Jacobus Bontius (Jacob de Bondt) (1592, in Leiden – 30 November 1631, in Batavia, Dutch East Indies) was a Dutch physician and a pioneer of tropical medicine. He is known for the four-volume work De medicina Indorum. His 1631 work "Historiae naturalis et medicae Indiae orientalis" introduced the Malay and Indonesian word "Orang Hutan" (literally "Forest Person") into Western and Southern European languages.Dellios, Paulette. 2008 "A lexical odyssey from the Malay World." Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 23:1
Life Bontius was born in Leiden, the youngest child of eight of the physician Gerard de Bondt / Gerardus Bontius (1536–1599), professor at Leiden University. Amongst his brothers were Reinier de Bondt / Regnerus Bontius (1576–1623), court physician to Maurice of Nassau, and Willem de Bondt / Wilhelmus Bontius, law professor at Leiden University.G. W. Bruyn and Charles M. Poser, The History of Tropical Neurology: Nutritional Disorders (2003), pp. 1-3; Google Books
Jacobus graduated M.D. from Leiden in 1614. He sailed to the East Indies with Jan Pieterszoon Coen, for the Dutch East India Company. The National Herbarium
De medicina Indorum (1642) Bontius' medical observations were published after his death. They include what is recognized as the first medical description of beriberi.David W. McCandless, Thiamine Deficiency and Associated Clinical Disorders (2009), p. 31; Google Books He reported on the dysentery epidemic in Java in 1628.Abhay Kumar Singh, Modern World System and Indian Proto-Industrialization: Bengal 1650-1800 (2006), p. 682; Google Books The second edition of 1658, put together by Willem Piso, was expanded and included material by Piso on the Americas.Donald F. Lach and Edwin J. Van Kley, Asia in the Making of Europe, Volume III: A Century of Advance. Book 1 (1998), p. 457; Google Books
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