DURING the past 10 years the articles appearing in the medical literature on the subject of massive hemorrhage from peptic ulcer have been numerous, but rather contradictory. 1 The policies advocated have ranged from nonoperative treatment regardless of circumstances to the opposite extreme of operation on all patients actively bleeding from a peptic ulcer. In 1946 2 Heuer reported the experience of this clinic with 337 patients admitted in a 14-year period (1932 to 1946) for massive hemorrhage believed due to a peptic ulcer. His review brought out the fact that the mortality rate for the group operated on immediately was only 10%, whereas for those operated on after hemorrhage for 48 hours or longer the mortality rate rose to 70%. He concluded that if operation was to save life it should be undertaken within 48 hours. He also stressed, however, that 288 of the 337 patients, or 85.5%, recovered