Willem Piso (in Dutch Willem Pies, in Latin Gulielmus Piso, also called Guilherme Piso in Portuguese) (1611 in

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wit ...

– 28 November 1678 in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

) was a Dutch

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

and naturalist who participated as an expedition doctor in

Dutch Brazil Dutch Brazil ( nl, Nederlands-Brazilië), also known as New Holland ( nl, Nieuw-Holland), was a colony of the Dutch Republic in the northeastern portion of modern-day Brazil, controlled from 1630 to 1654 during Dutch colonization of the Americas ...

from 1637 – 1644, sponsored by

count Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...

Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen John Maurice of Nassau (Dutch: ''Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen''; German: ''Johann Moritz von Nassau-Siegen''; Portuguese: ''João Maurício de Nassau-Siegen''; 17 June 1604 – 20 December 1679), called "the Brazilian" for his fruitful period a ...

and the

Dutch West India Company The Dutch West India Company ( nl, Geoctrooieerde Westindische Compagnie, ''WIC'' or ''GWC''; ; en, Chartered West India Company) was a chartered company of Dutch merchants as well as foreign investors. Among its founders was Willem Usselincx ( ...

. Piso became one of the founders of tropical medicine.

Life and career

Piso was born in Leiden to church organist Hermann Pies and Cornelia van Liesvelt. He studied in Leiden and received a degree in medicine from

Caen Caen (, ; nrf, Kaem) is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the department of Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inhabitants (), while its functional urban area has 470,000,Georg Marcgrave Georg Marcgrave (originally german: Georg Marggraf, also spelled ''"Marcgraf" " Markgraf"'') (1610 – 1644) was a German naturalist and astronomer, whose posthumously published ''Historia Naturalis Brasiliae'' was a major contribution to early mo ...

and the painters

Albert Eckhout Albert Eckhout (c.1610–1665) was a Dutch portrait and still life painter. Eckhout, the son of Albert Eckhourt and Marryen Roeleffs, was born in Groningen, but his training as an artist and early career are unknown. A majority of the works attrib ...

and

Frans Post Frans Janszoon Post (17 November 1612 – 17 February 1680) was a painter during the Dutch Golden Age. He was the first European artist to paint landscapes of the Americas, during and after the period of Dutch Brazil In 1636 he traveled to ...

. There, he recommended the consumption of fresh fish, vegetables, and fruits after discovering that soldiers and seamen suffered from physical problems including night blindness resulting from

malnutrition Malnutrition occurs when an organism gets too few or too many nutrients, resulting in health problems. Specifically, it is "a deficiency, excess, or imbalance of energy, protein and other nutrients" which adversely affects the body's tissues a ...

. Piso identified Brazilian lemons as being particularly effective in overcoming scurvy. In 1644, Piso returned along with the Count to the Netherlands. Piso lived in Leiden and then moved to Amsterdam, where he was a part of the scientific community. In 1655, he became inspector of the Amsterdam Medical College, and later its dean. Together with Georg Marcgrave, and originally published by

Joannes de Laet Joannes or Johannes De Laet (Latinized as ''Ioannes Latius'') (1581 in Antwerp – buried 15 December 1649, in Leiden) was a Dutch geographer and director of the Dutch West India Company. Philip Burden called his ''History of the New World'', " ...

, Piso wrote the ''

Historia Naturalis Brasiliae ''Historia Naturalis Brasiliae'' ( en, Brazilian Natural History), originally written in Latin, is the first scientific work on the natural history of Brazil, written by Dutch naturalist Willem Piso and containing research done by the German ...

'' (1648), an important early Western insight into Brazilian flora and fauna. He also published as part of this work four parts titled ''De medicina Brasiliense'' in which he examined tropical diseases and indigenous therapies (including the use of ipecacuanha-root and leaves of the jaborandi), Piso collected plants and animals in Brazil. In 1658, he published another work, which is a second edition of the ''Historia'' titled ''De Indiae Utriusque re naturali et medica.'' He was the sole author of this and he is said to have tried to undermine Markgraf's work, and many careless errors, leading to criticism from Markgraf's brother and even Linnaeus. He is buried near Rembrandt in the

Westerkerk The Westerkerk (; en, Western Church) is a Reformed church within Dutch Protestant Calvinism in central Amsterdam, Netherlands. It lies in the most western part of the Grachtengordel neighborhood ( Centrum borough), next to the Jordaan, betwe ...

in Amsterdam.

Honours

A minor planet,

11240 Piso Eleven or 11 may refer to: *11 (number), the natural number following 10 and preceding 12 * one of the years 11 BC, AD 11, 1911, 2011, or any year ending in 11 Literature * ''Eleven'' (novel), a 2006 novel by British author David Llewellyn *'' ...

, and 2 types of plant genus; ''

Pisonia ''Pisonia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the four o'clock flower family, Nyctaginaceae. It was named for Dutch physician and naturalist Willem Piso (1611–1678). Certain species in this genus are known as catchbirdtrees, birdcatcher trees o ...

'', and ''

Pisoniella ''Pisoniella'' is a monotypic genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Nyctaginaceae. It only contains one known species, ''Pisoniella arborescens'' It is native to (northwestern) Argentina, Bolivia and Mexico. The genus name of ''Pis ...

'' both belonging to the family

Nyctaginaceae Nyctaginaceae, the four o'clock family, is a family of around 33 genera and 290 species of flowering plants, widely distributed in tropical and subtropical regions, with a few representatives in temperate regions. The family has a unique fruit t ...

, are named for him.

References

External links

Biography
at Illustrated Garden.org
De Indiae utriusque re naturali et medica libri quatuordecim :quorum contenta pagina sequens exhibet
1611 births 1678 deaths 17th-century Dutch physicians 17th-century Latin-language writers Dutch naturalists 17th-century Dutch naturalists 17th-century Dutch botanists People from Leiden Sailors on ships of the Dutch West India Company 17th-century Dutch scientists People of Dutch Brazil Pre-Linnaean botanists {{Netherlands-med-bio-stub