Sie Boen Lian was a Netherlands-Indies physician whose published work on the vlekken van Bitôt (Bitôt’s spots) and on the age distribution of severe xerophthalmie was discussed at length by Dr. C. E. Gomperts in Gomperts’s report of 1940.
On Bitôt’s spots
Sie Boen Lian published several articles showing that Bitôt’s spots, especially in adults, were “nog geen conditio sine qua non” for the existence of xerophthalmia. He made this plausible by determining the vitamin A content of the blood and by reporting that the spots remained unchanged despite a vitamin-A-rich diet and therapy.
Gomperts accepted the finding but entered a reservation: for the general practitioner and the ophthalmologist conducting an orienting survey, only the clinical local signs offered a hold for the diagnosis. “Daarom is het erg jammer, dat Collega Sie Boen Lian bij deze publicaties er niet bij vermeld heeft of in deze afwijkende gevallen van vlekken van Bitôt de conjunctiva al of niet de andere kenmerken van de xerophthalmie vertoonde” — it is therefore a great pity that Colleague Sie Boen Lian did not state in these publications whether in these deviant cases of Bitôt’s spots the conjunctiva did or did not show the other marks of xerophthalmia, namely the xerotic condition with the dirty discolouration typical of the disease.
Gomperts added that he did not believe the diagnosis would present difficulties in children showing all the typical conjunctival changes, “zooals De Haas vreest door deze belangrijke waarneming van Sie Boen Lian.”
On the age distribution
Sie Boen Lian, with Mulock Houwer, did not share Tijssen’s supposition that the greater frequency of blindness among boys was caused by more boys than girls being attacked by xerophthalmia. He made his doubt plausible by reporting that, according to the statistics he had collected, the severe cases of xerophthalmia were most often seen at ages at which the disease was not much more frequent among boys than among girls.
Gomperts’s own statistics did not agree: “Verslaggever’s statistiek stemt echter niet overeen met die van Sie Boen Lian. 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
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.