Alexis St Martin and Dr William Beaumont information sheets

Alexis St Martin was shot accidentally by a musket. The shot pierced his left rear, fracturing ribs and tearing through his left lung and stomach before exiting under his left nipple. The hole didn’t heal correctly and Dr Beaumont was able to investigate digestion in the stomach by pushing on the tissue protruding from the valve, which opened into the stomach. There are other resources on here which contain misconceptions. This one is based on an analysis of the original book written by Dr William Beaumont, and other historic resources, and is factually correct.

This includes two resources:

1. This resource is targeted as KS3 and can be used to teach about digestion as it occurs in the stomach. It can be used as a comprehension task, or as information to support the topic of digestion.
2. This resource is written as a patient information sheet to Alexis St Martin (which would have to be produced if he had taken part in this study today.) Again, it could be used as a comprehension task /information sheet targeted to KS4, but can also be used to teach about ethics.