Cornelia Catharina de Lange

Life

Born in Alkmaar, De Lange graduated from the University of Amsterdam in 1897 and began her general practice. However, because pediatrics did not exist as a specialty in the Netherlands, De Lange moved to Switzerland, where she worked in the children's hospital in Zurich under Oskar Wyss. In the early 1900s De Lange became an acclaimed specialist and attained a position in Amsterdam’s Children’s Hospital. De Lange worked in all aspects of pediatrics. During her 50 years of practice she collected multiple observations of pediatric disorders. De Lange also became interested in congenital disorders and their pediatric relevance as theories on human genetics developed during the 1920s and 1930s. In 1933, De Lange described what she called "typus degenerativus Amstelodamensis" (Amsterdam degeneration type) in two children, which became known Cornelia de Lange syndrome.