USA > Connecticut > New London County > Lebanon > Historic Lebanon; highlights of an historic town > Part 6
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"He was gifted with strong natural powers, which, working up- on an extensive experience in life, resulted in a species of natural sagacity, which, I suppose, was something peculiar in him, and not to be attained by any course of study. His temperament was ar- dent, but never got the better of his instructed and disciplined judgment, and whenever and however employed, he ever adopted the most judicious means of attaining ends that were honorable. In the sick room, he was a model of patience and kindness, his in- tuitive perceptions, guiding a pure benevolence, never failed to inspire confidence, and thus he belonged to that class of physicians whose very presence affords Nature a sensible relief." Sir William Osler quoted these words in an address on Dr. William Beaumont in the city of St. Louis in 1902. The occasion honored, not so much the gentral practitioner of the city, but the "backwoods physiologist" whose sagacity and insight had done so much for the advancement of medical knowledge.
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What was it that he did? The story is one of unselfish devotion to the study of a then little known function, that of the processes of digestion, and especially the functions of the gastric juice. The incident giving this young man his opportunity was one which not all men would have been quick to seize upon. It involved years of patient research, tabulation, even financial sacrifice. It is the story of opportunity knocking at a young man's door and the young man having the wisdom to recognize his opportunity .. He was not one of the "great" working in a highly equipped laboratory, only a rather insignificant army surgeon, poorly equipped, but ready when his chance came.
On June 6, 1822, Dr. Beaumont was stationed with the United States troops at the Island of Michilimacinac where the waters of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron meet. The troops were occupied keeping the Indians in check and patrolling the border of the fron- tier. Trappers and hunters made the place a center for trade. In the company's store a young French Canadian, Alexis St. Martin, was standing when a shot gun was accidentally discharged, the whole charge entering St. Martin's body. He was standing not more than three feet from the gun. His body took, not only the shot, but the wadding as well. His clothing caught on fire. He fell, sup- posedly dead.
Within a few minutes Dr. Beaumont, the army surgeon, was by his side. He extracted as much of the shot as he could, together with pieces of wadding and clothing, and dressed the wound. He believed the man would not live more than thirty-six hours at the most. In two or three hours he returned to find the man doing much better than he had dared hope. The next day he worked over the man, getting out more shot and bits of cloth and wadding, and dressing the edges of the wound. He then expressed the belief that the man would recover.
Dr. Beaumont's own description of the wound follows: "The wound was received just under the left breast, and supposed, at the time, to have been mortal. A large portion of the side was blown off, the ribs fractured and openings made into the cavities of the chest and abdomen, through which protruded portions of the lungs and stomach, much lacerated and burnt, exhibiting altogether an appalling and hopeless case. The diaphragm was lacerated and a perforation made directly into the cavity of the stomach through which food was escaping at the time your memorialist was called
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to his relief. His life was at first wholly despaired of, but he very unexpectantly survived the immediate effects of the wound, and necessarily continued a long time under the constant professional care and treatment of your memorialist, and, by the blessing of God, finally recovered his health and strength."
Were this the only happy ending of this accident it would be of great credit to the young army surgeon. After some ten months, when the wound was partially healed, the civil authorities, not wishing to provide for his care and keep any longer, declared him a common pauper and ordered his removal to his own home in Canada, some fifteen hundred miles distant. Dr. Beaumont vehe- mently protested this decision. His protests were not heeded. He saw that the only way to save the man's life, for the journey would certainly prove fatal, was to take him into his own home where he cared for him at his own expense for nearly two years at the end of which time St. Martin was able to walk a little and help himself.
Then began the series of physiological experiments which have made the name of William Beaumont known the world around in the medical profession. Wherever he was ordered to go in the con- stantly changing scenes of an army surgeon, he took Alexis St. Martin with him. Once Alexis ran away and returned to his home in Canada where he married and had two children. Dr. Beaumont succeeded in securing his return with his family, bearing the ex- pense himself. The wound was in the same condition as in 1825 when he had left. Experiments were then continued until 1831 when Alexis and his family set off for Canada again, due to his wife's homesickness. Alexis, in spite of his still open wound, was strong enough to set out on the long trek in a canoe. Later he re- turned to Dr. Beaumont who carried on further experiments until the final ones in 1833. All this time Dr. Beaumont paid him fixed wages out of his pocket.
Alexis St. Martin lived to be eighty-three years old. He had to take much ribbing about the hole in his stomach which never did completely close. He was not, however, averse to capitalizing on it by travelling about exhibiting it. He died a poor man, a man much given to drink.
Dr. Beaumont had St. Martin under observation for four periods of differing lengths of time. He was a meticulous observer. His journal shows how carefully he recorded each experiment, how cautious he was in pronouncing any final judgments as the result
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of his work. In 1833 he published a volume descriptive of his work which he entitled "Experiments and Observations on the Gastric Juice and the Physiology of Digestion". That book laid the foun- dation for a new and more complete understanding of physiology. It attracted wide attention at home and abroad. Its contents finally worked their way into the standard medical text books even of today.
The man and the opportunity met. Here was the opportunity in the form of a man who had had a wound which left a perforation about two and a half inches in circumference through which the contents of the stomach oozed out unless retained by a compress. Eventually a small fold of the coats of the stomach appeared, in- creasing in size until it was no longer necessary to use the compress. This fold adapted itself to the aperture so as to prevent the dis- charge of the contents of the stomach when it was full, but which was easily depressed with a finger at any time. This was the "win- dow" in Alexis St. Martin's stomach.
Dr. Beaumont began his experiments in May, 1825. He would extract some of the gastric juice by depressing the valve in the aper- ture and withdrawing the juice through a tube. He found that when the stomach was free of food it contracted upon itself. When he introduced the tube, the fluid began to flow, increasing as he moved the tube about. Probably this was the first time that gastric juice and its rate of flow in the stomach had ever been studied and analyzed. He sent specimens to various individuals for analysis, including Benjamin Silliman, the noted scientist of Yale.
Then followed a long series of observations. He fed his subject various kinds of food noting exactly how much time was taken by the stomach to digest each kind. His observations ranged through many areas, hunger and thirst, satisfaction and satiety, digestion by the gastric juice, the motions of the stomach, the uses of the bile and pancreatic juice.
The account of one experiment, taken at random from scores and scores recorded in his journal, will give an idea of his method and exactness. It reads:
"Dec. 16. At 2 o'clock, P.M. - twenty minutes after having eaten an ordinary dinner of boiled, salted beef, bread, potatoes and turnips, and drank a gill only of pure water, I took from his stomach, through the artificial opening, a gill of the contents, into an open mouthed vial. Digestion had evidently commenced, and was per-
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(Courtesy of the Library)
DR. WILLIAM BEAUMONT
From portrait by Chester Harding in the Medical Library of Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri.
(Courtesy of Miss Lotta E. Hale)
BIRTHPLACE OF DR. WILLIAM BEAUMONT Etching By Dr. Herbert Toms
ceptibly progressing at the time. This vial and contents were im- mediately placed in a basin of water, on the sand bath, at 90° or 100°, and continued there for five hours.
"The digestion of the contents continued to progress, until all was completely chymified.
"At 7 o'clock - five hours after eating his dinner - I took out a gill of pure chyme; no particles of undigested food appearing in the mixture.
"Very little difference was perceptible between this last parcel and that in the vial, digesting on the bath. The stomach had di- gested a little faster and more perfectly than the vial."
Then he proceeds to interpret the significance of this experiment to him. "In this experiment, it seems, that a quantity of aliment, taken out of the stomach twenty minutes after having been eaten, had a sufficient admixture of gastric juice to ensure its perfect di- gestion when placed on the bath. An ordinary moderate meal, taken into a healthy stomach, is sooner disposed of than most phys- iologists are aware of; and in this case, it is probable that a suf- ficient quantity of gastric juice had been secreted in twenty minutes, to digest the whole quantity of aliment in the stomach."
Thus he proceeded with his experiments, carefully recording every detail, but never making a dogmatic finding. He held his conclusions until many experiments had been made. One is struck throughout his journal by the humility of this man who was pio- neering in a most important field of physiology.
Lebanon has a right to be proud of this "backwoods physiolo- gist". To quote the concluding words of Sir William Osler in his address before the St. Louis Medical Society, October 4, 1802: "He has a far higher honor than any you can give him here - the honor that can only come when the man and the opportunity meet - and match. Beaumont is the pioneer physiologist of this country, the first to make an important and enduring contribution to this science. His work remains a model of patient, persevering inves- tigation, experiment and research, and the highest praise we can give him is to say that he lived up to and fulfilled the ideals with which he set out and which he expressed when he said: 'Truth, like beauty, when 'unadorned is adorned the most' and, in prose- cuting these experiments and inquiries, I believe I have been guided by its light.'"
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Chapter 8 TWO FAMOUS LEBANON SCHOOLS
The men who made Lebanon famous believed in education though in the earliest days there is no mention of any public or private school. Children received what education they could from their parents, and, if they showed signs of promise, were then placed under the tutelage of the minister of the town who grounded them in Latin and Greek and other subjects necessary to fit them for college. Thus Governor Trumbull, as we have seen, received his education.
Governor Trumbull felt the need for an adequate school in Lebanon. His eldest son had reached the age of six. The governor decided to establish a school and secured the cooperation of twelve other citizens. Its purpose was to be "for the education of our own children, and such others as we shall agree with. A Latin Scholar is to be computed at 35s. Old Tenor, for each quarter, and a read- ing scholar at 20s. for each quarter - each one to pay according to the number of children that he sends and the learning they are improved about, whether the Learned tongues, Reading and writ- ing, or Reading and English only."
Thus began the famous Tisdale School, carefully supervised by its founders, especially Jonathan Trumbull. Here all the Trum- bull children, including the girls, were given, what was for that day, a good education. John Trumbull, the artist, in his "Rem- iniscences" writes of the school: "My native place was long cele- brated for having the best school in New England, (unless that of Master Moody in Newburyport, in the judgment of some, have the precedence.) It was kept by Nathan Tisdale, a native of the place, from the time when he graduated at Harvard to the day
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of his death, a period of more than thirty years, with an assiduity and fidelity of the most exalted character, and became so widely known that he had scholars from the West India Islands, Georgia, and North and South Carolina, as well as from New England and northern colonies. With this exemplary man and excellent scholar, I soon became a favorite. My father was his particular friend."
The Tisdale School left its mark upon the whole community. Undoubtedly its strong influence created the high type of leader- ship that marked Lebanon men of that day and sent out into the world staunch leaders in many walks of life. Several of the out- standing ministers in other towns received their early education in this little school. Here future governors and men of state were trained. Here centered a strong intellectual yeast for the town and for all the colonies. Nathan Tisdale was not only an able teacher but a staunch patriot as well. No boy could sit under his teaching and listen to the admonitions of Dr. Solomon Williams without soaking up a strong dosage of patriotic fervor.
The inscription on the tombstone of Nathan Tisdale reads:
Reader,
as thou passest, drop a tear to the memory of the once eminent American Instructor, Nathan Tisdale, a lover of Science. He marked the road to useful knowledge. A friend to his country, he inspired the flame of Patriotism. Having devoted his whole life, from the 18th year of his age, to the duties of his profession, which he followed with distinguished usefulness to Society, he died Jan'y 5th, 1787, in the 56th year of his age.
A school that deserves an even more extended comment had its beginnings in the second or North Parish at just about the time that the Tisdale School was started. The pastor of the North Par- ish (now Columbia) was the Rev. Eleazer Wheelock, born in Wind- ham, Connecticut, in 1711. His grandfather, for whom he was named, left him a legacy which provided for an excellent education for the youth. After studying under various ministers in prepara- tion for college, he entered Yale, where he rated as one of the best of the classic scholars in the senior class. He graduated in 1733.
The young man had early decided to enter the Christian minis- try. He declined a call to settle on Long Island, but did accept the unanimous call from the North Parish of Lebanon. Soon after
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he commenced his work there the town responded to the revival spirit sweeping the country at the time under the influence of Jona- than Edwards of Northampton. He himself was much in favor of the movement, more so than some of his neighboring pastors. He threw himself wholeheartedly into the work of an evangelist preaching almost daily either at home or in his travels. He became a warm friend of George Whitefield, the evangelist from England, whose mission to this country was not received with enthusiasm in many of the parishes of Connecticut, causing much dissension both for Wheelock and for Whitefield.
Eleazer Wheelock was a man of deep piety and abounding en- thusiasm. The North Parish did not seem to give him a sufficient outlet for all his energy. His salary was meagre, so meagre that he claimed that he had to draw on his own funds to support him- self and family. He came to the conclusion that if the society paid him for only half his time, he was free to look about for some other work to take up the rest of his time.
He started a school in his own home for a small number of stu- dents, a few English boys preparing for college. Then Sampson Occum, a serious minded Indian, came into the picture. He wanted further education. Occum was a Mohegan, born in 1723. He came under the influence of the Great Awakening of 1739 to 1740 and thus entered the Christian faith. He epitomized to Mr. Wheelock an open door of opportunity. Here was a saved Indian. In four years time he was adequately prepared for college though his healtth was so impaired that he was not able to fulfill that ambition. Later, however, he was ordained as a minister of the gospel. He made his living by fishing, hunting and weaving baskets with the other members of his tribe or with the tribes to which he went as a preacher and teacher. He made a real impact upon the Indians, many of them being converted under his influence.
This man, Occum, was the chief cause of what was to prove to be a momentous step for Mr. Wheelock, and to build for him a memorial that will carry his name down the ages. He decided to widen the base of the school in his home and to solicit students from Indian tribes near and far. Before long it became exclusively an Indian School with only a few English youths who were des- tined to go as missionaries to the Indian tribes. By 1762 he had more than twenty Indians preparing themselves to go back to their own tribes to preach and to teach.
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U
(Courtesy of Dartmouth College)
ELEAZER WHEELOCK
J.Benham dei,
A front View of DARTMOUTH COLLEGE, with the CHAPEL & H. 1140
(Courtesy of Dartmouth College)
There had long been a deep concern over the state of the souls · of the pagan Indians in the minds of the pious ministers of that day. Many missionaries were sent out from the settlements to work for varying lengths of time among different tribes. Famous names, such as John Eliot, David and John Brainard, Jonathan Edwards, are recorded among those who gave of their time to try to lift the Indian to a Christian standard of life.
Eleazer Wheelock saw the problem from a different angle. He felt that these sporadic efforts did not go deeply enough. After the missionary had left the Indians would drift back into their old way of life because there was no one to hold up the light for them. His idea was to take selected youths from various tribes, train them thoroughly, away from the temptations of the Indian village, instil in them a deep love for Christianity, and seek to inspire them through a long contact with a civilized way of life. Then he would send them back to live among their own people as teachers, preachers, agriculturalists, under the care of English missionaries who would visit them from time to time and direct their work.
As the popular Dartmouth College song says:
"Oh! Eleazer Wheelock was a very pious man."
He had a profound conviction concerning his mission to teach these Indians. The task he took upon himself was costly, not alone in personal effort, but financially. Again and again he had to use some of his own funds to make up deficits, but he never wavered in his determination to push forward the school.
Wheelock's idea caught fire among ministers and laymen in the colonies, and with groups in England and Scotland who were banded together for the purpose of raising funds for the support of missionaries to the Indians. The conversion of the Indians was a serious matter to them. They felt it a blot on their own souls if they were to allow the Indians to miss the opportunity of salva- tion. These individuals and groups sprang to the assistance of Wheelock. There was, for them, a divine sanction about it all. Nevertheless Wheelock had what President Ezra Stiles called "much of the religious Politician in his Make". Wheelock argued, with some justification, that if half the money spent in building forts and supporting troops against the Indians had been used in con- verting them there wouldn't be the cruelties and tortures of In- dian warfare. Wheelock's voice was raised for the broadcasting of ideas. In that he was far ahead of his day. Worldly men were
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1
approached with this argument and yielded to it when a more pious note would not have been heard at all. He also pointed out that the profit to the Crown would be considerable if the Indians could be won over to a Christian way of life.
Mr. Joshua Moor, a farmer in Mansfield, made the first con- siderable contribution for the school, a house to be used for school purposes, and two acres of land adjoining the home of Wheelock. Because of this generous gift the school was named "Moor's Indian Charity School".
Boys of eleven years of age and up were sent to the school by various missionaries among the Indian tribes. Mohawks, Delawares, Mohegans, Narragansetts, and later, many other tribes were rep- resented. Indian girls were received who were placed in the fam- ilies of the community and taught domestic arts. One of the great friends of the school for a while was Sir William Johnson, superin- tendent of Indian affairs in North America, who sent several prom- ising youths from the tribes in New York.
Mr. Wheelock had found his great mission in life. He gave utterly of himself and his own resources to the cause that was close to his heart. He travelled much through the colonies soliciting funds. He wrote innumerable letters to friends of the school at home and abroad. People responded, but not sufficiently. In a term of eight years he had expended some two thousand, five hun- dred and sixteen dollars, while his gifts amounted to only two thousand, two hundred and sixty-two dollars. The Honorable Scotch Commissioners in Boston and the vicinity, the first public association to assist the school, asked Wheelock to send two Indians, David Fowler and Samuel Occum, to the Oneidas to seek out three likely Indian boys for the school, the society promising to support them. The province of Massachusetts voted "that Dr. Wheelock should be allowed to take under his care six children of the Six Nations," the province to bear the expense of their education, cloth- ing and boarding for one year. This was also done.
It is evident that Dr. Wheelock had a deep paternal interest in these young Indians. He wanted them to be "happy as if they had been at home". He believed that those who took children un- der their care should treat them as though they were their own. As his contemporary biographer, Dr. David M'Clure, wrote: "While other teachers appeared before their pupils as scrupulous legis- lators or stern judges, he was always the gentle and affectionate
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father of his tawny family. .. He was persuaded that the most effectual method to bring them to a friendly and perpetual al- liance, was to conciliate them by kindness, and bind them to us by kind offices. His wisdom and foresight have been manifested by subsequent facts. Those tribes among whom his missionaries and school masters had mostly labored, were friendly to the colo- nies, and generally observed neutrality in the wars with the French, and since, in the late revolutionary wars with Great Britain."
Not all these Indian boys responded favorably to the efforts of Dr. Wheelock and his Indian School. Dartmouth College has is- sued a volume of "Letters of Eleazer Wheelock's Indians" which make good reading. Many of the boys, after returning to their own people, slipped back into the old ways. Drunkenness was a beset- ting sin. There were, however, some bright stars that justified much of what the good man was trying to do.
Of course the brightest star of all was Samuel Occum. When more funds were needed to carry forward the work, Dr. Wheelock, with the concurrence of his board of correspondents in England, decided to send Samuel to England, along with Rev. Nathaniel Whitaker, of Norwich, to solicit contributions. Occum must have been something of a sensation, the first Indian Christian preacher to plead a cause for his people. He spoke effectively in all the major cities of England and Scotland. The Earl of Dartmouth was so deeply impressed that he not only gave most generously himself but secured a contribution of two hundred pounds sterling from the king. This gift gave such a seal of approval to the cause that a fund of over ten thousand pounds sterling was collected in Eng- land and Scotland. Samuel Occum received much of the credit for the success of the undertaking. His excellent English, his fine bear- ing, his unassuming manner, won friends for him and his cause wherever he went.
In 1765 Dr. Wheelock took stock of the situation. As a result of the success of Occum's trip to England, Dr. Wheelock not only possessed an honorary degree from the University of Edinburgh, but he had, what must have seemed to him providential, more ready money in hand than any other educator in this country at that time. He was not wholly satisfied with the results of the school at Lebanon. He felt he was too far away from the Six Nations and from the Indians to the north and in Canada. A disaffection had grown up between him and Sir William Johnson, probably due
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