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The WCMSSM
Annual Beaumont Lecture
2007 Speaker
List of Past Speakers
The William
Beaumont Lecture of WCMSSM was established in 1922 and has been held
annually from its inception through 1999. The William Beaumont
Foundation was initially funded from the residue of the WCMSSM
“Patriotic Fund” from World War I. The monies appropriated were to
underwrite a series of annual wintertime lectures on “various medical
scientific subjects.” The first lecture was given January 30, 1922, on a
Monday evening, by W. G. MacCallum, MD, who was Professor of Pathology
at Johns Hopkins University. He had succeeded Dr. Welch, who at the time
considered the “dean of American pathologists.” Dr. MacCallum was noted
also as an outstanding speaker. His subject was “Inflammation.” He
presented the lecture at 11:00 AM and again at 8:30 PM on Tuesday,
January 31, 1922. 
The new lecture
was named after US Army Surgeon William Beaumont, because the year 1922
marked the 100th anniversary of Beaumont’s initial
observations on Alexis St. Martin about gastric physiology at Fort
Mackinac, Michigan. St. Martin suffered a gunshot wound to the abdomen
in the spring of 1822, which he survived under the medical care of Dr.
Beaumont. The injury caused a gastric stoma. This permitted Beaumont to
observe St. Martin’s gastric function for several years, and led to his
published findings in 1833 (the Plattsburg Edition) entitled
“Experiments and Observations on the Gastric Juice and the Physiology of
Digestion.” WCMSSM possesses two copies of that first edition printed by
F. P. Allen. It should be noted that in 1825, the Michigan Territorial
Medical Society made Dr. Beaumont an honorary member.
The first Annual
WCMSSM Beaumont lecturer epitomized the scientific intent and stature of
the lecture series that has continued over the 83-year history of the
event. It is appropriate to record the names and lecture titles of the
outstanding physician scientist lecturers (see list). To single out for
special recognition any one of them over others would appear unjust,
except to recall the first and to draw attention to the five lecturers
who were recipients of the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology (those
names have an asterisk in the listing) as well as those lecturers who
were WCMSSM members (those names have a double asterisk in the
listing).
The Beaumont
Medal, which had been struck previously for WCMSSM was reproduced for
WCMSSM in 1984. The Alex Delveccio Company of Detroit produced 25
enlarged medals as paperweights. The WCMSSM Beaumont Lecture Medal has
been given to each subsequent lecturer, beginning in 1985. The first to
receive it immediately following his lectureship was Dr. Allen C.
Steere.
Many of the
Beaumont lectures have been summarized or reprinted in the Detroit
Medical News (previously the WCMS Bulletin). During the last
two decades, the lectures have been audiotaped or videotaped.
This lecture has
been an annual WCMSSM event since 1922. We expect that Dr. William
Beaumont will be commemorated annually in perpetuity at WCMSSM to honor
his medical achievement at the early military outpost on Mackinac
Island. There will be many more outstanding medical advances by
physician scientists deserving of recognition and honor for their
investigative work toward the improvement of health.
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