental with raw meat, boiled
meat, .brolled meat, baked meat, roast
| meat and fried meat.
He found that sailed pork, when raw
| or broiled, was digeSted in from three
to three and quarter hours. The same
article fried took four and one-quarter
! hours, while fresh pork, fat and lean,
roasted, required five and one-quarter
hours. On the other hand, boiled fresh
beef. with little salt. was digested in
two and one-quarter hours, while old
salted beef required four and one-quar-
ter hours when dressed in the same
manner. Fish digested quicker than
meat; boiled milk quicker than unboiled
milk. In spite of his wound, in spite
of the indignities to which his stomach
had been subjected, st. Martin sur
vived his doctor and lived to good OLD
age.
Thus it will be seen that the opera
ton is not one before which man of
nerve would shrink if the reward Of
fered seemed to him to be an adequate
one.