Dr. J. H. de Haas — not to be confused with the De Haas named in the K.N.I.L. literature — was a Netherlands-Indies physician, co-author with Mevrouw Van Stockum and Ir. Meulemans of the finding that the milk of indigenous mothers on Java was far lower in vitamin A than that of European women, and the physician whose demonstration of six xerophthalmic children at the C.B.Z. occasioned Mulock Houwer’s definition of keratomalacie.
The mothers’ milk study
The investigations of Mevrouw Van Stockum, Dr. J. H. de Haas and Ir. Meulemans among indigenous mothers on Java established that the vitamin A content of their milk was much lower than that of European women — a finding Dr. C. E. Gomperts applied to Groot-Atjeh in explaining the concentration of xerophthalmie in the youngest age group.
The clinical demonstration
At a clinical evening at the C.B.Z. De Haas demonstrated six non-European children with xerophthalmia. It was on that occasion that Professor Mulock Houwer remarked that not every corneal ulceration in xerophthalmia might be called keratomalacia, since keratomalacia was a very typical clinical picture in which the cornea melted away entirely in a few days — a definition Gomperts subsequently declined to accept.
On the diagnostic difficulty
De Haas feared that Sie Boen Lian’s important observation on the vlekken van Bitôt — that in adults these spots were not necessarily diagnostic of xerophthalmia — would make the diagnosis difficult. Gomperts did not share the fear so far as children showing all the typical conjunctival changes were concerned.
See Also
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.