[Two letters to Alexander Numan by J.H. van Opdorp, surgeon at Arnemuiden (Province of Zealand)]. / Twee brieven aan Alexander Numan van J.H. van Opdorp, heel-en vroedmeester te Arnemuiden.

The periodical, Veeartsenijkundig Magazijn, that Numan had started in 1828 caught the attention of a surgeon in a small town in the neighbourhood of Middelburg. In his two letters he tells about his experiences in animal healing, leaving it to Numan which use he eventually might make of these observations. In the first letter (1829) he tells how he as a ship's doctor was shipwrecked in the Indian Ocean, and after being put ashore on a small island, had successfully performed an operation on an ass, suffering from a very large praeputial tumor. In his second letter (1830) he tells about his practice in Arnemuiden where he settled after leaving the navy. As there were no trained veterinarians in the surroundings, he extended his care also to animals. l.a. he reports on a case of a cow suffering from an enlarged heart, and this item was, indeed, published by Numan. A biographical sketch of Van Opdorp is added. His name is known in the medical history of The Netherlands, because he was the most fervent adherent of the teachings of Broussais, a professor of medicine in Paris. Although these teachings found many followers in the French-speaking countries, the propaganda made by Van Opdorp through a periodical, devoted to this so called physiological medicine, did not meet with success in The Netherlands.