ABSTRACT
It is always sobering to reflect back on history and appreciate how much was accomplished with seemingly primitive tools, and especially to realize that very few ‘original’ ideas have not been considered, attempted, tried, and perhaps dismissed many years before their time. Such is definitely the case with islet transplantation for diabetes. The first clinical attempt at islet transplantation in the treatment of diabetes occurred on December 20th, 1893, 28 years before the discovery of insulin, and was published in the following year in the British Medical Journal (1) (Fig. 1). Dr WatsonWilliams and his surgical colleague Mr. Harsant, working at the Bristol Royal Infirmary in England, transplanted three pieces of freshly slaughtered sheep’s pancreas, “each the size of a Brazil nut,” into the subcutaneous tissues of a 15-year-old boy dying from uncontrolled ketoacidosis. Their
Figure 1 Original article header in the British Medical Journal, December 1894. Source: From Ref. 1.
