Willem Karel Mertens

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Willem Karel Mertens (born May 5, 1893 in Surabaya , † February 20, 1945 in Cimahi ) was a Dutch doctor .

biography

Willem Karel Mertens was the son of Karel Hendrik Mertens, a teacher in the Dutch East Indies, and Mathilde Eugenie Emma Perger.

On January 11, 1921, he married Johanna Paul, who was two years his junior, and received his doctorate in 1925 with the thesis De reactie van Wildbolz in de dierproef .

Ten years later he was promoted to director of the Eijkman Institute , which he headed until the Japanese occupation in 1942. He was then interned in a POW camp near the city of Cimahi , where he died in February 1945 as a result of Beriberi .

Studies on the Bonkrèk toxin

In the early 1930s, Mertens and a group of Dutch scientists investigated the causes of the so-called Bongkrèk poisoning.

For several decades there has been food poisoning in the middle of Java , which often led to death. The first record of fatal poisonings was made in 1895 by the Dutch authorities.

The poisoning was preceded by the consumption of tempeh bongkrèk , which is a traditional fermentation product in Indonesia.

Under the leadership of Mertens and Andre Gerard van Veen , the Eijkman Institute began investigating the cause of the poisoning. With the discovery of toxoflavin , which is produced by Burkholderia gladioli bacteria, they achieved their breakthrough in 1933. Mertens and van Veen published nine studies in German and Dutch, which resulted in much more research.

literature

  • WK Mertens, De reactie van Wildbolz in de dierproef. Proefschrift ter Verkrijging van den graad van doctor in de geneeskunde aan de Rijks-Universiteit te Leiden, 1925
  • AG van Veen / WK Mertens, The toxins of the so-called Bongkrek poisonings on Java, 1934
  • A. Mochtar / WK Mertens, single-cell culture of leptospira: Koninklijke Nederlandsche Akademie von Wetenschappen, 1938

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Nederlandsch Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde, Personalia

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Mertens, Willem Karel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch hygienist
DATE OF BIRTH May 5, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH Surabaya
DATE OF DEATH February 20, 1945
Place of death Cimahi