Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Witsen, Willem Jacobus

​WITSEN, Willem Jacobus, Dutch physician, b. in Oesgeet, Holland, in 1739 ; d. near Rotter- dam in 1808. He was educated at the University of Leyden, and went about 1765 to St. Eustatius, W. I., where he practised his profession and formed a valuable library. After holding the office of health commissioner of the colony, he was trans- ferred to Surinam in the same capacity, and checked there an epidemic of yellow fever in 1779-'80, and the Asiatic cholera in 1783. He was maintained in his office when the colony was captured by the English and retaken by the French, and after the conclusion of peace he estab- lished a botanical garden in Surinam, and made several expeditions into the interior to collect medicinal plants. In 1797 he was appointed sur- geon-inspector in the home navy department, and retired from active service in 1801, settling on an estate near Rotterdam, where he died. Among his works are " Tropiske Medicinske Voorden- boek, gefolgden van een Verhandling over medi- cinske planten van Guiana " (Rotterdam, 1799), and " De plantarum Guiana? asconomia" (1802).

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