The patriarch of experimental pancreas research is REIGNIER DE GRAAF (1641-1673). He carried out the first experiments with dogs in order to ob- tain fistular secretion (1664). But only few years later, the just arisen interest in the physiology of the pancreas was severely set back by remarks of CONRAD BRUNNER. In 1682, BRUNNER expressed his belief that on the basis of experi- ments he had carried out the pancreas was a vitally unimportant organ...