Cornelis Stalpart van der Wiel (1620–1702) was an esteemed Dutch surgeon. He had a busy practice in The Hague that received well to do patients from all over the Low Countries. Stalpart was also a prolific writer, recording new illness, injuries and physical anomalies. His brother was also a physician.

Writing in 1686, Slapart describes the curious case of Elisabeth Tomboy, one of his brother’s patients. Tomboy was a Dutch housewife who in January 1678 gave birth to a normal and quite healthy baby daughter. However on September 27th 1677, 14 weeks beforehand, Tomboy had gone into premature labour. Attended by Dr Stalpart Jnr and a midwife, Mrs Tomboy gave birth to a stillborn puppy:

“..being a bitch, about a finger long and having all its limbs.”

Bestiality was the usual explanation for deformed births of this kind, however Stalpart, drawing on the investigations of his brother, offered an alternative explanation. He penned this part in Latin, to keep it from “common readers” and to spare Mrs Tomboy further embarrassment:

“Her husband was a coarse, crude drunk, shameless and utterly inhuman… from time to time he took her from behind, threatening her with clubs and iron pipe so that she would have to comply…”

Elisabeth Tomboy, Stalpart said, became so convinced that she would conceive a dog that she did. This story was repeated (though never corroborated) by other early modern medical writers, as evidence of maternal impression.

Source: C. Stalpart van der Wiel, Hondert zeldzame aanmerhngen, zoo in de genees-als heelkunst, 1686. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2019-23. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.