Vervolgd wegens onbevoegde uitoefening der geneeskunst: Hendrik Soeter, heilgymnast te Groningen

Abstract

Prosecuted for illegally practising medicine: Hendrik Soeter, 'heilgymnast' at Groningen. During the eighties of the 19th century several physical education teachers who were engaged in physical therapy acfivities, so called 'heilgymnasten', believed that only a solid organization of serious, educated and well-trained heilgymnasten could bring about a positive change in the situation at hand in the field of physical therapy. On September 1st 1889 the 'Genootschap ter beoefening van de Heilgymnastiek in Nederland' ('Society for practising heilgymnastiek in the Netherlands') was founded. One could say that at first the 'Genootschap' was tolerated. Several well-known Dutch physicians joined the 'Genootschap' as 'extraordinary-member'. Very soon however, some physicians came to see the activities of this organization as a threat to the process of differentiation and specialization in the field of orthopaedic surgery that had just began. They emphasized that the 'heilgymnasten', who worked relatively independent from physicians in the field of physical therapy, had no legal status; in fact they argued that these practitioners were actually breaking the law. A solution to these problems was sought through law-suits against 'heilgymnasten' to ensure that they would only practise physical therapy under the supervision of physicians. In this paper the plight of one of the Dutch 'heilgymnasten', Hendrik Soeter, who can be considered as a 'victim' of this strategy, will be discussed in more detail. The focus of attention is on the legal proceedings in various courts of justice from the lower to the highest level, as well as on the reactions the law-suit against Soeter provoked from the government and from organizations and practitioners in the fields of physical therapy, physical education and medicine. Although Soeter was finally sentenced to two fines, the verdicts did not bring about the change some people had hoped for. 'Heilgymnastiek' remained a non-regulated activity and the Dutch 'heilgymnasten' had to wait for a legal status for their profession until more than fifty years after the foundation of the 'Genootschap'.