"Observations on Six Cases of Acute Perforating Ulcer of the Duodenum." Reprinted from the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, Vol. CLVII, no. 7, February 13, 1908, pp. 217-219.

8 pp. Lower blank margin of pages creased. Small piece torn from blank vertical margin of first leaf. Good. First Edition. Presented at the Clinical Meeting of The Massachusetts General Hospital, Jan. 10, 1908. "The younger and lower-level surgeons did most of the night emergencies at the MGH, and on one Christmas night (1901), Codman made a preoperative diagnosis of a perforated duodenal ulcer and successfully operated on the patient. It was the first case thus diagnosed and operated on at the Massachusetts General Hospital and stimulated his interest in this problem, then thought to be very unusual. . . . The February 13, 1908, edition of the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal contained two nonorthopaedic articles by Codman. . . . The second was the first of his numerous articles on duodenal ulcers. In this first paper on duodenal ulcers [offered here], Codman reported on six cases of acute perforation of the ulcers, beginning with the one noted above when he was taking the night call. . . . After this paper, the duodenal ulcer would be Codman's main interest for the next several years. . . . Between 1908 and 1911, Codman would publish nine seminal papers on duodenal ulcer. In this country, he would become one of the experts on the topic. . ." (Mallon, Ernest Amory Codman, pp. 39-41). Codman and Harvey Cushing had been friends since Harvard Medical School days in the early 1890s. On January 3, 1911, Cushing wrote to Codman: "I have been going over the M.G.H. 'publications' and rereading your duodenal papers. They are simply 'bang up!'--by far the best things that have been written, and written--what's more--in by far the most effective, readable, and telling way. You're a wonder as I've always secretly thought. The only reason they didn't make you the prospective surgeon to the Brigham was that it would have looked like a family affair--architect et al. [Stephen Russell Hurd Codman was the architect of the Brigham Hospital and was the cousin of Ernest Amory Codman]. I wish they'd do it now and let me back out" (Fulton, Harvey Cushing, p. 317).…