Keboemen was a regentschap (regency) of Java in which Oey Djoen Hoat investigated the occurrence of xerophthalmie, and whose figures Dr. C. E. Gomperts set beside his own from Groot-Atjeh as a comparison strongly in Java’s favour.
The comparison
Oey Djoen Hoat found in the Regentschap Keboemen 88 cases of xerophthalmia among 4,532 boys examined and 20 among 3,595 girls — about 2 per cent and ½ per cent of the children respectively.
Gomperts remarked that these values “steken zeer gunstig af bij onze statistiek” — compare very favourably with our statistics. His own survey of 1937 found 459 cases among 11,400 children in Groot-Atjeh, about 4 per cent, rising to 7½ per cent among boys aged one to two.
The comparison belongs with Gomperts’s wider observation, made in connection with the age and sex distribution of severe cases reported by Sie Boen Lian, that “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.