PHYSIOLOGIC STUDIES ON THE STOMACH OF A WOMAN WITH A GASTRIC FISTULA

Abstract

THE CHAIN of circumstances which permits direct observation and study of the interior of the human stomach is rare. In the entire record of medical history it has occurred but four times: (1) in Beaumont's classic study of Alexis St. Martin, first published in 1833,¹ (2) in Richet's study of a patient in 1878,² (3) in Carlson's study of Mr. V. in 1912³ and (4) in Wolf and Wolff's study of Tom in 1940⁴. Each of these was made on a male patient. When the opportunity presented itself to study a patient who had undergone a gastrostomy, we considered it to be of value to add further observations to those which have been made, particularly since our patient was a young woman. The possibility that physiologic activity in the stomach of the female may differ from that observed in the male was suggested by the strikingly