Born in Oslo, Norway, in 1865, Dr. Bendix Ebbell was a doctor with the Lutheran Norwegian Missionary Society (NMS). He arrived in Madagascar in 1893, and with the help of Dr. Chr. Borchgrevink, founded the first NMS hospital in Andranomadio, in 1894 (the only exception was the leprosarium that was run by T. G. Rossas, starting in 1887). Doctor Ebbell ran the hospital that he founded until 1912, when he returned to Norway.
He became a district doctor in the vicinity of Stavanger, and was eventually named to the post of chief administrative physician for the province of Rogaland, which included Stavanger.
Curious by nature, Dr. Ebbell was a member of the Oslo Academy of Sciences. In 1901 and 1904, he wrote two important articles in Norsk Magazin for Laegevidenskaben [Norwegian Medical Science Review] on tropical diseases that he had observed in Madagascar: Beriberi aetiologi [Etiology of beriberi], and Rakit paa Madagascar [Rickets in Madagascar]. He had also studied Egyptian hieroglyphics and was known in the field through his published articles on the subject.
He died in Stavanger in 1935.
L. Munthe, L. Molet
The above article, reprinted here by permission, is from Hommes et Destins: Dictionnaire biographique d’Outre-Mer [People and Destinies: an Overseas Biographical Dictionary], vol. 3, published in 1977 by the Académie des Sciences d’Outre-Mer (15, rue la Pérouse, 75116 Paris, France). All rights reserved.