Inquisitive Doctor, Reluctant Patient

Mackinac State Historic Parks

The centerpiece for an interactive touch screen kiosk featured in the American Fur Company Store / Dr. Beaumont Museum on Mackinac Island, this exhibit includes a nine-chapter menu that tells the fascinating story of the world’s first direct studies of human digestion. In 1822, a young voyageur named Alexis St. Martin was wounded by an accidental gunshot in the American Fur Company Store. The black gun powder cauterized the abdominal wound and prevented it from healing. Dr. William Beaumont, Fort Mackinac’s post surgeon, treated his patient over a period of time, and conducted the feeding-digestion experiments and studies, advancing world understanding of the digestive process. Future Media Corporation produced the video and animations, recorded and synced the narration and programmed the touch screen.