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Between September 1752 and July 1753, Wouter van Doeveren, a student of Gaubius, Albinus and Winter at Leyden University, studied, together with a couple of friends at various Paris hospitals in order to improve his skills in the fields of surgery and obstetrics. After his return to Leyden, he took his doctor's degree in medicine and started his practice in that town. In 1754 he was appointed professor of medicine at Groningen University. In 1770 he was appointed professor of theoretical and practical medicine at Leyden University. He held that office until his death on 31 December 1783. He was a most appreciated foreign member of the Société Royale de Médecine (Paris) and of the Royal Society of Medicine (Edinburgh). He succeeded in improving his medical skills, by doing thorough research in the fields of pathological anatomy and teratology. He laid the foundations for national healthcare regulations for the United Provinces.

Anencephaly, frequent and severe congenital malformation (around 1% childbirth) is know since highest antiquity, but often confused with acephaly. Its existence during Egyptian Antiquity is demonstrated by observation, by E. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, of an anencephalous foetus mummy. The first detailed anatomical observations are those of Morgagni, from 1742 to 1762, that is to E.G.S-H., as naturalist but as a doctor, we owe the crucial progress during the 19th century. As anatomist, by fine and meticulous observation of cranio-spinal skeleton, he shows persistency of all osseous pieces, distorted but preserving all their connexions: this brings him to create a fist nomenclature and a first classification. As embryologist, he establishes the principle of development arrest or delay at a given stage of embryonic life, and he affirms that the type of anomaly depends on her occurring date. Collecting his own observations and those of his predecessors, he describes several clinical characters. Observing amniotic flanges, he elaborates a physiopathological concept, identifies the accidental origin of this malformation, and tries to prove it by teratological experimentation.His works will be continued by his son, Isidore, doctor, who is considered as the Teratology science founder.