Hendrik Zwaardemaker belongs to the medical record as a figure whose work changed what could be treated.
The record lists Hendrik Zwaardemaker as Dutch physiologist (1857–1930).
Hendrik Zwaardemaker was born at Haarlem in 1857. His recorded nationality is Netherlands. He trained at University of Amsterdam.
Anaesthesia, antisepsis and germ theory arrived within fifty years and made modern surgery possible for the first time.
His posts were held at Utrecht University and Utrecht University.
The recorded fields of work are physiology.
Medicine advances against a moving target, and its successes are counted in lives rather than papers.
That the work was done from Netherlands matters: hospitals, training and research funding are unevenly distributed, and they decide which questions can be asked.
Hendrik Zwaardemaker died in 1930, aged 73. What survives is the change in practice, which is how a medical life is actually measured.
Achievements
- Held posts at Utrecht University and Utrecht University
- Fields: physiology
