Johann Jakob Wepfer

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Johann Jakob Wepfer, copper engraving by David Herrliberger , 1748

Johann Jakob Wepfer (born December 23, 1620 in Schaffhausen ; † January 28, 1695 ibid) was a Swiss city doctor, personal physician and anatomist .

Life

His father was Georg Michael Wepfer (1591-1659), who was born in Diessenhofen , and was a councilor and councilor in Schaffhausen.

Johann Jakob Wepfer studied medicine in Strasbourg , Basel , Padua and Rome from 1638 to 1646 . In 1647 he received his doctorate from the University of Basel and then practiced as a city doctor in Schaffhausen. 1650 monastery doctor from Rheinau . In 1675 he became the personal physician of the Dukes of Württemberg and the Margrave of Baden-Durlach and in 1685 of the Elector of the Palatinate .

He is mentioned in connection with his work on the anatomy of the blood vessels and the brain . He was the first doctor to suggest a link between a stroke and bleeding in the brain. He mentioned the possibility that a blockage of a major artery in the brain could be triggering the symptoms. In 1658 he published a collection of classic stroke treatments called Apoplexy .

Wepfer also contributed to the advancement of experimental pharmacology and toxicology. He made new investigations into the effects of poisons on the heart and circulation. For the development of modern drug and poison testing, he carried out important (animal) experiments on the toxicity of water hemlock , arsenic and monkshood etc. His most important work in this area is the Historia cicutae aquaticae published in 1679 .

His extensive library was sold to Leiden for 600 guilders after the death of his grandson in 1747 .

JJ Wepfer-Strasse in Schaffhausen

Johann Jakob Wepfer's estate with medical histories, reports and letters is in the manuscript department of the Zurich Central Library .

JJ Wepfer-Strasse near the cantonal hospital in Schaffhausen was named after Johann Jakob Wepfer . A copper engraving with his portrait by Johann Georg Seiller from 1688 after a painting by Johann Melchior Roos has survived.

He maintained contacts and exchanged knowledge through the Free Schaffhausen Medical School and the Academia Naturae Curiosorum, founded in Schweinfurt under Johann Lorenz Bausch in 1652, which he promoted through his own descriptions and research, topics were, for example, the treatment of the medina worm or the description of the bezoars . He also exchanged letters with the Augsburg city doctor Georg Hieronymus Welsch and Johann Konrad Brunner . Even before his pupil and later friend Johann Conrad Peyer , who also came from Schaffhausen, Wepfer found the Peyer plaques, later named after Peyer, on animal intestines and, before his pupil Johann Konrad Brunner, provided an initial description of the human duodenal glands later named after Brunner.

His son was the doctor Johann Conrad Wepfer (1657–1711), who also became a member of the “Leopoldina” academy of scholars.

Honors

After him, the plant genus Wepferia is Heist. ex Fabr. from the umbelliferae family (Apiaceae).

Works

  • Joh. Jacobi Wepferi Historia Cicutae aquaticae: qua non solum plantae huius venenatae structura naturalis, vires et operationes deleteriae in hominibus ac brutis adcurate describuntur, sciteque explicantur; sed et aliorum quamplurimorum venenorum qualitates funestae aperiuntur . Officina Episcopiana, Basileae 1716 Digitized edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf

literature

  • Julius PagelWepfer, Johann Jakob . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 41, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1896, p. 740 f.
  • Pietro Eichenberger:
    • Johann Jakob Wepfer and his attitude to blood letting. A draft letter to Georg Frank von Frankenau . In: Gesnerus. Swiss Journal of the History of Medicine and Sciences. Volume 24 (1967), pp. 108-134 (digitized version )
    • Johann Jakob Wepfer . In: Schaffhauser Contributions to History. Biographies Volume III . 46th year 1969, pp. 335–345 ( PDF file; 577 kB )
  • Information from the Schaffhausen Natural Research Society, Vol. XXVIII. 1963/67
  • Jos Damen: 'Van dolle kervel en waterscheerling. De nalatenschap van Johann Jakob Wepfer in de Universiteitsbibliotheek Leiden '. In: Aangeraakt. Boeken in contact with hun lezers . Leiden, 2007 (digitized version)
  • Axel Karenberg : Wepfer, Johann Jakob. In: Werner E. Gerabek , Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 1472.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ [1] Karl Schmuki, Georg Michael Wepfer , In: Communications of the Natural Research Society Schaffhausen, Vol. XXVIII. 1963/67, (Schaffhauser contributions 68, 1991, pp. 225-235) PDF online on the website of the Schaffhausen City Archives
  2. Andreas-Holger Maehle: Johann Jakob Wepfer , in: Wolfgang U. Eckart and Christoph Gradmann (eds.): Ärztelexikon. From antiquity to the present , 3rd edition 2006 Springer Verlag Heidelberg, Berlin, New York p. 343. doi : 10.1007 / 978-3-540-29585-3 .
  3. Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymous plant names - Extended Edition. Part I and II. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin , Freie Universität Berlin , Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-946292-26-5 doi: 10.3372 / epolist2018 .