Johann Konrad Peyer

Johann Konrad Peyer, a Swiss anatomist, born in Schaffhausen, Dec. 26,1653, died there, Feb. 29,1712. He graduated as M. D. at Basel in 1681, practised medicine there, and became professor of eloquence and afterward of logic and natural philosophy. He was distinguished for original dissections and observations on the closed glands of the mucous membrane of the small intestine; those which are collected into plates or patches are known by the name of Peyer's glands, or Peyer's patches. His description of these structures is given in the Exercitatio Anatomico-medica de Glandulis Intestinorum earumque Usu et. Affectionibus (8vo, Schaffhausen, 1677). He also published Methodus Historiarum Anatomico-medicarum (Paris, 1678); Pceonis et Pythagorm Exercita-tiones Anatomicce et Medicce (Geneva, 1681); and a treatise on comparative anatomy entitled Merycologia, she de Ruminantibus et Rumi-natione (Basel, 1685).

Johann Matthias Schrockh

Johann Matthias Schrockh, a German church historian, born in Vienna, July 26,1733, died in Wittenberg, Aug. 2, 1808. He was successively professor of philosophy, of poetry, and of history at Wittenberg. His most important works are Christliche Kirchengeschichte (35 vols., Leipsic, 1768-1803; 2d ed. by Tzschirner, vols, i.-xiv., 1772-1825), and Kirchengeschichte seit der Reformation (8 vols., Leipsic, 1804-'9; 2 vols, added by Tzschirner, 1812).

Johann Muller

See Regiomontanus.

Johann Nepomuk Ender

Johann Nepomuk Ender, an Austrian painter, born in Vienna, Nov. 3, 1793, died there, March 16, 1854. He studied at the Vienna academy, and when he had hardly attained his majority won its four leading prizes. He accompanied the Hungarian count Szecheni on a journey through Greece and Turkey in 1818. In 1820 he went to Italy, and in Florence and Rome produced a number of works from Biblical and historical subjects. In 1827 he returned to Vienna, after spending a year in Paris. The more noteworthy of his works are his great cartoon of the entry of Christ into Jerusalem; "Judith," exhibited in 1824; and several frescoes of much merit, one of which, the last of his important productions, is in a chapel of the church of St. Stephen in Vienna.

Johann Nikolaus Von Dreyse

Johann Nikolaus Von Dreyse, a German mechanician, inventor of the needle gun, born at Sommerda, Prussia, Nov. 20, 1787, died Dec. 9, 1867. He was the son of a locksmith, and worked at his trade in Germany till 1809, when he went to Paris, and was employed there in a rifle factory till 1814. After his return to Sommerda he made models for machinery, and established an ironware factory. In 1824 he received a patent for the manufacture of percussion caps, and in 1825 one for a steam engine worked by a generator instead of a boiler. In 1827 he completed his invention of the muzzle-loading, and in 1836 that of the breech-loading needle gun, under the patronage of the Prussian government. The breechloader was first employed in the Prussian service in 1840. In 1841 he established a large factory, which between that time and 1863 produced 300,000 needle guns, and employed in 1865 about 1,500 persons. He was ennobled in 1864.