Dubois became involved in Fürbringer's comparative vertebrate anatomy and embryology research, and he showed that both the fourth and fifth branchial arches—and not just the fourth arch as Fürbringer had suggested—contribute to the development of the thyroid cartilage.
Marie Eugène François Thomas Dubois, the son of an apothecary, was born in 1858 in Eijsden in the province of Limburg in the Netherlands. After attending primary school in his home town, and high school in nearby Roermond, in 1877 Dubois entered the University of Amsterdam to study medicine, qualifying as an M.D. in 1884. Dubois evidently had an aptitude for anatomy, for in 1881, while still a student, he was appointed as an assistant to his anatomy professor Max Fürbringer—who had been trained by Gegenbaur and Haeckel in Jena. He was also invited to teach anatomy at two art schools in Amsterdam, something he continued to do until his departure for what was then referred to as the Dutch East Indies. Dubois became involved in Fürbringer's comparative vertebrate anatomy and embryology research, and he showed that both the fourth and fifth branchial arches—and not just the fourth arch as Fürbringer had suggested—contribute to the development of the thyroid cartilage. In 1886, Dubois was appointed as a lecturer in the department of anatomy in the University of Amsterdam, with the clear expectation that he would eventually succeed Fürbringer as professor.2 But a little over a year later, Dubois' academic career was upended.