Historical aspects of the study of malformations in The Netherlands

Abstract

The collection of malformed ("teratological") specimens of man and other mammals of Gerardus Vrolik (1775-1859) and his son Willem Vrolik (1801-1863), dating from the beginning of the 19th century, continues to function as a central part of the Department of Anatomy and Embryology in the Academic Medical Center at the University of Amsterdam. Recently, many specimens in the collection were reexamined, using radiographic, CT scan, and MRI methods. In order to provide background information concerning Dutch teratological research and anatomical cabinets, some aspects of the history of Dutch morphology during the 17th-19th centuries are briefly described in this paper. Special attention is paid to the scientific work and cabinet of Frederik Ruijsch (1638-1731), who sold this cabinet to Czar Peter the Great; Bernard Siegfried Albinus (1697-1770); Wouter van Doeveren (1733-1783), Andreas Bonn (1738-1818), and Sebald Justinus Brugmans (1763-1819), who sold or donated parts of their collections of malformed specimens to Leiden University; Petrus Camper (1722-1789) and Jan Bleuland (1756-1838), whose collections are still in the Department of Anatomy at Groningen University and the Departments of Anatomy and Pathology of Utrecht University; and Gerard and Willem Vrolik.

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