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A Medical Pioneer of the 250-Year Holland-Japan Legacy

Danny H. Kauffmann Jokl, MD; Fusako Hiyama, MD

Arch Ophthalmol. 2003;121:562-565.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

INTRODUCTION

For almost 250 years, the Dutch held exclusive trading rights with Japan from the island of Deshima at Nagasaki. Holland encouraged surgeons on their trading ships to offer medical assistance to Japanese physicians—an act strictly forbidden at the time by the ruling shogun. Nevertheless, beginning in 1625, a long series of physicians persisted in these efforts, the most prominent among them being Philipp Franz von Siebold, who, beginning in 1822 and for the next 6 years, introduced European cataract surgery techniques that used pupillary dilatation from belladonna drops, until then unknown to Japanese ophthalmologists, as well as the sight-restoring optical iridectomy for secluded pupils. In addition, these Dutch physicians educated their fellow Europeans about the then-unknown Japan. Von Siebold and his predecessors have as their legacy the rapid modernization of Japanese ophthalmology and medicine.

Before the brief visit of the Venetian merchant . . . [Full Text of this Article]

From the Department of Ophthalmology, New York Medical College, Valhalla, and Columbia University, New York, NY (Dr Kauffmann Jokl); and Department of Ophthalmology, Nishinomiya Hospital, Nishinomiya, Japan (Dr Hiyama). The authors have no relevant financial interest in this article.

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