From the pathologic standpoint perhaps the chief interest in the pancreas lies in its relationship to diabetes. The association of true diabetes with diseases of the pancreas is not an infrequent one and was noted by Cowley as early as 1788. It remained, however, for Minkowski and von Mering,1 in 1889, to establish a definite anatomic basis for pancreatic diabetes. These investigators extirpated the whole of the pancreas from certain animals and succeeded in reproducing the typical manifestations of diabetes as observed in man, and their conclusions have been confirmed since by many others.
In 1901 Opie2 contributed a noteworthy contribution to the pathologic histology of diabetes, directing attention especially to changes in the islands of Langerhans. The structure and location of these islands, the rich supply of capillary vessels in them, the intimate relationship of the cells to the capillary network and the absence of