Chirurgijns in den vreemde: de geneeskundige zorg van de Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (VOC) voor haar personeel in Azië

Abstract

This thesis describes the medical care provided by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) for its personnel in Asia. Surgeons from northern Europe were employed in the hospitals of Batavia, Colombo and many outposts. There was also a local training structure for surgeons in these hospitals in Asia. Northern European medicine was central to this training as evidenced by textbooks and examinations of VOC surgeons and the medicines that were prescribed: VOC servants were treated by VOC surgeons. Indigenous physicians from the native population played no significant role in the medical care of VOC personnel. Management in the VOC hospitals was in the hands of highly experienced Dutch chief-surgeons, assisted by their colleagues from other northern European countries. An extensive network of hospitals and surgeon stations provided shelter and medical care for sick VOC servants who, far away from hearth and home, needed medical care. It was not just malaria, but it was many other infectious diseases, work-related accidents and infected wounds, venereal infections, leprosy and psychiatric disorders that VOC surgeons faced.

The pharmacotherapy of VOC surgeons was based on European formularies known to them. Local supply of ingredients for medicines could by no means cover the need. Local supply of medicines from Amsterdam remained necessary to meet the great need in Asia. In the pharmacies of Batavia and Colombo, medicines were prepared by Northern European pharmacists according to European formularies.