Jacobus Bontius

Jacob de Bondt, often Jacobus Bontius (* 1599 in Leiden, † November 30, 1631 in Java ), was a Dutch physician.

Life

Jacob de Bondt is a son of the Dutch physician Gerard de Bondt. He studied in Leiden and acquired in 1614 the title of Doctor of Medicine. In 1627 he went as an envoy of the Dutch East India Company to Jakarta (then Batavia ).

His posthumously published work, De Medicina 1642 Indorum is the first major treatise on the diseases of the East Indies. It contains the first modern descriptions of cholera, tropical dysentery, beriberi and the yaws.

He is, together with Willem Piso, as one of the precursors of tropical medicine.

1657 is the therapeutic piercing needles for the first time in the west by Jacob de Bondt mention. The term acupuncture was introduced a few years later by Willem ten Rhijne.

Ehrentaxon

Charles Plumier named in his honor, the genus of the plant family Bontia the figwort family ( Scrophulariaceae ). Linnaeus later took the name.

Writings (selection )

• De Medicina Indorum libri IV (Leiden, 1642) published posthumously by Willem Piso, later (eg, Paris, 1645 ) combined with works by Prospero Alpini
• Historiae naturalis et medicae libri VI Indiae orientalis (Amsterdam, 1658) published posthumously by Willem Piso in 6 volumes in the work De Indiae Utriusque re naturali et medica