of food to a string and inserting it through the hole into the stomach. Every few hours, Beaumont would remove the food and observe how well it had been digested. Beaumont also extracted a sample of gastric acid from St. Martin's stomach for analysis. In September, St. Martin ran away from Beaumont and moved to Canada, leaving Beaumont to concentrate on his duties as an army surgeon, but Beaumont had St. Martin caught so Beaumont could continue to exhibit him. Beaumont also used samples of stomach acid taken out of St. Martin to "digest" bits of food in cups. This led to the important discovery that the stomach acid, and not solely the mashing, pounding, and squeezing of the stomach, digests the food into nutrients the stomach can use; in other words, digestion was primarily a chemical process and not a mechanical one. During 1826 and 1827, Beaumont was stationed at Fort Howard in Green Bay, Wisconsin. In 1828 he was transferred to St. Louis, Missouri. While en route, St. Martin was ordered to stop at Fort Crawford in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, to serve as Beaumont's handyman again. In early 1831, Beaumont conducted another set of experiments on St. Martin's stomach, ranging from the simple observation of normal digestion to the effects that temperature, exercise, and even emotions have on the digestive process. Beaumont published the account of his experiments in 1838 as Experiments and Observations on the Gastric Juice, and the Physiology of Digestion. He and St. Martin parted ways, with Beaumont eventually returning to St. Louis and St. Martin to his home in Quebec province, Canada. On and off for the next twenty years, Beaumont tried to get St. Martin to move to St. Louis, but the move never occurred. Death Beaumont died in 1853 in St. Louis, Missouri as a result of slipping on ice-covered steps. He was buried at Bellefontaine Cemetery. His papers are held at Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine Library, and copies are held at the National Library of Medicine. Legacy Several institutions are named for William Beaumont, including: Beaumont Elementary School in Green Bay, Wisconsin Beaumont High School in St. Louis, Missouri William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan William Beaumont Hospital in Troy, Michigan William Beaumont Hospital in Grosse Pointe, Michigan (formerly Bon Secours Hospital, but merged into the Beaumont hospital system and renamed) William Beaumont Army Medical