Johann Jakob Wepfer, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetJohann Jakob Wepfer
Swiss pathologist
Date of Birth: 23-Dec-1620
Place of Birth: Schaffhausen, Switzerland
Date of Death: 26-Jan-1695
Profession: pharmacologist, pathologist
Nationality: Switzerland
Zodiac Sign: Capricorn 
About Johann Jakob Wepfer
- Johann Jakob Wepfer (December 23, 1620 – January 26, 1695) was a Swiss pathologist and pharmacologist who was a native of Schaffhausen. He studied medicine in Strasbourg, Basel and Padua, and in 1647 returned to Schaffhausen to practice medicine.
- Here he maintained a practice that extended into southern Germany.
- During his career he also served as a private physician and consultant to various members of royalty. Wepfer is remembered for his work involving vascular anatomy of the brain, and the study of cerebrovascular disease.
- He was the first physician to hypothesize that the effects of a stroke were caused by bleeding in the brain.
- He also mentioned that these symptoms could be caused by a blockage of one of the main arteries that supply blood to the brain.
- From postmortem studies, he provided information on the carotid and vertebral arteries that supply the brain with blood.
- in 1658 he published a classic treatise on strokes, titled Historiae apoplecticorum. Wepfer made important contributions in the fields of experimental pharmacology and toxicology.
- He conducted experiments on the toxicity of water hemlock, hellebore, monkshood, and warned against the usage of arsenic, antimony, and mercury in medicine.
- In the fields of pharmacology/toxicology he published an influential work on water and poison hemlock called Cicutae aquaticae historia et noxae (1679).
- This contained the first reports of toxicity of plants from the genus Cicuta, ultimately attributed to compounds such as cicutoxin and oenanthotoxin.
- Since 2005 an annual award for stroke research, named after Wepfer, is awarded at the European stroke conference.,
Read more at Wikipedia
See Also
- Famous People's Birthdays on 23 December, Switzerland
- Famous People's Birthdays in December, Switzerland
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- Famous pathologist's Birthdays on 23 December, Switzerland
- Famous pathologist's Birthdays in December, Switzerland