Hendrik Zwaardemaker

Vocation

Dutch physiologist, otolaryngologist, radiologist, inventor of the olfactometer. He was born in Haarlem, moved early to the Dutch "book city" Deventer and in 1870 to Amsterdam. His father Cornelis Zwaardemaker (b. 21 May 1828, Zaandam - 1887, Amsterdam) was a publisher and seller of books. His father married 1856 the daughter of the "Doopsgezinde" preacher Jan Visscher and got two sons from her. He also stimulated her to read and write literature herself. His mother Jacoba Berendina (Codien) Zwaardemaker-Visscher (5 May 1835, Utrecht – 4 Augustus 1912, Utrecht) became a socially engaged feminist writer of novels and pamphlets on subjects like children labour, anti-Semitism, feminism, translator of George Eliot and German Romantic literature and editor of women's literature supporting the emancipation of children and women. Zwaardemaker wrote in his autobiography: "Born in a literary social sphere( my father was a bibliographer, my mother a novelist),I excelled in my boyhood, through certain accidental combinations of qualities (for nothing is known of mendelian influence), in mathematics and science. For that reason my parents planned for me a medical career, hoping that I would direct my interests into a broad field." In 1870 the family moved to Amsterdam. Here Zwaardemaker followed the HBS secondary education and after that went into the Army to become a "Pill" (military doctor) at the Atheneum Illustre. Here he met his friend M. Straub, who became a professor of ophthalmology in Amsterdam. From 1879 to 1881 he was an assistant of professor of pathological anatomy C.H. Kuhn, thereafter he worked under the physiologist professor Th. Laplace on his thesis on angina pectoris: "Over ischaemie van den hartwand." ( 21 December 1883, Amsterdam) having Kuhn as his promoter. But he became not a famous cardiologist, but specialised instead in otolaryngology after 1886. On 17 August 1897 he was appointed as professor of experimental physiology at Utrecht University. He worked as a Professor of Physiology from 24 September 1897 (1st speech) "Over spraakgeluiden" (about speech sounds) till 19 September 1927 (age 70). In 1888 Zwaardemaker invented the first olfactometer, an instrument detect and measure ambient odor dilution (Lancet, 1889). He found out that the nasal detection offensive oudors could be prevented by conjugates: Z(waardemaker)-pairs. His book "Die Physiologie des Geruchs" (Physiologie of Olfaction) appeared in 1895. He experimented with hearing aids. He was Rector Magnificus at Utrecht from 1909-1910. His very last lecture had the tittle "Op den uitkijk" (on the watchout) and was held 13 June 1927 in Wageningen. After his retirementhe finished in 1928 the Leerboek der phonetiek". He died 21 September 1930 in Wageningen because of disease. Link to Wikipedia