Neurosensory corpuscle research: The life and works of Prof. Jan Boeke, Utrecht, The Netherlands

Abstract

Jan Boeke, born October 23, 1874 in Hengelo, The Netherlands, started medical school and research at the University of Amsterdam in 1894. Following his medical degree (1900), his studies continued at the marine research institute in Naples, Italy. He published well received articles before returning to become an assistant of professor Place at the physiology department (Boeke, 1902). Under his guidance, Boeke obtained his PhD degree cum laude (1901). Boeke returned to Naples, where he met Apáthy, the Hungarian histologist known for his works on neurofibrils. This meeting was decisive in Boeke’s career, as Apáthy introduced him to the complexity of nerve-related research. In 1903, Boeke became an assistant at The Netherlands Institute of Sea Research in Den Helder, where he continued projects on fish embryology (Boeke, 1903). There, Boeke met and married Alberta Oortgijsen (1906). In 1905, he was asked by the Department of Colony Affairs to visit Curaçao to study fishing possibilities in the Dutch Caribbean. Boeke returned in 1906 to lecture at Leiden University, teaching anatomy, histology, embryology, and forensic pathology. Three years later, he was promoted to succeed Prof. Langelaan as chief anatomist (Figure 1). During the academic year 1913–1914, Boeke went to Batavia in the Dutch East Indies (now Jakarta, Indonesia) to teach native physicians anatomy and to investigate the status of medical education in the colony. In 1919, he accepted a new position at Utrecht University as chair of histology and embryology. His time in Utrecht was interrupted twice. In 1927–1928, Boeke was asked by the Dutch government to chair the medical school in Batavia (Figure 2). During the Second World War, he had to hide from the Germans because he was accused of not agreeing with the idea of a “Jewish race,” stating that “races where not peoples, but every people was composed of races,” advocating for tolerance (Boeke, 1939). Sadly, his house was searched and plundered, thereby destroying his life-work collection of preparations. Boeke chaired Utrecht University from 1937 to 1938 and from 1945 to 1946, when he was asked to restore and reorganize after the sufferings from the war. He retired in 1946, aged 72, but continued lecturing and publishing until 1955. In his last years, he traveled to various parts of the world, receiving honorary doctorates. In 1956, he traveled to Indonesia to witness his son’s Hendrik PhD defense, who was a surgeon in Bandung. Unfortunately, several days after these festivities Boeke fell ill and died shortly afterwards, aged 81 (Figure 3).