Zeeman was the ophthalmological authority whose warning against oversimplified explanations of xerophthalmie was quoted by Dr. C. E. Gomperts as the starting point of his own argument against a purely dietary theory of the disease.
The warning
In the early period of the study of xerophthalmia, Gomperts wrote, investigators formed all too simplistic conceptions of its cause, attributing the deficiency disease exclusively to vitamin-A-poor food; over the years, through the perfection of investigative methods — the demonstration of vitamin A in the blood — and through more extensive investigation of cases, that simple conception could no longer be maintained.
“Niemand minder dan Zeeman waarschuwde tegen al te eenvoudige voorstellingen onder de volgende bewoordingen: Nieuwe proeven houden ons af van een al te eenvoudige voorstelling” — none less than Zeeman warned against all too simple representations in the following words: new experiments hold us back from an all too simple representation.
Gomperts used the warning to introduce his own demonstration, from the harvest data of 1936 and 1937, that the distribution of xerophthalmia across the moekims of Groot-Atjeh could not be explained by food supply alone.
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.