Johann Georg Wirsung

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Johann Georg Wirsung (born July 3, 1589 in Augsburg , † August 22, 1643 in Padua ) was a German anatomist.

Johann Georg Wirsung was the son of an Augsburg doctor. After studying philosophy and medicine in Paris and Altdorf he was in 1630 in Padua Dr. med. doctorate , where he worked from 1630 to 1642 as a prosector and professor of anatomy .

In 1642 he discovered the duct of the pancreas named after him in humans (Wirsung duct, Ductus pancreaticus Wirsungi ), which he mistakenly believed to be a lymphatic vessel of the intestine. Wirsung coined an anatomical drawing of this duct of the pancreas on a copper plate.

Wirsung was shot from behind in front of his house one night in 1643 while he was talking to friends. Several suspects came into question, but he was probably murdered by Giacomo Cambier, who, with the help of Wirsung, was deposed as procurator of the German artist faculty in Padua because there were doubts about his character. Other suspects named were Wirsung's mentor, Johann Wesling (1598-1649), who would have been jealous of Wirsung's discovery of the pancreatic outlet. He was charged but acquitted. Another suspect was the student Moritz Hoffmann, who was present at the decisive section of a murderer, where Wirsung made his discovery and, years after Wirsung's death, claimed that he had previously shown him the outcome at the section of a bird.

literature

  • Alfred Max Schirmer: Contribution to the history and anatomy of the pancreas . Dissertation . University of Basel, 1893.
  • JJ Peumery: Johann Georg Wirsung, the mortally envied anatomist (1600-1643). In: Presse Med. 74 (2), 1966 Jan 8, pp. 83-85.
  • A. Gamba, G. Ongaro: Anatomes peritissimus: Johann Georg Wirsung's unknown experiments on the circulation of the blood. In: Physis: rivista internazionale di storia della scienza. Firenze, 30 (2-3), 1993, pp. 231-242.
  • Richard Carter: Assassination of Johann Georg Wirsung (1589-1643); Mysterious Medical Murder in Renaissance Padua. In: World Journal of Surgery . New York, March 22 (3), 1998, pp. 324-326.
  • JM Howard, W. Hess, W. Traverso: Johann Georg Wirsung (1589-1643) and the pancreatic duct: the prosector of Padua, Italy. In: Journal of the American College of Surgeons . August 187 (2), 1998, pp. 201-211.
  • Sanajay A. Pai: Our Medical Past. Death and the doctor. In: Canadian Medical Association Journal. December 10, 167 (12), 2002, pp. 1377-1378. ( pdf )
  • Giancarlo Flati, Åke Andrén-Sandberg: Wirsung and Santorini : The Men Behind the Ducts. In: Pancreatology. 2 (1), 2003, pp. 4-11.
  • Wolf-Dieter Müller-Jahncke : Wirsung, Johann Georg. In: Werner E. Gerabek : Encyclopedia Medical History. De Gruyter, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 1500 f.
  • Ernst Gurlt:  Wirsung, Johann Georg . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 43, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1898, p. 521 f.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Axel Hinrich Murken : Johann Georg Wirsung. In: Wolfgang U. Eckart , Christoph Gradmann (Hrsgg.): Doctors Lexicon. From antiquity to the present , 3rd edition Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2006, p. 348, ISBN 978-3-540-29584-6 (print), ISBN 978-3-540-29585-3 (online). Medical dictionary: Johann Georg Wirsung
  2. ^ Clifford Pickover, The Medical Book, Sterling Publ. 2012

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Wirsung, Johann Georg
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German anatomist
DATE OF BIRTH July 3, 1589
PLACE OF BIRTH augsburg
DATE OF DEATH August 22, 1643
Place of death Padua