Warning: some of the content of this film is unsettling and may be inappropriate for younger viewers or anyone who has just eaten or is about to eat food.
Created for the medical profession, “Human Gastric Function” is “an experimental study of ‘Tom,’ a unique patient with an extensive gastric fistula” (an abnormal opening in the stomach or intestines that allows the contents to leak). It serves as a record of a 15-year study carried out between 1941 and 1952, and shows how the stomach membranes respond to food, acids, anger and serenity, and explains other phenomena discovered during study, including histological changes. The lead author of the study, Steward Wolf, from the Department of Medicine at the University of Oklahoma, opens the film by explaining how 60 years earlier, the subject suffered an accident resulting in the gastric fistula, transforming the man “into an incomparably good experimental subject for the study of the subject.” The opening is first revealed at mark 04:25, as doctors remove gauze and bandages and expose his gastric mucosa, the mucous membrane of the stomach, as it protrudes from the skin. For nutrition, the patient must insert a funnel into the opening of membrane, with the process shown starting 06:10. He chews his meal, then removes the moist mixture from his mouth and drops it into the funnel so it can enter his stomach. A variety of experiments are shown through the film, from causing a petechial hemorrhage (at mark 10:10) to removing gastric juices with a syringe and studying how the delicate mucosa is able to protect itself from those juices. (The answer, it is explained at mark 11:15, is a thick layer of mucus). All the experiments gave researchers great insight into normal gastric function.
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD and 2k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
