BRUNN VON HAMMERSTEIN [BRUNNER], Johann Conrad (1653-1727), preses, FRANK, Georg Friederich, resp.

According to the imprint this is a reprint of the original dissertation of 1687 printed in Heidelberg. The present edition is also printed by Buchta, but in Schwabach, in 1688. Both editions of this important paper seem to be very rare. Krivatsy (NLM) lists the 1688 edition only, and Waller had a xerox copy only. The duodenal glands had been previously described by Brunner’s father-in-law, Johann Jacob Wepfer, in 1679, but it was Brunner’s inaugural dissertation at Heidelberg in 1687 that received popular attention, and his name has been attached to the duodenal glands ever since. “Johann Conrad Brunner of Diessenhofen, Switzerland, discovered Brunner’s glands in the duodenum of dogs and man in 1672, publishing his results in 1687. He believed that they secreted a juice similar to that of the pancreas. He also made experimental excisions of the spleen and pancreas in the dog 1683, keeping the animal alive, with normal digestion, for some time after. In one of these excisions he found that the dog had extreme thirst and polyuria, which would seem to be a pioneer experiment on the internal secretions pf the pancreas” (Garrison).

Collation: Pp 24, one engraved plate.

Binding: Brown spine strip.

References: Garrison-Morton 975 (1687); Krivatsy, NLM, 1888; Foster, M. Lectures on the History of Physiology (1901), pp 162-65; Major, Ralph 'Johann Conrad Brunner and His Experiments on the Pancreas’ in Annals of Medical History, 3rd Ser. vol III, (1941), pp 91-100. Waller 1565 (photo copy only).