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)

Hendrik van Deventer was a well experienced, skilled practicing obstetrician without university education, missing some basic theoretical qualities thinking logically to come to a convincing revolutionary conclusion. He had not the insight to be linked up the practical experience and the science. An other explanation could be also plausible. In his time there was only one solution to perform the difficult deliveries where the passage through the birth canal was not possible: a version combined with extraction if the circumstances for this handling still were present; in neglected cases or in other pathological conditions there was no other choice than the mutilating operations with the dead of the newborn and sometimes damaging the mother, too. The Chamberlain's family had not yet revealed the secret of the forceps delivery. Van Deventer and his famous contemporaries were against to perform a caesarian operation for their time comprehensible reasons. In spite of the errors of his work, mainly due to the time in which he lived, all things considered, he is still regarded as the most famous obstetrician of his time and the co-founder of modern obstetrics. "Manet post funera verum" was not only his motto, but his spiritual inspiration doing his work and to follow his vocation : "I waste away but truth shall overcome". APPENDIX The following books were written by him, and his textbook of obsterics was translated in German, French, English and in Latin version. 1696: Dageraet der Vroet-Vrouwen, has only 56 pages. It was his first work; there exist only one copy at Leiden in the "Bibliotheek der Rijksuniversiteit" 1701 : "Manuele Operatien I", ("Nieuw Ligt") The First Edition in Dutch 1701 : "Novum Lumen", The First Edition in Latin 1704: "Hebammen-Licht", The First German Edition 1716: "Art of Midwifery improv'd" (Novum Lumen), The first English translation 1719: "Nader Vertoog", The First Dutch Edition 1724: "Novum Lumen" (Nader Vertoog), The First Latin Edition "Hebammen-Licht, Anderer Theil" (Novum Lumen II), The first German Edition "New Improvements" (Novum Lumen II), The First English Edition 1733 : "Observations I" (Novum Lumen), The First French Edition "Observations II" (Novum Lumen II), The First French Edition 1734: "Nieuw Ligt" en "Nader Vertoog", The Second Dutch Edition with his two works together "Observations I et II", The Second French Edition with his two works together For exact details see: Lammers, Edit. 1946, Assen, The Netherlands 1765: After his death, the 4th edition was translated in Dutch with commets of D'Ablaincourt, the French accoucheur and other persons 1790: De laatste Nederlandse uitgave van het "Nieuw Ligt" en "Nader betoog", uitgave and (The last Dutch Edition of the "Novum Lumen I and II"), this was a reproduction of the original edition of 1765.