Ship's Surgeons of the Dutch East India Company
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Ship’s Surgeons Surgeons Ship’s During the nearly 200 years of its existence, the Dutch East India Company (1602-1795) sent some 5,000 ships to Asia. Each vessel sailing under the flag of this Compa- ny employed surgeons for the benefit of the entire ship’s company. This was a completely new concept contrast- ing sharply with the early Iberian long-distance mar- of the itime-medical experience. The Company’s personnel was a most valuable natural tool in need of protection to enhance its productivity. One way to ensure this was by Ship’s Surgeons employing surgeons on board who had the specific task Dutch East India Company East India Dutch to treat all personnel as well as by founding hospitals in Asia, again manned by surgeons. Throughout the ages of the these surgeons acquired a bad reputation. They were, Dutch East and usually still are, depicted as mere village barbers, badly educated if at all, illiterates, opportunists, and even worse things have been said about them. Bruijn surveys India Company some 3,000 ship’s surgeons of the Company in order to research whether these negative reports were justified or if they must be considered as a stereotype, an idée reçue, or Commerce and the Progress of Medicine even a myth which tale grew longer in the telling. in the Eighteenth Century Iris Bruijn studied history and received the Ph.D. degree on maritime history at Leiden University in 2004. She published several articles on medical his- Iris Bruijn tory. Iris Bruijn works for an international lawyers’ Bruijn Iris firm in Amsterdam. leiden university press 9 789087 280512 LUP 1 Ship’s Surgeons of the Dutch East India Company 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 ship boek.indb 1 18-02-2009 16:19:18 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 ship boek.indb 2 18-02-2009 16:19:18 1 2 3 Ship’s Surgeons of the 4 5 Dutch East India Company 6 7 8 Commerce and the Progress of Medicine in the Eighteenth Century 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Iris Bruijn 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 Leiden University Press 41 42 ship boek.indb 3 18-02-2009 16:19:18 1 2 3 4 The publication of this book is made possible by a grant from Stichting Historia 5 Medicinae, Stichting dr Hendrik Muller’s Vaderlandsch Fonds, and the Directie 6 der Oostersche Handel en Reederijen 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 Cover design: Maedium, Utrecht 29 Lay-out: ProGrafici, Goes 30 31 32 ISBN 978 90 8728 051 2 33 e-ISBN 978 90 4850 657 6 34 NUR 685 35 36 © I. Bruijn / Leiden University Press, 2009 37 38 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this 39 book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any 40 form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without 41 the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book. 42 ship boek.indb 4 18-02-2009 16:19:18 1 2 3 To my mother 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 ship boek.indb 5 18-02-2009 16:19:18 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 ship boek.indb 6 18-02-2009 16:19:23 1 2 3 Table of contents 4 5 6 7 List of tables, graphs and maps 9 8 Acknowledgements 13 9 10 Introduction: Coping with a black legend 15 11 1. The surgeon’s tale: The development of surgery 23 12 2. The world of the East India Company surgeon 49 13 3. The medical service of the Dutch East India Company 85 14 4. The geographic origin of the Company’s surgeons 125 15 5. The career of the Company surgeons 169 16 6. ‘Great expectations’! 209 17 Conclusion: The surgeon’s legacy 245 18 19 Appendix 1. Methods, statistical account, graphs and tables pertaining 20 to chapters 4-6 259 21 Appendix 2. Maps 283 22 Appendix 3. Notaries used by the Company’s surgeons in Batavia 23 1600-1800 305 24 Appendix 4. Ship’s surgeons who died on board and whose collection of 25 books is listed 307 26 Appendix 5. Ship’s surgeons who died on board and were in the 27 possession of instruments 309 28 29 Archives and bibliography 315 30 Notes 339 31 Indices 375 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 7 ship boek.indb 7 18-02-2009 16:19:23 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 ship boek.indb 8 18-02-2009 16:19:23 1 2 3 List of tables, graphs and maps 4 5 6 7 Chapter 2 8 Table T2.1 : Estimation of people employed in the Dutch seafaring industries 57 9 Table T2.2 : Possession of razors 66 10 Table T2.3 : Company personnel outward-bound to Asia and their mortality rates 75 11 Table T2.4 : Mortality rates Asia-Cape of Good Hope 76 12 13 Chapter 3 14 Table T3.1 : Wages of the Amsterdam Chamber medical staff in Dutch guilders 89 15 Table T3.2 : Number of Company surgeons in Batavia around 1700 101 16 Table T3.3 : Company personnel in Asia during the eighteenth century 111 17 Table T3.4 : Mortality in Batavia 1714-1744 114 18 19 Chapter 4 20 Table T4.1 : Estimate of sailors on Dutch vessels 134 21 Table T4.2 : Geographic origins of Company sailors and craftsmen in percentages 136 22 Table T4.3 : Non-Dutch Company surgeons within the sample 140 23 Table T4.4 : Geographical origins of the Company’s surgeons in the eighteenth 24 century 141 25 Table T4.5 : Ratio between ships and surgeons supplied to the ships per chamber 141 26 Table T4.6 : Geographical origins of the Company’s sea surgeons around 27 1699/1700 and 1789/1790 142 28 Table T4.7 : Recruitment of Dutch surgeons per area 143 29 Table T4.8 : Surgical recruitment in North Holland 148 30 Table T4.9 : Surgical recruitment in South Holland 149 31 Table T4.10 : Geographical origins of recruited surgeons of the Zeeland Chamber 150 32 Table T4.11 : Surgeons from Zeeland 151 33 Table T4.12 : Geographical origins of recruited surgeons of the Amsterdam 34 Chamber 153 35 Table T4.13 : Geographical origins of recruited surgeons of the Hoorn and 36 Enkhuizen Chambers 154 37 Table T4.14 : Geographical origins of recruited surgeons of the Delft and 38 Rotterdam Chambers 155 39 Table T4.15 : German surgical participation 157 40 Table T4.16 : Regional German surgical participation 158 41 42 9 ship boek.indb 9 18-02-2009 16:19:23 1 Table T4.17 : Sampled ship’s surgeons from Lower Saxony 161 2 Table T4.18 : Surgical participation from Belgium, Scandinavia, Switzerland, and 3 France 162 4 Table T4.19 : Geographical recruitment of surgeons in the eighteenth century 164 5 Table T4.20 : Dutch and non-Dutch surgeons per Chamber 164 6 7 Graph G4.1 : Total number of persons on board the Dutch East Indiamen (1602-1795) 135 8 Graph G4.2 : Surgical recruitment per area 152 9 10 Chapter 5 11 Table T5.1 : Level of education at first contract during the eighteenth century 176 12 Table T5.2 : Span of time between apprenticeship and first VOC contract 179 13 Table T5.3 : Average age per period of sampled surgeons (Group A) 180 14 Table T5.4 : Average age first ship’s surgeon top of career (Group A) 180 15 Table T5.5 : Number of sampled surgeons and their departures per Chamber 181 16 Table T5.6 : Eighteenth-century VOC captains (skippers) and first ship’s surgeons 181 17 Table T5.7 : The earnings of Adriaan van Brakel 184 18 Table T5.8 : Annual incomes of master surgeons in Amsterdam 186 19 Table T5.9 : Sampled surgeons repatriated within five years never to take service 20 again 191 21 Table T5.10 : Surgeons who died within five years after first departure 192 22 Table T5.11 : Promotion to First Surgeon (Group E) 193 23 Table T5.12 : Promotion to Surgeon’s Mate (Group E) 194 24 Table T5.13 : Not promoted surgeons (Group E) 194 25 Table T5.14 : Surgeon’s Mates promotions (Group E) 195 26 Table T5.15 : Surgeon’s Mates not promoted (Group E) 195 27 Table T5.16 : The mortality of ship’s surgeons during their VOC-tenure 199 28 Table T5.17 : Average age at demise of sampled surgeons 200 29 Table T5.18 : Surgeons’ mortality on further voyages (Group I) 201 30 Table T5.19 : Average life span (Group I) 202 31 Table T5.20 : Survival rates after first departure (Group S) 202 32 Table T5.21 : Ship’s surgeons’ mortality over time 204 33 34 Graph G5.1 : Survival rates after first departure (Group S) 203 35 36 Chapter 6 37 Table T6.1 : Ranks of surgeons drawing up a legal deed 221 38 Table T6.2 : Married surgeons 223 39 Table T6.3 : Wives of surgeons 224 40 Table T6.4 : Sums of lawful shares 228 41 Table T6.5 : Prices of surgical books in the Dutch Republic 233 42 10 ship’s surgeons of the dutch east india company ship boek.indb 10 18-02-2009 16:19:23 Table T6.6 : Kruijs voyages for the Company 238 1 Table T6.7 : The debts (investments ?) incurred by Frederik Kruijs 239 2 Table T6.8 : The career of B.J.