Lucien von Römer belongs to the medical record as a figure whose work changed what could be treated.
The record lists Lucien von Römer as Dutch physician, botanist and writer (1873-1965).
Lucien von Römer was born at Kampen in 1873. His recorded nationality is Netherlands. He trained at University of Amsterdam and Leiden University.
Anaesthesia, antisepsis and germ theory arrived within fifty years and made modern surgery possible for the first time.
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.
Lucien von Römer died in 1965, aged 92. What survives is the change in practice, which is how a medical life is actually measured.
