Jacobus Bontius (Jacob de Bondt) (1592, in Leiden – 30 November 1631, in Batavia, Dutch East Indies) was a Dutch physician and a pioneer of tropical medicine. He is known for the four-volume work De medicina Indorum. His 1631 work "Historiae naturalis et medicae Indiae orientalis" introduced the word "Orang Hutan" into Western languages.
Life
Bontius was born in Leiden, the youngest child of eight of the physician Gerard de Bondt / Gerardus Bontius (1536–1599), professor at Leiden University. Amongst his brothers were Reinier de Bondt / Regnerus Bontius (1576–1623), court physician to Maurice of Nassau, and Willem de Bondt / Wilhelmus Bontius, law professor at Leiden University.
Jacobus graduated M.D. from Leiden in 1614. He sailed to the East Indies with Jan Pieterszoon Coen, for the Dutch East India Company.
De medicina Indorum (1642)
Bontius' medical observations were published after his death. They include what is recognized as the first medical description of beriberi. He reported on the dysentery epidemic in Java in 1628. The second edition of 1658, put together by Willem Piso, was expanded and included material by Piso on the Americas.
Notes
- Dellios, Paulette. 2008 "A lexical odyssey from the Malay World." Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 23:1
- G. W. Bruyn and Charles M. Poser, The History of Tropical Neurology: Nutritional Disorders (2003), pp. 1-3; Google Books
- The National Herbarium
- David W. McCandless, Thiamine Deficiency and Associated Clinical Disorders (2009), p. 31; Google Books
- Abhay Kumar Singh, Modern World System and Indian Proto-Industrialization: Bengal 1650-1800 (2006), p. 682; Google Books
- Donald F. Lach and Edwin J. Van Kley, Asia in the Making of Europe, Volume III: A Century of Advance. Book 1 (1998), p. 457; Google Books