Johann Conrad Brunner

Johann Conrad Brunner (1653 to 1727) was a Swiss anatomist remembered above all for his experimental work on the pancreas and for the duodenal glands that carry his name. Born in Diessenhofen, he studied medicine at Schaffhausen, Strasbourg, Amsterdam, London and Paris, trained at Schaffhausen under Johann Jakob Wepfer, who also became his father-in-law, and took his doctorate at Strasbourg in 1672. From 1686 he was professor of anatomy and physiology at the University of Heidelberg, and in 1716 he became personal physician to Charles III Philip, Elector of the Palatinate. In 1683 he removed the pancreas from a dog and observed extreme thirst and excessive urination, which pointed toward a link between the pancreas and diabetes, although he could not give a theory for the connection. In 1687 he described the glands in the submucous layer of the duodenum that were later named Brunner's glands. He died in Mannheim in 1727.