This volume is the fourteenth in the notable series of selected Dutch medical writings published by the Nederlandsch tijdschrift voor geneeskunde. It deals with the life and work of three remarkable Dutch physicians in the seventeenth century, Willem Piso, Wilhem Ten Rhyne and Cornelis Bontekoe, parts of whose writings are printed in Dutch and in English, preceded in each case by a biographic introduction and commentary.
Willem Piso, 1611-1678, physician in Amsterdam, served as chief of the medical service in the Dutch colony in Brazil from 1637 to 1644. In 1648 his great work on Brazilian medicine was published, "an exceedingly well executed, wonderfully illuminated folio volume." In this book are described the uses of ipecacuanha in dysentery and a form of lues, known as "bubas" or yaws, which can be transmitted "by the slightest touch." In his introductory sketch of Piso M. A. van Andel concludes that "to Piso