De beginjaren van de microscopie aan de geneeskundige faculteiten te Utrecht en Leiden

Abstract

The first years of microscopy in the medical faculties at Utrecht and Leiden In the middle of the nineteenth century microscopic investigations regained their value for medical science. The medical faculties in the Netherlands tried to follow this development. In the university of Utrecht J.L.C. Schroeder van der Kolk (1797-1862) professor of anatomy and physiology, founded a tradition of microscopic research, upon which a group of closely collaborating investigators could build. This group consisted of the professors of chemistry. G..L Mulder (1802-1880), zoology, P. Harting (1812-1885) and physiology. F.C. Donders (1810-1889). Their main contributions were in the field of the histochemistry. With Donders, and later on W. Koster (1834-1907), professor of pathological anatomy, microscopy became an integral part of the curriculum. The situation in the Leiden medical faculty was completely different. G. Sandifort (1779- 1848), professor of anatomy and physiology, first of all a gross anatomist, had little interest in microscopy compared with his interest for the anatomical collection. This tradition was continued by his successors H. Halbertsma (1820-1865) and T. Zaaijer (1837-1902), although the former had been appointed in order to modernize teaching in anatomy and physiology. Microscopy was introduced first under J.A. Boogaard (1823- 1877) — private university teacher in microscopy and pathological anatomy (1854) and since 1848 professor of pathological anatomy — and. later on, especially under A. Heynsius (1831-1885), professor of physiology, since 1848.