[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.

Feasibility of central co-ordinated EMA/CO for gestational trophoblastic disease in the Netherlands.

Objective: In the Netherlands, high risk gestational trophoblastic disease (GTD) patients are treated in different referral hospitals with a national working party on trophoblastic tumours having a co-ordinating function. Our purpose was to evaluate whether this policy is a satisfactory alternative to complete centralisation.

Design: A retrospective study of all etoposide, methotrexate, actomycin D, cyclophosphamide and vincristine (EMA/CO)-treated women in the Netherlands between 1986 and 1997.