F. H. van Loon was the well-known Batavia psychiatrist — director of the doorgangshuis voor krankzinnigen (transit asylum for the insane) at Batavia — whom Governor A. G. H. van Sluys caused to come to Atjeh in 1920 to conduct a psychiatric investigation into the strikingly frequent occurrence of insanity among the Atjehnese population.
The inquiry of 1920
One of the first measures of Governor Van Sluys, after taking office in September 1918, had been an inquiry into the matter: nominal returns made by the administrative officials of the insane in their resorts showed a total of 1,100 names. On the Governor’s ensuing report, Dr. van Loon was sent to Atjeh in 1920. He visited a great number of places in the province, in which 215 patients were examined. All administrative officials and Atjehnese chiefs with whom Dr. van Loon spoke were agreed that it would be a blessing for the whole province if the population could be relieved of the pressure and the burdens caused by the numerous insane persons. Dr. van Loon found that a very large number of the insane in the Government of Atjeh and Dependencies walked about freely, and he came to the conclusion that the Governor was wholly right in deeming the admission of all sufferers into an institution desirable — also in the interest of the further pacification. Langhout places the inquiry within Van Sluys’s wider programme of popular health, in which the work of the Netherlands military physicians in Atjeh had done much good: “through the work of the Dutch physician the Atjehnese experiences, without any return performance, our good intentions at first hand.”
See Also
Account from Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu
In 1920 was commissioned to investigate the number of insane in Acehsche residency and onderhoorigheden needing institutional care and to gather data for solving the lunacy issue. Began at Koeala Simpang; investigated the whole line to Koetaradja. Estimated serious insane at >1000, with many more less serious cases. Wrote report. Quoted on Atjeh-moord motivations and on the emotional/nervous excitability of the Acehnese.
Source: J. Jongejans, Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu (Baarn: Hollandia Drukkerij N.V., c. 1938), pp. 366, 367, 368, 381.
Source
Vijftig jaren economische staatkunde in Atjeh, by Joh. Langhout (The Hague: N.V. Boekhandel v/h W. P. van Stockum & Zoon, 1923), pp. 117–118.
Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu, by J. Jongejans, Oud-Resident van het Gewest Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden, with a foreword by Dr. H. Colijn (Baarn: Hollandia Drukkerij N.V., c. 1938), pp. 366, 367, 368, 381.