Six volumes of transcripts of lectures believed to have been delivered around 1859 in Nagasaki by a renowned Dutch physician were found recently at a hospital here, hospital officials said.
The transcripts, found at the Matsue Red Cross Hospital, are written in Dutch and cover chemistry, physics, pharmacology and related subjects, the officials said.
The lectures are believed to have been given by Pompe Van Meerdervoort (1829-1908), one of the fathers of the introduction of Western medicine to Japan, they said.
One of the transcripts of the chemistry lectures contains a margin note in Dutch saying, "April 20, 1859, at Dejima."