ABSTRACT
Non-surgical treatment of acute phlegmonous appendicitis has been receiving increasing attention in recent years, representing a reversal of policy. The appendectomy came into vogue at the beginning of the 20th century. It is true that prompt surgical intervention in all patients with appendicitis or an indication thereof almost guarantees success, but it gradually came to be forgotten that this intervention was not always necessary. In this article we will document the historical development of this disease and its treatment, and return to the original reports made by pathologist Reginald Fitz and the internist William Osler to show that their opinion was not black and white. Many surgeons in the Netherlands were also initially more restrained. In the course of time recognition of the natural progression of the disease vanished, until new developments placed this more sharply in the limelight.
Subject(s)
Appendectomy/history , Appendicitis/history , Conservative Treatment/history , Acute Disease , Appendicitis/therapy , Disease Progression , History, 20th Century , Humans , NetherlandsABSTRACT
Betweem 1865, when the new Dutch Health Acts introduced the legal monopoly of the academic medical profession, and 1879, when a new law for higher education provided the basis for the integration of the non-academic teaching of medicine within the universities, non-academic students could pass state medical examinations in order to become a physician. In this article I studied in detail the first phase of this examination route, when students were questioned about their knowledge of mathematics, physics, chemistry and the life sciences. The state commissions responsible for taking these examinations have certainly played an important role in the process of the introduction of scientific medicine into the universities as well as the introduction of the sciences into secondary schools, preparing scholars for academic medical training. Moreover, because scientists, physicians and secondary school teachers participated together in these commissions, the science examination boards linked the several educational echelons and divisions in science and medicine concerned with this process of transformation of the medical professions and medical science in the 1860s and 1870s.
Subject(s)
Education, Medical/history , Physics/history , History, 19th Century , Legislation, Medical/history , NetherlandsABSTRACT
The dental profession before 1865 has been described with the help of sources from the 19th century, in combination with prosopographical research. During this period, dentists had no exclusive rights in dentistry: other surgical professions were also involved both with its theory and practice. Their specialised colleagues comprised a group of 137 dentists, largely related to a few Jewish families. This characteristic, underlined by their intensive migration and training within the family, had been responsible for the divergent position of the dentists in Dutch medical legislature of the 19th century. While in the medical profession the organisation and structure (1865) was the first te be revised, followed by a reorganisation of education (1876); in dentistry the recruitment and education had to be reformed (1865-1876) before the building up of a new professional structure. This process speeded up by the rapid mortification of the ancient group of dentists.
Subject(s)
History of Dentistry , History, 19th Century , Humans , Jews , NetherlandsSubject(s)
Obstetrics/history , Women's Health , Women/history , History, Modern 1601- , NetherlandsABSTRACT
In this article we collected and commented on the passages referring to children's diseases and paediatrics in the notebooks of the well-known Dutch statesman and poet Constantijn Huygens. This remarkable source for the history of paediatrics describes the psychological and physical development of Huygen's five children and the diseases with which they were afflicted.