Arie Biemond

Vocation

Notable

Dutch professor of neurology. Arie Biemond, or "Aay" as his intimate friends called him, was the only son of the merchant Arie Biemond (4 September 1868, Maassluis - 21 February 1949, Bloemendaal) and Dieuwertje Zijp (28 May 1868, Wieringerwaard - 28 February 1947, Bloemendaal), who married 20 February 1897 in Hoogwoud. He was raised in Amsterdam and studied medicine at the University of Amsterdam (UvA). On 9 December 1925 he became a physician. In 1926 he became the assistant of the neurologist Prof B. Brouwer. He worked in the Binnengasthuis and Wilhelmina Gasthuis. On 20 November 1929 he dissertated on "Experimenteel-anatomisch onderzoek omtrent de cortifugale optische verbindingen bij aap en konijn" under prof B. Brouwer. The Dutch brain researcher Bertus Brouwer was a pioneer in experimental anatomy of the nervous system using ablation techniques in living animals to detect the functions of cortical tracts. He became the first professor of neurology in the Netherlands. But the well dressed Biemond would like most neurologists patiently wait till his clinically observed patients died. Once in a week he would then go with the pathologist Prof. Herman Tewes Deelman (17 March 1892, Purmerend - 26 December 1965, Amsterdam) to the pathologic anatomic laboratory to visit his autopsy lectures. Deelman (meaning "part of man") and his autopsy assistants did the bloody work of cutting the human corps and brain into parts, but "Arie" (Hebrew for "Lion of G'd") could score with it, as he could now correlate the clinical malfunctioning of his deceased patients with aberrant anatomic findings. Deelman knew that Arie somehow hated his common Dutch name, and liked to tease him: He always shouted "Arie" as he saw him. And when they went to the macabre autopsy room, Deelman liked to lay his bloody hands (surgical gloves were not yet invented) on the white collar of Arie Biemond with the aim to soil it (See source notes: "Onder professoren"). On 23 July 1947 Biemond was appointed as professor of Neurology at the Uva. The post was accepted on 16 September 1947 and on 3 November 1947 he held his inaugural speech about hereditary neurological diseases: "Enige beschouwingen over erfelijke organische zenuwziekten". Biemond's syndrome or posterior column ataxia was described by him. It is an autosomal dominant neurological disorder in which disturbance of gait develops in early adulthood. He retired on 1 January 1971 on his own wish and held on 30 January 1971 his last lecture. He died 30 August 1973 in Soest. Personal Biemond married three times. On 4 July 1927 he married in Den Haag an unknown lady. They divorced 28 February 1949. On 28 February 1949 he married at Amsterdam Erna Maria Helena Louisa Wijers (30 May 1916, Dordrecht - 1 October 1968, Amsterdam,). After her death he married Hilda Helena Nelly Tjeenk Willink on 19 March 1971 at Amsterdam. Hilda Tjeenk Willink (20 February 1919, Zwolle - 25 June 1998, Huizen) came from a noted Dutch Patrician family. She married trice. She divorced after three years from her first marriage (1952-1955), remarried in 1955 and divorced in 1967 from the publisher Geertjan Lubberhuizen (1916-1984). During her short-lived marriage with Biemond (1971-1973) she suffered from multiple sclerosis.