Evert Gorter

Diagnoses

Vocation

Notable

Dutch paediatrician, professor in Utrecht and Ghent, biochemist and author. He was the son of the physician Auke Gorter (21 April 1852, Sneek - 16 February 1909 at 14h00, Laren NH) and Geertje Meijer (13 March 1852 - 10 December 1930 at 23h00, Leiden) who married 4 May 1877 in Westdongeradeel. He had a sister Emma Gorter (5 Okt 1882 - 28 Nov 1942, Utrecht) who was married to the jurist Henri van der Hoeven (13 Match 1843, Breda -21 May 1924, Zundert). His father studied medicine, but could not practise as a physician because of rheumatoid arthritis. In 1899 he started the study of medicine in Leiden. In 1905 he finished his study in the Institut Pasteur and the Hôpital des Enfants Malades in Paris. In Paris he understood that paediatrics should be a discipline in itself, not just an adapted form of medicine for little adults. He dissertated in 1907 cum laude on tuberculosis. In 1908 he was a teacher in paediatric internal medicine in Leiden. In 1915 he was involved with the foundation of the first paediatric clinic in Leiden. In 1917 he became lector and in 1923 the first professor in paediatrics in the University of Leiden and the second first prof in the field of Holland. He was founder and editor of the Dutch paediatric journal. He published on biochemical and physiochemical subjects on major platforms. His experiments on the double lipid layer of the cell membrane (published in 1925) was in 1975 acknowledged by Nature as a major discovery. He got several honorary doctorates (Paris, Ghent) and was a honoured member of the American Pediatric Society and others scientific societies. In 1927 The League of Nations asked him to sit in an international commission that would stimulate research about infant mortality. In 1935 he also became professor in paediatrics in Gent as well a in Leiden. He was also a pioneer in social and preventive medicine and played a role in the establishment of public advice agencies for mothers with infants (Consultatieburo's). In 1929 he founded Dutch Institute for Preventive Medicine (now TNO Preventie en Gezondheid). In 1942 the German occupiers banned him to Winschoten, a small town in North of Holland. After the war he went on with his work. He had some 250 publications. Personal On 22 May 1903 he married Jeannette Elisabeth Keijser (19 September 1879, Amsterdam - ). The got three daughters and two sons. They divorced 19 July 1933. On 18 August 1933 he married Elisabeth Colette Nicoline Muller (20 June 1896, Amsterdam ). They got no children. Like his father he suffered from rheumatoid arthritis. He often had to move to clinics and college rooms by wheelchair. He died February 17, 1954 11h20 in morning at age 72 in Leiden (BS). Link to Dutch Wikipedia biography