The Annual Reports of the Mount Sinai Hospital from the 1850s, and the Moun
t Sinai Hospital Reports for 1897 - 1906, make it possible to trace the dis
charges of gastroenterological inpatients, and (for a few years) of:outpati
ents. Fully computerized diagnostic data have only been available since 198
6. In the 19th century, about 20% of the outpatients had digestive disorder
s, the commonest of which were gastralgia/gastritis/dyspepsia, gastroenteri
tis, oropharyngeal complaints and constipation. A similar proportion of inp
atients had digestive diagnoses, but the four disorders listed above: decre
ased markedly in the second half of the 19th century, so that by the turn o
f the century the commonest: diseases were typhlitis (appendicitis), hemorr
hoids and other anal problems. By the 1990s, digestive diseases accounted f
or only 5% of total admissions, hepatobiliary diagnoses being the commonest
group. Some cancers such as gastric and esophageal showed little change, w
hile colorectal increased markedly. Some newly recognized diseases, such as
peptic ulcer, waxed and then waned, while colitis and regional enteritis c
ame and have continued to increase, other new diagnoses, such as autointoxi
cation and visceroptosis, flashed into prominence and then disappeared tota
lly, presumably because they were nondiseases.