Nicolaes Tulp
Encyclopedia
Nicolaes Tulp was a Dutch
surgeon
and mayor
of Amsterdam. Tulp was well known for his upstanding moral character.
. From 1611 to 1614 he studied medicine in Leiden. When he returned to Amsterdam he became a respected doctor and married Aagfe Van der Voegh in 1617. An ambitious young man, he adopted the tulip
as his family shield
and changed his name to Nicolaes (a more proper version of the name Claes) Tulp. He began working on the side in local politics as city treasurer
, and in 1622, he became magistrate
in Amsterdam.
The praelector would give yearly anatomy
lessons each winter, performing them on victims of public hanginghttp://stadsarchief.amsterdam.nl/presentaties/amsterdamse_schatten/dood/chirurgijnsboek/index.nl.html. At that time in European cities, the dissection
of bodies was only legal if the subject was a male criminal and considered outside of the Church. The dissections were performed with the consent of the city council, and were a means to collect funds for city council meetings and dinners. All council and guild members were required to attend and pay an admission fee. Throughout Europe, these dissections were attended by prominent learned men, who exchanged ideas about anatomy and the chemical processes of the human body.
As befits a new praelector, the Guild commissioned a new group portrait of the prominent councilmen and guildmasters. Rembrandt, himself a young man of 26 and new to the city, won this commission and made a famous painting of him: Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp
. This painting, which hangs in the Mauritshuis
museum of the Hague
, depicts Tulp dissecting such a criminal's forearm
. There has been much speculation as to why the dissection began on the forearm. This is possibly because current medical thought was concentrated on recent observations on lymphatics and 'the white veins'. There was a popular anatomical Latin text on this subject by William Harvey
, called Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in Animalibus
, later expanded and corrected by Marcello Malpighi
. In a dissection of a freshly hanged criminal in 1628 orchestrated by the French senator of Aix Nicolas Peiresc, a patron of the sciences and art, the chyliferous vessels were first seen in a human, because the unfortunate prisoner had eaten a copious meal before execution and the body was inspected only an hour and a half afterwards. The vessels were only visible to the naked eye when the subject had recently eaten. The next year in Copenhagen a similar public dissection was done by Royal Anatomist Ole Worm
, brother-in-law to Caspar Bartholin
, father of an important writer on anatomy, Thomas Bartholin.
In his job, Tulp was responsible for inspections of apothecary shops. Chemists in Amsterdam had access to an enormous amount of herbs and spices from the East, thanks to the new shipping routes. It became a successful trade and in 1636 there were 66 apothecaries in Amsterdam. Shocked at the exhorbitant prices asked for useless anti-plague medicines (Amsterdam was severely hit by the plague
in 1635), Dr. Tulp decided to do something about it. He gathered all of his doctor and chemist friends together and they wrote the first pharmacopoeia
of Amsterdam in 1636 'Pharmacopoea Amstelredamensis'. A handbook for apothecaries that was required by law in Amsterdam from 1636 on, the Apothecary guild would require an exam based on Dr. Tulp's book in order for new chemists to set up shop. This pharmacopoeia became a standard work and set an example for all the other cities of Holland.
His most impressive work on medicine was his Observationes Medicae
http://www.unesco.org/webworld/mdm/visite/vilnius/knygos/knygos/medicina/tulpe/anglu/emtulpe.htm, published in 1641 and again in 1652 by Lodewijk Elzevir
. He wrote the first version for his son who had just graduated from Leiden, and he dedicated the second edition to him because he had just died. He wrote in Latin
, which the public could not read, to prevent people from treating their own illnesses. The book comprises minute descriptions of his work, including 231 cases of disease
and death
. Some called it the "book of monsters", because Tulp dissected animals brought back from the Dutch East India Company
's ships, but also because of the fantastic stories that he relates. An example:
Jan de Doot
, a smith
in Amsterdam, was in such pain from a kidney stone
, that he sharpened a knife and removed it himself, because he refused to be the victim of the 'stone cutters'. These were the barber-surgeons who performed such procedures, but who unfortunately had a high death rate. To everyone's surprise, Jan de Doot survived this operation, which was said to produce a stone the size of an egg. A painting illustrating this story is in the collection of the Anatomy Museum of Leiden.
An interesting side-note: It was Dr. Tulp who examined and signed the fitness reports for the first Dutch settlers on the island of Manhattan, and his signature was found on these in the long-lost archives of the Dutch settlement uncovered in the 1980s in the basement of the New York public library.
Tulp minutely described the condition we know as migraine
, the devastating effects to the lungs caused by tobacco smoking
, and reveals an innate understanding of human psychology in a description of the placebo
effect. Tulp also discovered the ileocecal valve
at the junction of the large and small intestines, still known as Tulp's valve.
It is strange to think that while Tulp made observations of various diseases, treatment continued in the age-old way. His description of the symptoms of Beriberi
in a Dutch seaman, for example, went unnoticed until the cause (vitamin B1 deficiency) was recognized two hundred years later by Christiaan Eijkman
.
Partially as a result of the success of his books, Tulp became Mayor of Amsterdam in 1654, a position he held for four terms. His son Dirck
married Anna Burgh, the daughter of Albert Burgh
, another Mayor of Amsterdam who had, like Tulp, studied medicine in Leiden in 1614. In 1655 Tulp's daughter Margaretha married Jan Six
, whom he helped become a Magistrate of family affairs in Amsterdam. Years later, Six would also become Mayor of Amsterdam. Tulp, impressed by his behavior, invited Paulus Potter
to come to Amsterdam, after a quarrel in the Hague.
, a period poet, wrote several verses about Tulp. Besides the famous painting by Rembrandt there are more paintings and marble and bronze statues of him. The Holstein painter Jurriaen Ovens painted him twice, as his son and daughter. Also Artus Quellijn made a portrait.
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
surgeon
Surgeon
In medicine, a surgeon is a specialist in surgery. Surgery is a broad category of invasive medical treatment that involves the cutting of a body, whether human or animal, for a specific reason such as the removal of diseased tissue or to repair a tear or breakage...
and mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
of Amsterdam. Tulp was well known for his upstanding moral character.
Life
Born Claes Pieterszoon, he was the son of a prosperous merchant active in civic affairs in AmsterdamAmsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
. From 1611 to 1614 he studied medicine in Leiden. When he returned to Amsterdam he became a respected doctor and married Aagfe Van der Voegh in 1617. An ambitious young man, he adopted the tulip
Tulip
The tulip is a perennial, bulbous plant with showy flowers in the genus Tulipa, which comprises 109 species and belongs to the family Liliaceae. The genus's native range extends from as far west as Southern Europe, North Africa, Anatolia, and Iran to the Northwest of China. The tulip's centre of...
as his family shield
Heraldry
Heraldry is the profession, study, or art of creating, granting, and blazoning arms and ruling on questions of rank or protocol, as exercised by an officer of arms. Heraldry comes from Anglo-Norman herald, from the Germanic compound harja-waldaz, "army commander"...
and changed his name to Nicolaes (a more proper version of the name Claes) Tulp. He began working on the side in local politics as city treasurer
Treasurer
A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The adjective for a treasurer is normally "tresorial". The adjective "treasurial" normally means pertaining to a treasury, rather than the treasurer.-Government:...
, and in 1622, he became magistrate
Magistrate
A magistrate is an officer of the state; in modern usage the term usually refers to a judge or prosecutor. This was not always the case; in ancient Rome, a magistratus was one of the highest government officers and possessed both judicial and executive powers. Today, in common law systems, a...
in Amsterdam.
Career as a physician
The career of Dr. Tulp matched the success of Amsterdam. As the population of Amsterdam grew from 30,000 in 1580 to 210,000 in 1650, Dr. Tulp's career as a doctor and politician made him a man of influence. He drove a small carriage to visit all the patients. Thanks to his connections on the city council, in 1628 Tulp was appointed Praelector Anatomiae at the Amsterdam Guild of Surgeons. His wife died in the same year, leaving him with five young children. In 1630 he remarried the daughter of the mayor of Outshoorn and she bore him three children.Anatomy
Anatomy is a branch of biology and medicine that is the consideration of the structure of living things. It is a general term that includes human anatomy, animal anatomy , and plant anatomy...
lessons each winter, performing them on victims of public hanginghttp://stadsarchief.amsterdam.nl/presentaties/amsterdamse_schatten/dood/chirurgijnsboek/index.nl.html. At that time in European cities, the dissection
Dissection
Dissection is usually the process of disassembling and observing something to determine its internal structure and as an aid to discerning the functions and relationships of its components....
of bodies was only legal if the subject was a male criminal and considered outside of the Church. The dissections were performed with the consent of the city council, and were a means to collect funds for city council meetings and dinners. All council and guild members were required to attend and pay an admission fee. Throughout Europe, these dissections were attended by prominent learned men, who exchanged ideas about anatomy and the chemical processes of the human body.
As befits a new praelector, the Guild commissioned a new group portrait of the prominent councilmen and guildmasters. Rembrandt, himself a young man of 26 and new to the city, won this commission and made a famous painting of him: Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp
Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp
The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp is a 1632 oil painting by Rembrandt housed in the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, the Netherlands. Dr. Nicolaes Tulp is pictured explaining the musculature of the arm to medical professionals. Some of the spectators are various doctors who paid commissions...
. This painting, which hangs in the Mauritshuis
Mauritshuis
The Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis is an art museum in The Hague, the Netherlands. Previously the residence of count John Maurice of Nassau, it now has a large art collection, including paintings by Dutch painters such as Johannes Vermeer, Rembrandt van Rijn, Jan Steen, Paulus Potter and Frans...
museum of the Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
, depicts Tulp dissecting such a criminal's forearm
Forearm
-See also:*Forearm flexors*Forearm muscles...
. There has been much speculation as to why the dissection began on the forearm. This is possibly because current medical thought was concentrated on recent observations on lymphatics and 'the white veins'. There was a popular anatomical Latin text on this subject by William Harvey
William Harvey
William Harvey was an English physician who was the first person to describe completely and in detail the systemic circulation and properties of blood being pumped to the body by the heart...
, called Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in Animalibus
Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in Animalibus
Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in Animalibus, is the best-known work of the physician William Harvey. The book was first published in 1628 and established the circulation of the blood. It is a landmark in the history of physiology. Just as important as its substance was its...
, later expanded and corrected by Marcello Malpighi
Marcello Malpighi
Marcello Malpighi was an Italian doctor, who gave his name to several physiological features, like the Malpighian tubule system.-Early years:...
. In a dissection of a freshly hanged criminal in 1628 orchestrated by the French senator of Aix Nicolas Peiresc, a patron of the sciences and art, the chyliferous vessels were first seen in a human, because the unfortunate prisoner had eaten a copious meal before execution and the body was inspected only an hour and a half afterwards. The vessels were only visible to the naked eye when the subject had recently eaten. The next year in Copenhagen a similar public dissection was done by Royal Anatomist Ole Worm
Ole Worm
Ole Worm , who often went by the Latinized form of his name Olaus Wormius, was a Danish physician and antiquary.-Life:...
, brother-in-law to Caspar Bartholin
Caspar Bartholin the Elder
Caspar Bartholin the Elder was born at Malmø, Denmark and was a polymath, finally accepting a professorship in medicine at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1613...
, father of an important writer on anatomy, Thomas Bartholin.
Rembrandt
Rembrandt's event depicted in the painting can be dated to 16 January 1632: the Amsterdam Guild of Surgeons, of which Tulp was official City Anatomist, permitted only one public dissection a year, and the body would have to be that of an executed criminal. The criminal's name was Aris Kindt. Rembrandt would later make another painting of Tulp's successor in 1656 The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Jan Deijman. Since the painting of Tulp's predecessor in 1619, The Osteology Lesson of Dr Sebastiaen Egbertsz was a group portrait around a skeleton, it is clear that the subject of a dead body had set a precedent. It would be another 100 years before the surgeons were allowed to dissect a female cadaver.In his job, Tulp was responsible for inspections of apothecary shops. Chemists in Amsterdam had access to an enormous amount of herbs and spices from the East, thanks to the new shipping routes. It became a successful trade and in 1636 there were 66 apothecaries in Amsterdam. Shocked at the exhorbitant prices asked for useless anti-plague medicines (Amsterdam was severely hit by the plague
Bubonic plague
Plague is a deadly infectious disease that is caused by the enterobacteria Yersinia pestis, named after the French-Swiss bacteriologist Alexandre Yersin. Primarily carried by rodents and spread to humans via fleas, the disease is notorious throughout history, due to the unrivaled scale of death...
in 1635), Dr. Tulp decided to do something about it. He gathered all of his doctor and chemist friends together and they wrote the first pharmacopoeia
Pharmacopoeia
Pharmacopoeia, pharmacopeia, or pharmacopoea, , in its modern technical sense, is a book containing directions for the identification of samples and the preparation of compound medicines, and published by the authority of a government or a medical or pharmaceutical society.In a broader sense it is...
of Amsterdam in 1636 'Pharmacopoea Amstelredamensis'. A handbook for apothecaries that was required by law in Amsterdam from 1636 on, the Apothecary guild would require an exam based on Dr. Tulp's book in order for new chemists to set up shop. This pharmacopoeia became a standard work and set an example for all the other cities of Holland.
"The Book of Monsters"
Observationes Medicae (Tulp)
Observationes Medicae is the title commonly used by early Dutch doctors in the 16th and 17th centuries who wrote up their cases from private practise in Latin to share with contemporary colleagues. This is therefore a common title, but this page is devoted to the 1641 book by Nicolaes Tulp...
http://www.unesco.org/webworld/mdm/visite/vilnius/knygos/knygos/medicina/tulpe/anglu/emtulpe.htm, published in 1641 and again in 1652 by Lodewijk Elzevir
Lodewijk Elzevir
Lodewijk Elzevir , originally Lodewijk or Louis Elsevier or Elzevier, was a significant Dutch printer...
. He wrote the first version for his son who had just graduated from Leiden, and he dedicated the second edition to him because he had just died. He wrote in Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
, which the public could not read, to prevent people from treating their own illnesses. The book comprises minute descriptions of his work, including 231 cases of disease
Disease
A disease is an abnormal condition affecting the body of an organism. It is often construed to be a medical condition associated with specific symptoms and signs. It may be caused by external factors, such as infectious disease, or it may be caused by internal dysfunctions, such as autoimmune...
and death
Death
Death is the permanent termination of the biological functions that sustain a living organism. Phenomena which commonly bring about death include old age, predation, malnutrition, disease, and accidents or trauma resulting in terminal injury....
. Some called it the "book of monsters", because Tulp dissected animals brought back from the Dutch East India Company
Dutch East India Company
The Dutch East India Company was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia...
's ships, but also because of the fantastic stories that he relates. An example:
Jan de Doot
Jan de Doot
Jan de Doot is the subject of a painting from 1655 by Carel van Savoyen. It shows de Doot, a smith, holding in one hand a kitchen knife, and in the other a large bladder stone the size and shape of an egg, set in gold. This 17th century Dutch blacksmith is said to have performed a successful...
, a smith
Blacksmith
A blacksmith is a person who creates objects from wrought iron or steel by forging the metal; that is, by using tools to hammer, bend, and cut...
in Amsterdam, was in such pain from a kidney stone
Kidney stone
A kidney stone, also known as a renal calculus is a solid concretion or crystal aggregation formed in the kidneys from dietary minerals in the urine...
, that he sharpened a knife and removed it himself, because he refused to be the victim of the 'stone cutters'. These were the barber-surgeons who performed such procedures, but who unfortunately had a high death rate. To everyone's surprise, Jan de Doot survived this operation, which was said to produce a stone the size of an egg. A painting illustrating this story is in the collection of the Anatomy Museum of Leiden.
An interesting side-note: It was Dr. Tulp who examined and signed the fitness reports for the first Dutch settlers on the island of Manhattan, and his signature was found on these in the long-lost archives of the Dutch settlement uncovered in the 1980s in the basement of the New York public library.
Tulp minutely described the condition we know as migraine
Migraine
Migraine is a chronic neurological disorder characterized by moderate to severe headaches, and nausea...
, the devastating effects to the lungs caused by tobacco smoking
Tobacco smoking
Tobacco smoking is the practice where tobacco is burned and the resulting smoke is inhaled. The practice may have begun as early as 5000–3000 BCE. Tobacco was introduced to Eurasia in the late 16th century where it followed common trade routes...
, and reveals an innate understanding of human psychology in a description of the placebo
Placebo
A placebo is a simulated or otherwise medically ineffectual treatment for a disease or other medical condition intended to deceive the recipient...
effect. Tulp also discovered the ileocecal valve
Ileocecal valve
The ileocecal valve, or ileocaecal valve, is of a bilabial papilla structure with physiological sphincter muscle situated at the junction of the small intestine and the large intestine, with recent evidence indicating an anatomical sphincter may also be present in humans) Its critical function is...
at the junction of the large and small intestines, still known as Tulp's valve.
It is strange to think that while Tulp made observations of various diseases, treatment continued in the age-old way. His description of the symptoms of Beriberi
Beriberi
Beriberi is a nervous system ailment caused by a thiamine deficiency in the diet. Thiamine is involved in the breakdown of energy molecules such as glucose and is also found on the membranes of neurons...
in a Dutch seaman, for example, went unnoticed until the cause (vitamin B1 deficiency) was recognized two hundred years later by Christiaan Eijkman
Christiaan Eijkman
Christiaan Eijkman was a Dutch physician and professor of physiology whose demonstration that beriberi is caused by poor diet led to the discovery of vitamins...
.
Partially as a result of the success of his books, Tulp became Mayor of Amsterdam in 1654, a position he held for four terms. His son Dirck
Dirck Tulp
Dirck or Diederik Tulp was the son of the surgeon professor Nicolaes Tulp and involved in the Dutch East India Company and the Civic guard...
married Anna Burgh, the daughter of Albert Burgh
Albert Burgh
Albert Coenraadsz. Burgh was a Dutch physician who was mayor of Amsterdam and a councillor in the Admiralty of Amsterdam.-Biography:...
, another Mayor of Amsterdam who had, like Tulp, studied medicine in Leiden in 1614. In 1655 Tulp's daughter Margaretha married Jan Six
Jan Six
Jan Six was an important cultural figure in the golden age of the Netherlands.-Biography:...
, whom he helped become a Magistrate of family affairs in Amsterdam. Years later, Six would also become Mayor of Amsterdam. Tulp, impressed by his behavior, invited Paulus Potter
Paulus Potter
Paulus Potter was a Dutch painter, specialized in animals in landscapes, usually with a low point of view. Before Potter died of tuberculosis, 28-years old, he succeeded in producing about a hundred paintings, working continuously.-Life:Few details are known of Potter's life...
to come to Amsterdam, after a quarrel in the Hague.
Legacy and death
In 1673 Tulp was admitted to the Governing Committee of the Republic in the Hague. Tulp is buried in the New Church of Amsterdam. Joost van den VondelJoost van den Vondel
Joost van den Vondel was a Dutch writer and playwright. He is considered the most prominent Dutch poet and playwright of the 17th century. His plays are the ones from that period that are still most frequently performed, and his epic Joannes de Boetgezant , on the life of John the Baptist, has...
, a period poet, wrote several verses about Tulp. Besides the famous painting by Rembrandt there are more paintings and marble and bronze statues of him. The Holstein painter Jurriaen Ovens painted him twice, as his son and daughter. Also Artus Quellijn made a portrait.