Isidore Snapper (1889-1973) en Bedside medicine

Snapper was born in Amsterdam, where his Jewish ancestors worked as diamond cutters. His sharp wits allowed him to obtain a good education and he went on to study medicine in his home town. After a few years in Groningen, where he wrote a physiological dissertation and trained as an internist, he was appointed as professor of internal medicine in Amsterdam at the age of 30. In 1938 the threat of the Nazis led him to accept an appointment at the Beijing Union Medical College. In 1942, after prolonged confinement by the Japanese authorities, he was allowed to travel to the USA, where he subsequently became department head at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York (1944-1952) and Cook County Hospital in Chicago (1952-1953). His gifts as a diagnostician and teacher are evident from his book Bedside medicine (1960).

Conflict of interest: none declared. Financial support: J.P. Gijselhart works part-time for the Association of the Dutch Journal of Medicine (Vereniging Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde), Amsterdam.