Abraham Pieter Fokker (1840-1906) en de serumtherapie bij difterie

Abstract

Abraham Pieter Fokker (1840-1906) and the serum-therapy of diphtheria A.P. Fokker was appointed professor of hygiene and pharmacology at the Groningen university in 1877. He was a prolific writer and during more than two decades reported on new bacteriological findings in the medical journal Nederlandsch lijdschrifi voor geneeskunde. He supported the doctrine of bacterial heterogenesis, the formation of bacteria from dead organic material. He opposed the 'dogmatic' belief of the 'orthodox" bacteriologists in bacteria as specific elements in disease. Therefore he mistrusted the value of the treatment of diphtheria with specific antitoxic serum, as was introduced by Behring and by Roux (1894). Still Fokker used this therapy because no better remedy for diphtheria was available.In 1899 the editor of the Nederlandsch tijdschrift voor geneeskunde, Manuel Straub (1858- 1916), praised the results of the serum-therapy and reproached Fokker with his disbelief in the antitoxic serum as well as in the bacteriological doctrine. The ensuing conflict led to the resignation of Fokker as contributor to the journal. Fokker claimed that bacteriologists had no eye for new achievements such as the discovery of a viral disease, the tobacco mosaic virus disease, by Martinus Willem Beijerinck (1851-1931).