Met het vertrek van hoogleraar Ad de Jong verdwijnt de leerstoel Farmaceutische analyse van de Universiteit Utrecht. Door het beperkte aantal analytische uren in het huidige curriculum vreest De Jong dat industrieapothekers op termijn onvoldoende worden opgeleid. Maar deze zijn volgens hem hard nodig.

Deze biografie verschijnt ter gelegenheid van de vijfenzestigste verjaardag en pensionering van prof. dr. Ferjan Ormeling. Ferjan Ormeling studeerde geografie in Groningen. Sinds 1969 werkt hij bij de kartografieafdeling aan de Universiteit Utrecht waar hij in 1983 promoveerde en in 1985 werd benoemd tot hoogleraar kartografie. Ormeling is op vele terreinen actief in kartografisch onderzoek zoals atlaskartografie en toponymie. Daarnaast is Ormeling actief in verschillende organisaties zoals de Nederlandse Vereniging voor Kartografie (inmiddels opgegaan in Geo-Informatie Nederland), de International Cartographic Association, de United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names en de Stichting Wetenschappelijke Atlas van Nederland.

Interview met J.Th.G. Overbeek.

The exponential growth of the number of scientists working at universities after World War II poses a challenge in terms of saving the past. In order for future historians to reconstruct and write about developments in the sciences of the last seven decades, it is crucial to have access to at least a substantial volume of hardcopy and digital archives. Unfortunately, most of the 'evidence' usually disappears into the physical and digital dustbins. This paper illustrates that a rich story may be recovered from preserved scribbled notes, minutes, letters and reports. The archive of physical chemist J.Th.G. [Theo] Overbeek (1911-2007) was donated by his family to his old department at the University of Utrecht. In 1946, Overbeek succeeded his predecessor Hugo R. Kruyt (1882-1959), who was an internationally renowned colloid chemist. In the early 1930s, Kruyt had also been instrumental in founding the Dutch organisation for applied sciences (TNO) and in the years immediately after the war he became its President. In 1923, Kruyt wrote a booklet as an introduction to physical chemistry which was later revised in several editions by Overbeek. The book was set literature for students of biology, medicine, dentistry and veterinary science for many decades; the final, 19th, edition was published in 1977. This paper discusses the general state of chemical research and education at the University of Utrecht in the 20th century. In particular, however, it reconstructs Overbeek's impact on the growth of the discipline of chemistry in Utrecht, as well as the 'hybridizing' of chemistry and biology when these disciplines moved into new laboratories at the University of UtrechtÕs campus De Uithof. The building was opened in 1974 and named Transitorium III. It was Overbeek who inspired the decision to locate the traditional disciplines in the peripheral parts of the building and the new interdiscipline of molecular biology at the centre. In 1992 the building was renamed the Hugo R. Kruyt building, which many saw as a fitting commemorative tribute to a prominent colloid chemist and physical chemist. Archival material shows that Overbeek's dedication speech at the presentation of a plaquette of Kruyt in the entrance hall of the building that now bore his name, on 28 October 1992, emphasised Kruyt's role in bringing academia and society together. The science park of the University of Utrecht at De Uithof is an expression of this pursuit. His successor also promoted this interaction, but Overbeek should also be remembered as a driving force in the 'hybridization' of chemistry and biology into molecular biology. Colloid and physical chemistry were instrumental in this artificial fertilisation, regardless of how difficult this amalgation proved to be.

The Magnus-Rademaker scientific film collection (1908-1940) deals with the physiology of body posture by the equilibrium of reflex musculature contractions for which experimental studies were carried out with animals (e.g., labyrinthectomies, cerebellectomies, and brain stem sections) as well as observations done on patients. The films were made for demonstrations at congresses as well as educational objectives and film stills were published in their books. The purpose of the present study is to position these films and their makers within the contemporary discourse on ethical issues and animal rights in the Netherlands and the earlier international debates. Following an introduction on animal rights and antivivisection movements, we describe what Magnus and Rademaker thought about these issues. Their publications did not provide much information in this respect, probably reflecting their adherence to implicit ethical codes that did not need explicit mentioning in publications. Newspaper articles, however, revealed interesting information. Unnecessary suffering of an animal never found mercy in Magnus' opinion. The use of cinematography was expanded to the reduction of animal experimentation in student education, at least in the case of Rademaker, who in the 1930s was involved in a governmental committee for the regulation of vivisection and cooperated with the antivivisection movement. This resulted not only in a propaganda film for the movement but also in films that demonstrate physiological experiments for students with the purpose to avert repetition and to improve the teaching of experiments. We were able to identify the pertinent films in the Magnus-Rademaker film collection. The production of vivisection films with this purpose appears to have been common, as is shown in news messages in European medical journals of the period.

Following a short introduction on medical photography and cinematography, we describe a recently discovered neurological film collection, the so called Magnus-Rademaker collection (1909-1940), earlier presumed to be lost. Rudolf Magnus was professor in pharmacology in Utrecht and Gysbertus Rademaker was professor in physiology and later in neurology in Leiden. At the time they performed experimental research on animals to the role of the labyrinth, the neck afferents and cerebellum in position and standing. Next to animals, they also filmed patients. As an example we discuss a film about a boy whose cerebellum had been largely removed because of a tumor. The case was discussed for the ‘Amsterdam Neurologists Society’ and reported upon in the Dutch journal of medicine (1940). The films were produced for educational, as well as for scientific purposes. the discovery of this collection contributes to a better understanding of the role that early cinematography played in science and medicine.

In memoriam van Prof. ir. Max van den Berg, een sociaal bewogen stedenbouwkundige.

Er zijn weinig mensen die zo belangrijk voor de stad zijn geweest, maar die toch bij het grote publiek zo volslagen onbekend zijn, als de vorige week overleden stedenbouwkundige Max van den Berg.