Adolphe Vorderman

Adolphe Guillaume Vorderman (12 December 1844 – 15 July 1902) was a Dutch physician and scientist whose study of the link between polished rice and beriberi in the Dutch East Indies in 1897 helped lead to the discovery of vitamins. In addition, he was an ornithologist and botanist.

Biography Vorderman, who was born in The Hague, first travelled to the Dutch East Indies in 1866 as a naval medical officer. In 1871, he joined the Civil Health Department and was stationed at Sumenep on the island of Madura until 1881 when he was transferred to Batavia (now Jakarta). From 1890 until his death in Batavia, he served as chief inspector of the department.

Beriberi study In 1883, the Dutch government sent Christiaan Eijkman to the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) to try to determine the cause of and find a cure for beriberi. He noticed that chickens fed polished rice—which is rice which has had its bran removed—developed a similar paralysis in their legs. Before he could follow up on this line of enquiry, ill health forced him to return home to the Netherlands. Before leaving he asked his friend Adolphe Vorderman, who was chief medical officer, to continue the research on the link between rice and the disease.

Later, he conducted blind testing with rice experts to discover the make-up and origin of the rice varieties he found in the prison samples.

Selected publications 1884 'List of the birds from Java'. In: Natuurkundig Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch Indie (1884) 1885 Catalogus van eenige chineesche en inlandsche voedingsmiddelen van Batavia 1886 Kritische beschouwingen over Dr. C.L. van der Burg's "Materia medica", tevens eene bijdrage tot de kennis van eenige inlandsche geneesmiddelen 1886 Malaria te Tandjong-Priok 1888 Het journaal van Albert Colfs: eene bijdrage tot de kennis der kleine Soenda-eilanden (samen met Albert Colfs) 1889 Les oiseaux de Sumatra et leur présence dans les îles Avoisinantes) 1890 Eurycoma longifolia Jack de moederplant van "kajoe bidara laut" 1890 De vogels van Billiton 1891 'Bijdrage tot de kennis van het Billiton-Maleisch'. In: Tijdschrift voor Indische taal-, land- en volkenkunde (1891) 1891 Naar de Lampongs: verslag van een togt naar dat gewest in September 1883 1891 Over eene vogelcollectie afkomstig van Borneo 1897 Onderzoek naar het verband tusschen den aard der rijstvoeding in de gevangenissen op Java en Madoera en het voorkomen van beri-beri onder de geïnterneerden 1898 Molukken-vogels 1899 Inlandsche namen van eenige madoereesche planten en simplicia