PEYER, Johann Konrad (1653-1712)

An interesting book on rumination which probably is the first modern book on the comparative anatomy and physiology of digestion. Peyer was born in Schaffhausen in Switzerland. He had been a pupil of Duverney and spent his years of studies in Paris, and in Basle, where he received the doctoral degree in 1687. He settled down and practiced in Schaffhausen and became professor of rhetorics, logics and medicine. During the period when Peyer and his associates were conducting their research in Schaffhausen, the chemical processes governing digestion were unknown. In 1673 at the age of 20 he discovered what had come to be called “Peyer’s patches” or “Peyer’s glands” – noduli lymphatici aggregati – , the lymphoid follicles in the small intestine that play a role in typhoid fever, which was published in Exercitatio anatomica-medica de glandulis intestinorum (1677). His Myrecologia (1685) is an extensive study of the anatomy and physiology of ruminants illustrated with 12 engraved figures of stomachs. Harvey, Boyle, Steno, Malpighi, Brunner, and other famous physiologists of the period are reffered to in the text.

Collation: Pp. (8), 288, (34). With 6 folding engraved plates with 12 figures numbered Icon. I-XII. Title printed in red and black.

Binding: Contemporary paste paper boards, hand written spine label, red edges.

Provenance: Inscription on title page: "J. J. Min. Refform. Halensium".

References: Skinner, The Origin of Medical Terms (1961), p,321; Dobson, Anatomical Eponyms, 169; Krivatsy, NLM, 8875.