Photo: Bell in the
chapel in the old
Pathology building
The new Pathological Institute and the 20th Century
The location of the Laboratory at that time was far from ideal. The autopsy room was located under the materity ward and through openings in the floor and windows, patients had a good view of the activities there. When Spronck was approached for a professorship in Leyden, the secretary of state (!) told hem that he did not like transfers of professors and offered him as compensation a brand new pathological institute (on 32.150 m2). However the new institute was a stronghold of anatomic pathology and there was hardly a place for serology, a reason for Spronck to accept a position at the State Serological Institute. In 1919 he was succeeded by professor Rodolphe de Josselin de Jong, an avid supporter of collaboration between pathologists and clinicians (the present archive of the department contains his histological slides since 1895). He was the founder and first president of the Dutch Society of Pathology (1920). He was also a dedicated teacher and an amateur philosophist, a study that he thought that all medical students should study for a while. When he retired in 1935 he was succeeded by one of his collaborators, the neuropathologist Pieter van Niewenhuijse. Just as his predecessors he had very few staff members and a large educational workload, a job that he fullfilled with much dedication. The last, non living chair, was professor A. de Minjer (1958-1971). During his chairmanship the modern new techniques were introduced in the diagnostic practice; laboraties for cytology, enzymhistochemistry, immunohistology and elecronmicroscopy were realised. That was the basis for further developements which moved the department towards the end of the 20th century.