Willem Frans Daems

Willem Frans Daems (1911 to 1994) was a Dutch pharmacist, medical historian and editor associated with anthroposophic medicine. Born in Amsterdam, where his father worked as a hospital administrator, he studied pharmacy there and wrote a doctoral thesis on the pharmaceutical history of medicinal plants that act as cardiac stimulants. After working as a pharmacist in Arnhem and Haarlem and directing the firm Biochema in Leyden, he met anthroposophy through a lecture and in 1955 joined Weleda in Arlesheim, where he built its documentation centre, edited the Weleda Korrespondenzblaetter fuer Aerzte, and from 1965 headed the medical department. A second doctorate on medieval subjects led to a post teaching the history of medicine and pharmacy at Wuerzburg from 1973. He co-edited Nova acta Paracelsica, served as vice-president of the Swiss Society for History of Pharmacy, published more than 190 titles and died in Arlesheim at the age of 83.