Abraham Titsingh

Abraham Titsingh was a Dutch naval surgeon, born in Amsterdam in 1684, who tried to reform the medical system of the Dutch Republic from inside the surgeons guild. His father, also a naval surgeon, was killed at sea in 1691 while fighting the French. Titsingh had only a primary education before he became a surgeon's apprentice at eleven, joined the navy as a second surgeon in 1702, and returned to Amsterdam in 1710 to qualify for a licence in 1711. He judged the guild corrupt, wrote a book on its abuses in 1730 and headed it from 1731, clashing with figures of the day such as Jacobus Denys. He published several books, among them one on medical treatment on sea voyages, and died in 1776.