Willem Piso

Willem Piso, born Willem Pies in Leiden around 1611, was a Dutch physician and naturalist who became one of the founders of tropical medicine. He began medical studies at Leiden as a boy and took his degree at the University of Caen in 1633. After settling as a physician in Amsterdam he entered the service of the Dutch West India Company in 1637 as doctor to Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen, governor of Dutch Brazil, and travelled there with a scientific and artistic team that included Georg Marcgrave. In Brazil he studied tropical diseases and local medicinal plants and noted the value of fresh food in keeping European soldiers and sailors healthy. He returned in 1644, helped publish the 1648 Historia Naturalis Brasiliae, and later became inspector and dean of the Amsterdam Medical College. He died in 1678.