In 1857, William Brinton (1823–67) published the first monograph written in English devoted entirely to the medical phenomena of ulcer of the stomach. Brinton was an influential lecturer on forensic medicine and physiology at St Thomas's Hospital, London. Spread over two hundred pages, his On the Pathology, Symptoms and Treatment of Ulcer of the Stomach contains an unprecedented exploration of the disease's pathology, its incidence, detailed observations of its potentially fatal consequences, symptoms, aetiological theories and guidance on the most effective forms of therapeutics, concluding with an extensive set of case studies. What is remarkable about the text was that such a detailed body of work could be published devoted entirely to a complaint that is virtually unheard of even thirty years earlier. In fact, prior to the 1820s, ulcer of the stomach had been discussed only occasionally, even within medical texts on the stomach.

Between the 1820s and 1850s, a systematic conceptual framework was rapidly constructed around the complaint which facilitated the general acceptance of ulcer of the stomach as a unique, distinguishable disease entity. Brinton's work represents one successful outcome of pathological enquiries which aimed to understand the problems of the stomach through close scientific examination. Throughout the early nineteenth century, pathological anatomy elevated itself into an increasingly influential medical speciality which expressed a determined interest in forging new ways of knowing the stomach. This was made possible due to the essentially organ-focused approach of the discipline.