[Study of the pancreas and its inflammatory diseases from the 16th-19th century]

The author describes the development of medical research since the 16th century based on a literary review of the study of the anatomy, physiology and pathology of the pancreas. The anatomical basis was first created in the 17th century when the pancreatic duct was discovered (J.C. Wirsung 1642) and the duodenal papilla was described (J.K. Brunner 1683, C.B. Holdefreund 1713 and A. Vater 1750). The physiological function of the pancreas as a secretary gland was first experimentally investigated by R. Graaf (1671). A few decades later the enzymatic breakdown of nutrients by pancreatic juice was demonstrated in animal experiments (G. Valentin 1844, Cl. Bernard 1849). The earliest case reports of patients dying of suppurative inflammation or tumours of the pancreas were presented by S. Alberti (1578), J. Schenck (1600), and N. Tulp (1641). The presence of fatty necrosis in acute pancreatitis was first indicated by W. Balser (1882), and the autodigestive genesis was suspected by H. Chiari (1896). The discovery in the 19th century that diabetes mellitus occurs in dogs following total pancreatectomy (J. von Mering and O. Minkowski 1890) and the first operation on a pancreatic cyst by "marsupialisation" (C. Gussenbauer 1883) as well as the emergence of the connection between cholelithiasis and acute pancreatitis (E.L. Opie and W. St. Halsted 1901) laid the foundation for 20th century research.