Medical education in The Netherlands as seen from the inaugural addresses in surgery and obstetrics (1865-1900) Medical education in The Netherlands showed major changes during the second half of the nineteenth century. The laws of 1865 and 1876 regulated the medical examinations and the teaching of medicine in the universities. Before 1876 medicine was taught at the universities of Leiden, Utrecht and Groningen, and at the Athenaeum Illustre in Amsterdam. After 1876 the Athenaeum was promoted to university. In 1865 there was a total of 16 ordinary professors in medicine. Their number grew considerably during the next decades. The newly appointed professors usually delivered an inaugural address. From these addresses one gets an interesting view of their aims for medical education. In this article the addresses from 1865 to 1900 of the professors in obstetrics and gynaecology, surgery, ophthalmology and otology are discussed. One of the main aims of the inaugural addresses appears to have been the explanation of the scientific basis of the profession involved. Only at the end of the century this basis was established; the addresses then began to focus on subjects like the need for specialisation and the expansion of clinical teaching. A list of names of professors and lecturers in the four Dutch universities is included as well as a list of the titles of their addresses.