Cornelis Solingen (1641-1687) en de techniek van het trepaneren

Abstract

C. Solingen and his views on making surgical instruments C. Solingen (1641-1687) may be considered as one of the pioniers in the field of designing a new generation of surgical instruments in the second half of the 17th century. These instruments had a few important properties in common. They were simple and easy to handle, made of a good quality of steel and they lacked the useless curls, characteristic of the 16th and early 17th century surgical instruments. In 1684 Solingen published a book titled Manuale operatien der chirurgie in which he described the instruments he used in various operations. In this book he combined his description with full-size illustrations of his instruments. This gave the reader the opportunity to copy the instruments, use them and test them during the operation. The view of Solingen on form and function of an instrument was based on a long experience at see as a ships-surgeon on several vessels belonging to the Dutch fleet. In this position he had had to work under very difficult circumstances in which one needs instruments, both handy and simple to use. In his own country Solingen's ideas were followed rather quickly, but in France for instance, instrumentmakers kept making instruments with needless ornaments as described by A. Pare and J. Scultetus until far into the 18th century. It was not until the end of the 18th century, that ideas of simplicity, where surgical instruments are concerned, were generally accepted. Solingen bequested his collection of surgical instruments to the university of Leiden and some of them can be identified with the help of the illustrations in his Manuale operatien. They are now in the possession of Museum Boerhaave, Leiden.