Ir. Meulemans was a Netherlands-Indies researcher, co-author with Mevrouw Van Stockum and Dr. J. H. de Haas of the investigation among indigenous mothers on Java which established that the vitamin A content of their milk was much lower than that of European women.
The finding and its application to Atjeh
The result of the joint investigation was cited by Dr. C. E. Gomperts as the basis for his explanation of why xerophthalmie in Groot-Atjeh was concentrated in the age group 0–5. Since the nutrition of the Atjehnese population was certainly poorer than that of the Javanese, the vitamin A content of Atjehnese mothers’ milk was to be expected lower still; and with the Acehnese custom of protracted breast-feeding of eighteen to twenty months, the low level would suffice only up to a point before growth and other factors depressed it into hypo- or avitaminosis.
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.