This study has explored the British experience of gastric illness in the broad period 1800 to 1945, addressing gaps in the existing historiography of disease and medicine. It now appears clear that the stomach is an organ that persistently occupied a prominent historical position in the medical sphere as well as within wider socio-cultural arenas. The Victorian preoccupation with digestion and indigestion; the centrality of the stomach to narratives of physiological and surgical medicine; and the prominence of dyspepsia and peptic ulcer within the medical experience of the Second World War have been presented as neglected, but highly significant, topics. In doing so, I have aimed to explore the inter-relationships between various medical disciplines in order to reveal reductionism to be a highly complex and contested entity. Forms of gastric illness have been presented as central to the discourses which emerged, as competing areas of medicine fought for space and professional authority. I have also provided a study which is suggestive that chronic illness is just as worthy of analytical attention as the epidemic diseases regularly discussed by medical historians.

A further observation worth making is that there still exists great research potential in this area of enquiry. The last half of the twentieth century offers ample research opportunities. This book has only touched upon the rise of the stress model within explanations of gastric ulcer, although it is worth noting that this was to have a huge impact upon both medical and popular thinking well into the 1980s.