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POMPE VAN MEERDERVOORT (1829-1908)

In reaction to the mounting pressure from Western countries, the Tokugawa government decided to strengthen its national defense and established a Naval Training Institute (Kaigun Denshujo) in Nagasaki, where the Dutch kept a trading post (Dejima) since 1641. Dutch naval officers and technicians were invited to give instructions to selected vassals from influential domains.

In addition a Medical Training Institute (Igaku denshujo) was established and Johannes Lijdius Catharinus Pompe van Meerdervoort employed to teach Western medicine. Pompe, son of Johan Antoine Pompe van Meerdervoort, an officer in the Dutch army, had graduated from the well known Imperial Academy for Military Medicine in Utrecht ('s Rijks Kweekschool voor Militaire Geneeskundigen) and become a naval surgeon in 1849. He arrived at Dejima in 1857 and began to educate Japanese disciples while treating many local patients. After an outbreak of cholera during the following year, he felt the need for a civil hospital and managed to get the permission of the authorities. With the support of Matsumoto Ryôjun (1832-1907) and Nagayo Sensai (1838-1902) Pompe established a western style hospital with 124 beds and a medical school on a hill overlooking Nagasaki. Here he continued the training of young physicians following a western style curriculum. This was a revolutionary change in conveying european medical knowledge to Japan marks the beginning of modern medicine in that country. In 1865 the name of the establishment was changed to "Hall of Supreme Virtues" (Seitoku-kan) and in 1868 to "Nagasaki Medical School" (Nagasaki-fu Igakkô), which eventually was transformed to the Medical School of Nagasaki University.

After five years of devoted service Pompe left Japan. His work was continued by gifted successors like Anthonius Franciscus Bauduin (1822-1885) and Constant George van Mansvelt (1832-1912), who both had graduated from the Medical Academy in Utrecht too. But due to the mounting pressure of Western nations like America, France, Britain, Prussia, Russia etc., Dutch influence, that had continued for 250 years, rapidly declined. Nevertheless, the achievements and outstanding role of Pompe and his successors played in the modernization of Japanese medicine are highly esteemed in Japan even nowadays.

Pompe's memoirs "Five years in Japan" describe the changing international situation in East Asia together with his medical activities and many observation on Japanese society. His observations are especially valuable when it comes to the modernization of medicine and medical education and the birth of the notion of public health in that country.

• Beknopte handleiding tot de Geneesmiddelleer : ten gebruike van de Keizerlijke Japansche Geneeskundige School te Nagasaki / door J.L.C. Pompe van Meerdervoort. Desima : Nederlandsche Drukkerij, 1862
  (iii, xi, 382 pp. ; 20cm)
• Notices sur l'introduction de ver a soie du chine du Japon (bombyx yama-mai guer. men.) en Europe / par J. L. C. Pompe van Meedervoort. M.J. Visser, 1863.
• Japanese Translations
• J. Pompe van Meerdervoort: Vijf jaren in Japan (1857-1863). Bijdragen tot de kennis van het Japansche keizerrijk en zijne bevolking. Door Jhr. J. L. C. Pompe van Meerdervoort. oud-officier van gezondheid van Z. M. Zeemagt, oud-Gouvernements-geneesheer in Japan, tevens ambtenaar voor Natuurkundige onderzoekingen; Ridder der Nederlandsche Leeuwen-orde en van de Keizerlijk-Russische St. Anna-orde 3e klasse; Eere- Corresponderend en gewoon lid van verschillende vaderlandsche en buitenlandsche geleerde genootschappen; practiserend geneesheer te 's Gravenhage. 2 Volumes (1. deel, 2. deel). Van den Heuvel & Van Santen, Leiden 1867-1868.
  2 volumes. 8vo (245 x 160mm). pp. xii, 335, (i); pp. vi, 357, (i), with 2 coloured frontispieces, 2 plates from drawings, 10 costume plates, with folding map of Japan.

 

CONTENTS OF "Vijf jaren in Japan"