Dr. C. E. Gomperts was a Netherlands-Indies physician and ophthalmologist who in 1937 carried out an orienting eye survey among the Atjehnese population of Groot-Atjeh, examining 18,808 persons, and published its results in 1940 in the Geneeskundig Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch-Indië as Oriënteerend oogheelkundig onderzoek.
The survey
Gomperts worked as an Officier van gezondheid (medical officer) with access to the Militair Hospitaal te Koetaradja, where he observed cases of xerophthalmie and keratomalacie over two years and where he sent for admission those patients whose condition required hospital treatment or surgery. He conducted the field survey over ten months, from March to December 1937, with a mantri-ziekenverpleger (native nursing assistant) attached to him, and with his own chauffeur — an Atjehnese — serving as “een zeer verdienstelijke tolk” (a very deserving interpreter) and assisting with the distribution of medicines.
He referred to himself throughout in the third person as verslaggever (the reporter) or schrijver (the writer).
Relation to Tijssen
The survey was undertaken in the wake of Dr. J. Tijssen’s kampong campaigns. Gomperts adopted Tijssen’s central idea — going out to the population and examining them in their own surroundings — and praised it warmly: “Het idee van Tijssen om de bevolking in de kampongs op te zoeken en onderzoek in hun milieu te verrichten, is zeer toe te juichen” — the idea of Tijssen to seek out the population in the kampongs and to conduct the examination in their own milieu is greatly to be applauded. He rejected, however, Tijssen’s practice of operating in the villages, on grounds set out at length in his comparison of surgical results: see Methode-Tijssen.
He also disputed a series of Tijssen’s clinical propositions about xerophthalmia and keratomalacia, chiefly the contention that these were constitutie-ziekten (constitutional diseases) and that they were two essentially different conditions.
Scientific position
Gomperts consulted Professor Mulock Houwer in advance of the survey and thanked him for “zijn opbouwende kritiek en de zeer gewaardeerde aanwijzingen.” He nevertheless disagreed with Mulock Houwer on the definition of keratomalacia, arguing on the basis of the eighteen hospital cases he had observed in 1937 that the lesser corneal changes were a pre-stage of keratomalacia rather than a separate condition.
On the underlying nature of xerophthalmia he inclined to the view of Mevrouw Van Stockum — that the condition resulted from a common underlying cause and a coincidence — rather than to Tijssen’s constitutional theory. He rejected the simple identification of xerophthalmia with dietary vitamin A deficiency alone, citing Zeeman’s warning against “een al te eenvoudige voorstelling” (an all too simple representation), and demonstrated from his own district-by-district harvest data that food supply alone could not explain the observed distribution.
His statistics on the age and sex distribution of severe xerophthalmia did not agree with those of Sie Boen Lian on Java: “De verhoudingen schijnen dus in Groot-Atjeh anders te zijn dan op Java” — the proportions therefore appear to be different in Groot-Atjeh than on Java.
See Also
- Oriënteerend oogheelkundig onderzoek bij de Atjehsche bevolking van Groot-Atjeh gedurende 1937
- J. Tijssen
- Methode-Tijssen
- Mulock Houwer
- Xerophthalmie
- Militair Hospitaal te Koetaradja
- Groot-Atjeh
Source
Oriënteerend oogheelkundig onderzoek bij de Atjehsche bevolking van Groot-Atjeh gedurende 1937 (“Orienting Ophthalmological Survey among the Atjehnese Population of Groot-Atjeh during 1937”), by Dr. C. E. Gomperts, offprint from the Geneeskundig Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch-Indië, Afl. 19, Deel 80 (1940), pp. 1191-1238 (Batavia-Centrum: G. Kolff & Co.). Received by the editors 25 October 1939. Offprint DLP-157, Bibliotheek KITLV.