Science, tools and magic

This compact and lucid biography tells the story of the man subsequently known as the "Humboldt of the seventeenth century", on account of his extensive travels and contribution to the study of geography. If anyone deserves this accolade then it was certainly Engelbert Kaempfer (1651-1716), who made extensive notes and sketches of the topography, arts and manufactures of the countries of Asia, and particularly of Russia, Persia and Japan. But this label serves merely to highlight one facet of Kaempfer's remarkable, peripatetic career. Besides being a geographer, Kaempfer wrote extensively on the political and natural history of the countries he visited, as well as on the practice of medicine, in which he earned his living. Kaempfer was born in the Westphalian town of Lemgo, the son of a Lutheran pastor, who encouraged him in the study of the humanities and natural history. After studying a range of subjects (including medicine) at the universities of Krakow, Konigsberg and Uppsala, Kaempfer left the latter to find employment with a Swedish commercial legation bound for Russia and Persia. In Persia, Kaempfer left the legation and joined the Dutch East India Company, working for several years as a surgeon in the port of Hormuz. Brief sojourns in India and Batavia were followed by residence in Japan (1690-92), where Kaempfer was physician at the Dutch factory at Deshima. During this time, he collected notes for a political and natural history of Japan which was published posthumously from among his manuscript collection, purchased by Sir Hans Sloane. This work-translated into several languagesattracted a wide audience and established Kaempfer's place in the pantheon of travellers and natural historians. By contrast, the works published during Kaempfer's lifetime seem to have made little impact. Yet it is perhaps these very works-his Leiden doctoral dissertation (published 1694) and his Amoenitatum exoticarum politicophysico-medicarumfasiculi (1712)-which are likely to interest modern scholars, in that they contain Kaempfer's sympathetic descriptions of Japanese medicine, particularly the practices of acupuncture and moxibustion. The Japanese were just as eager to learn of the latest developments in European medicine. Indeed, the experiences of Kaempfer, and of contemporaries such as Francois Bernier in India, show that medicine provided one of the most important cultural bridges between the cultures of Asia and Europe-the significance of which we are only just beginning to realize.