[Van Heerden: the first female doctor in South Africa].

Petronella van Heerden (1887-1975) was born in South Africa. She studied medicine in Amsterdam from 1908 to 1915 and then worked as the first female doctor in her native country for 4 years before specialising in gynaecology in London. She then returned to Amsterdam, where she gained a PhD in 1923 on a thesis on endometriosis that was written in Afrikaans.

[Comfort after a sad outcome of pregnancy. Two letters of Frederick the Great to Wilhelmina of Prussia].

After her unfortunate experience of parturition Princess Wilhelmina of Prussia, married to stadhouder Prince Willem V, received two letters of comfort from her beloved godfather King Frederick II (Frederick the Great) of Prussia. These letters illustrate the special close connection there was between them. The letters also give a view on the difficult question of giving comfort after perinatal death.

[M.A. Mendes de Leon (1856-1924), a founding father of gynaecology].

M.A. Mendes de Leon (1856-1924) was appointed private lecturer at the Department of Obstetrics of the University of Amsterdam in 1884.

[Enigmas surrounding an obstetric forceps belonging to Albertus Titsingh (1714-1790)].

In the collections of the Society of the Dutch Journal of Medicine there is a small box containing a small obstetric forceps modelled on that of the British physician Smellie and some documents with information about its origin. The instrument belonged to the Amsterdam surgeon-obstetrician Albertus Titsingh and is claimed in the documentation to have been used during the birth of the later King William I (1772-1843) in 1772. However, historical research indicates that this is very unlikely: it is an established fact that the birth of William I was rapid and successful, while Albertus Titsingh was an authoritative obstetrician in an 'obstetric climate' of biding one's time and taking no action until the natural powers have failed.

[Gaubius' description of the first parturition of Wilhelmina of Prussia in 1769; 'The unlucky birth of the princess mijne gemaelinne'].

In the archives of the Dutch royal family there is a hitherto unknown report of a childbirth by the Leiden court physician Prof. H.D.