Antall József szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 89-91. (Budapest, 1980)
KISEBB KÖZLEMÉNYEK - ELŐADÁSOK - Benedek Jaszmann, László: Hendrik van Deventer (1651—1724) a németalföldi szülészet alapvetője (angol nyelven)
education he passed the necessary examinations succesfully. Finally he became a qualified "Doctor Medicináé" with the rights to practice also in the Federal Republic. In spite of his success at Groningen University, where his degree was signed with the remark "dignissimus", he had later again some problems with his medical qualification: he was examined not in the customary Latin but in his mother language. He served the Labadist's colony for twenty years in Friesland; his wife died, his children were married and getting older. He longed to the times of his youth; the Hague and Voorburg. He left the sect of Labadie and he decided moving to the Hague. His settlement in the Hague was branded with many difficulties. His name was very well known an the jealous "Collegium Medicorum Hagae Batavorum", a mighty medical association tried to prevent him from starting his medical practice. The only reason was: "he had no classical education, he did not master the Latin language, he passed his exams in another Provence" . But Hendrik van Deventer won finally the case with the medical association of the Hague and after a few years became a respectable doctor in obstetrics. He was at the age of 73 still practicing and writing in his diary: "on the 9th febr. 1724 on a very cold day I delivered a baby who was lying in a transverse position; it was a very tiering day for me..." . He died in the same year and he was buried in the reformed church at Voorburg as a world-wide famous doctor, where he started his career at the same place years ago as a young silversmith. HIS MERITS AS AN OBSTETRICIAN Introducing his new concepts in obstetrics, Hendrik van Deventer was already familiar with the contemporary famous obstetrical works. He had such large experience that he did not accept all the theories and ways of practicing of obstetrics. He decided to write a book entitled "The Art of Midwifery Improved", particularly to teach the midwives as well as doctors engaged in obstetrics. In the preface he writes, first he was looking and seeking for his own faults, reading the textbooks of Mauriceau and Portal. Later on he was getting the evidence that his theory and handling was the right one and not the established conception. Chapter for chapter he wrote his book based on his own experience as well as using the knowledge of obstetrics of his time. In his opening chapter he defined the qualifications required to make a woman fit to practice midwifery. He exluded all malformed, diseased and obese women. He was also a good teacher. In one of his last chapter he pointed special notes as questions to be answered by the midwife to test whether she had understood the basic principles of obstetrics. One of his first statement was: look firstly to the bony pelvis; think secondly: will this relatively narrow birth canal be able to allow the baby's head through?Even today these are statements of great value. Here we would like to point out some of his most important discoveries and statements : /. He was the first to make a study of the bony pelvis and he did the concept of the pelvic inlet as a rigid achieve credence. He described the importance first of the bony pelvis not only with inlet contraction ("pelvis plana Deventeri") and pelvis with
