Johann Jakob Wepfer

Johann Jakob Wepfer ( born December 23, 1620 Schaffhausen, † January 26, 1695 ) was a Swiss pathologist and pharmacist.

Life

His father was a native of Unterdießen Mayrhofen George Michael Wepfer (1591-1659), ratchet driver and councilor in Schaffhausen.

Johann Jakob Wepfer studied medicine in Strasbourg, Basel and Padua. Since 1647, he practiced in Schaffhausen. He is mentioned in connection with his work on the anatomy of the blood vessels and the brain. He was the first doctor who suspected the link between stroke and bleeding in the brain. He mentioned the possibility that the blockage of a main artery of the brain could trigger the symptoms. In 1658 he published a collection of classic treatment options for stroke with the title apoplexy.

Wepfer also contributed to the further development of experimental pharmacology and toxicology. He made innovative studies on the effect of poisons on the heart and circulation. He led major (animal) experiments on the toxicity of water hemlock, arsenic and monkshood by etc.. His most important work in this area is the aquaticae 1679 published Historia cicutae.

The estate of Johann Jakob Wepfer with case histories, reports and letters located in the Manuscript Department of the Central Library Zurich.

After Johann Jakob Wepfer JJ Wepfer - street was named in the vicinity of the Cantonal Hospital in Schaffhausen. An engraving of his portrait after a painting by Johann Melchior Roos is obtained.

Contacts and exchange of knowledge he held inter alia by the Free Schaffhauser medical school with the Academia Naturae Curiosorom founded in Schweinfurt Johann Lorenz Bausch 1652 he promoted through their own descriptions and research topics examined include the treatment of Guinea worm or the description of bezoars. Correspondence, he also led the Augsburg city physician Georg Hieronymus Welsch and Johann Conrad Brunner. By also derived from Schaffhausen Johann Conrad Peyer he was a friend.

Works

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