He is one of the eight children of Christiaan Eijkman, the headmaster of a local school, and Johanna Alida Pool.

His brother Christiaan Eijkman (1858–1930) was a physician and professor of physiology whose demonstration that beriberi is caused by poor diet led to the discovery of vitamins.

Together with Sir Frederick Hopkins, his brother received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine.

He was hired during the Meiji period, a Japanese era which extended from September 1868 through July 1912.

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