Beaumont's contribution to gastric psychophysiology: a reappraisal

William Beaumont's monograph on the physiology of digestion which was first published in 1833, has become a classic in its field. In a series of experiments over a 10 year period on Alexis St. Martin, a 19 year old Canadian voyageur with a traumatic gastric fistula, Beaumont was the first to describe many important aspects of the digestive process. In two of the 238 experiments Beaumont noted gastric physiological changes induced by emotional arousal, these being bile reflux and delayed gastric emptying. Elsewhere in the book, but not in experimental context, Beaumont referred to non-specific changes in coloration and secretion of the mucous membrane induced by emotion. Modern gastric psychophysiological research has shown that emotional arousal increases, and withdrawal decreases, gastric acid secretion. It has also been shown conclusively that emotion can cause a reflux of bile into the stomach and it may delay gastric emptying. Although the main thrust of Beaumont's work was physiological, he must be credited with being the first investigator to draw attention to the role of emotional arousal in the digestive process.