Nikolaas (or Nicolaas) Anton Stutterheim, medical
practitioner and ophthalmologist, was the son of Frederik Willem Stutterheim and his wife Magdalena Maria van 't Hooft. He initially studied theology in Utrecht, but
then changed direction and studied medicine at the University of Leiden,
qualifying as a licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries (LSA, London) in
1905. He then came to South Africa as a medical practitioner at Ermelo, in the
Transvaal Colony, and was registered to practice in 1906. In about 1909 he returned
to The Netherlands and qualified as an ophthalmologist at the University of
Leiden. At some time he also worked as an assistant at the Eye Clinic of the
University of Leiden. In August 1909, while in the Netherlands, he married Elizabeth Catharina
van Nouhuijs, with whom he had four children. She died in 1926.
Back in South Africa Stutterheim settled in Bethal, but in
1926 moved to Johannesburg. There he continued his studies and qualified as
Doctor of Medicine (MD) at the University of the Witwatersrand in 1929, after
which he built up an active practice. His doctoral thesis was published under
the title Indications for the kinetic treatment
of the eyes, as a monograph supplement to the British Journal of Ophthalmology (1931, 82 pp.)
According to Dr A. Pijper*(1953), Stutterheim was first and
foremost a philosopher, who's outlook led him to make a detailed study of the physiology
of vision, and particularly human binocular vision. He developed novel theories
of asthenopia [weakness of vision owing to strain or weakness of the eye
muscles] and strabismus [squint], and put them to practical use with some
success, though they remained controversial. His work was published in the form
of several scientific papers: 'The convergence of human binocular vision'
(1932), 'The primary position of the eyes' (1933) and 'Involuntary convergence,
eyestrain and squint' (1942), all in the British
Journal of Ophthalmology; and 'The divergence of the primary position of
the eyes' (Australian Journal of
Optometry, 1934). The applications of his theories were set out in three
books: Eyestrain and convergence (1937,
80 pp.), Squint and convergence; a study
in di-ophthalmology (1946, 95 pp.) and Introduction
to diophthalmology (1950, 43 pp.)
Stutterheim was awarded the Senior Captain Scott Memorial
Medal of the South African Biological Society in 1951, in recognition of his
ophthalmological work.
