Predikant-dichter, hoogleraar in de Nederlandse taal en letteren te Utrecht.
The 1879-1898 beriberi controversy between the later Nobel prize laureate Christiaan Eijkman and his opponent, quarrel monger Evart van Dieren is a little known but highly amusing footnote to the history of the discovery of Vitamin-B. This paper examines the dynamics in this controversy with the aid of published as well as unpublished documents. The emphasis in this paper is on the attempts from within the medical field to exclude outsider Van Dieren. The fact that this attempt was unsuccessful may be counted as success for Van Dieren who was otherwise a complete failure. In the conclusion of this paper, this success is explained in term of two illusions: that of the perfect and of the ideal community.
t has been argued that physics and astronomy served the international geopolitical interests of European powers during the nineteenth century. This notion can be applied to the situation in the Dutch East Indies around this time, and provided a beneficial situation for J.A.C. Oedemans who was able to pursue his interest in astronomy. During his stay in the Dutch East Indies, from 1857 to 1875, Oedemans carried out a range of astronomical observations, including variable stars and the 1868 and 1871 total solar eclipses. He also tried to observe the 1874 transit of Venus. But his primary task was to co-ordinate the trigonometrical survey of the Dutch East Indies. In this chapter we will briefly explore his astronomical activities while in the Dutch East Indies and show how he tried to contribute to science by observing the 1868 and 1871 total solar eclipses, both of which were important for the advancement of solar physics.
This article approaches the hygienist movement as a social health movement, a complex societal campaign aiming to alter norms and arrangements regarding hygiene and thereby improve public health. This perspective is applied to a very specific topic: drinking water arrangements in the city of Utrecht (1866-1900). Archival study indicates that not only medical doctors contributed to the functioning of the hygienist movement, as is often assumed, but also ‘regular’ citizens, for example by providing the movement with money, information and services. By showing this, the article enhances our understanding of citizens’ relations with local public health arrangements in the nineteenth century.
Net als andere bekende Hollandse bestuurs- en handelscentra was ook de stad Utrecht nauw betrokken bij de slavenhandel en slavernij. Maar hoe zag die verwikkeling - in de schaduw van steden als Amsterdam en Rotterdam - er eigenlijk uit? Hoe profiteerde Utrecht van de slavenhandel en de producten die uit slavenarbeid voortkwamen? Welke invloed had de bovenlaag van stedelijke bestuurders en investeerders op de levens van de vele tot slaaf gemaakten in Oost en West? En hoe zat het met de kerk? Waarom werd Utrecht een centrum van abolitionisme? Welke sporen van het koloniale verleden draagt de stad nu nog? En hoe gaan Utrechters vandaag de dag met de geschiedenis van slavernij om? In korte essays laten de schrijvers van Slavernij en de stad Utrecht vanuit steeds een ander perspectief hun licht schijnen op de Utrechtse betrokkenheid bij het mondiale slavernijverleden.
In zijn Utrechtse studentenjaren hield J.J.L. te Kate zich liever bezig met de letteren dan met zijn studie theologie. Hij richtte het satirische tijdschrift Braga op, waarin de contemporaine poëzie belachelijk werd gemaakt.
During the second half of the 19th century Donders, Snellen and co-workers of the Utrecht Eye Clinic played an important role in the development of clinical tonometry. These indefatigable researchers designed and built a number of tonometers of which most have been saved and which are now on display in a permanent exhibition in the Royal Netherlands Ophthalmic Hospital at Utrecht.