Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (nonfiction)

Anthonie van Leeuwenhoek by Jan Verkolje (circa 1680).

Antonie Philips van Leeuwenhoek FRS (/ˈɑːntəni vɑːn ˈleɪvənhuːk, -hʊk/ AHN-tə-nee vahn LAY-vən-hook, -⁠huuk; Dutch: [ɑnˈtoːni vɑn ˈleːuə(n)ˌɦuk] 24 October 1632 – 26 August 1723) was a Dutch businessman and scientist in the Golden Age of Dutch science and technology. A largely self-taught man in science, he is commonly known as "the Father of Microbiology", and one of the first microscopists and microbiologists. Van Leeuwenhoek is best known for his pioneering work in microscopy and for his contributions toward the establishment of microbiology as a scientific discipline.

Raised in Delft, Dutch Republic, van Leeuwenhoek worked as a draper in his youth and founded his own shop in 1654. He became well recognized in municipal politics and developed an interest in lensmaking. In the 1670s, he started to explore microbial life with his microscope. This was one of the notable achievements of the Golden Age of Dutch exploration and discovery (c. 1590s–1720s).

Using single-lensed microscopes of his own design, van Leeuwenhoek was the first to experiment with microbes, which he originally referred to as dierkens, diertgens or diertjes (Dutch for "small animals" [translated into English as animalcules, from Latin animalculum = "tiny animal"]). Through his experiments, he was the first to relatively determine their size. Most of the "animalcules" are now referred to as unicellular organisms, although he observed multicellular organisms in pond water. He was also the first to document microscopic observations of muscle fibers, bacteria, spermatozoa, red blood cells, crystals in gouty tophi, and blood flow in capillaries. Although van Leeuwenhoek did not write any books, his discoveries came to light through correspondence with the Royal Society, which published his letters.

Early life and career

Antonie van Leeuwenhoek was born in Delft, Dutch Republic, on 24 October 1632. On 4 November, he was baptized as Thonis. His father, Philips Antonisz van Leeuwenhoek, was a basket maker who died when Antonie was only five years old. His mother, Margaretha (Bel van den Berch), came from a well-to-do brewer's family. She remarried Jacob Jansz Molijn, a painter. Antonie had four older sisters: Margriet, Geertruyt, Neeltje, and Catharina. When he was around ten years old his step-father died. He attended school in Warmond for a short time before being sent to live in Benthuizen with his uncle, an attorney. At the age of 16 he became a bookkeeper's apprentice at a linen-draper's shop in Amsterdam, which was owned by the Scot William Davidson. Van Leeuwenhoek left there after six years.

Van Leeuwenhoek married Barbara de Mey in July 1654, with whom he fathered one surviving daughter, Maria (four other children died in infancy). That same year he returned to Delft, where he would live and study for the rest of his life. He opened a draper's shop, which he ran throughout the 1650s. His wife died in 1666, and in 1671, van Leeuwenhoek remarried to Cornelia Swalmius with whom he had no children.[13] His status in Delft had grown throughout the years. In 1660 he received a lucrative job as chamberlain for the assembly chamber of the Delft sheriffs in the city hall, a position which he would hold for almost 40 years. In 1669 he was appointed as a land surveyor by the court of Holland; at some time he combined it with another municipal job, being the official "wine-gauger" of Delft and in charge of the city wine imports and taxation.[14]

Painting of man with scroll and compass, standing by sunlit window The Geographer by Johannes Vermeer Van Leeuwenhoek was a contemporary of another famous Delft citizen, the painter Johannes Vermeer, who was baptized just four days earlier. It has been suggested that he is the man portrayed in two Vermeer paintings of the late 1660s, The Astronomer and The Geographer, but others argue that there appears to be little physical similarity. Because they were both relatively important men in a city with only 24,000 inhabitants, it is likely that they were at least acquaintances; van Leeuwenhoek acted as the executor of Vermeer's will after the painter died in 1675.[15][note 4]

Microscopic study See also: Microscopic discovery of microorganisms See caption A microscopic section of a one-year-old ash tree (Fraxinus) wood, drawing made by van Leeuwenhoek While running his draper shop, van Leeuwenhoek wanted to see the quality of the thread better than what was possible using the magnifying lenses of the time. He developed an interest in lensmaking, although few records exist of his early activity. Van Leeuwenhoek's interest in microscopes and a familiarity with glass processing led to one of the most significant, and simultaneously well-hidden, technical insights in the history of science: By placing the middle of a small rod of soda lime glass in a hot flame, van Leeuwenhoek could pull the hot section apart to create two long whiskers of glass. Then, by reinserting the end of one whisker into the flame, he could create a very small, high-quality glass sphere. These spheres became the lenses of his microscopes, with the smallest spheres providing the highest magnifications.[16]

Recognition by the Royal Society After developing his method for creating powerful lenses and applying them to the study of the microscopic world,[17] van Leeuwenhoek introduced his work to his friend, the prominent Dutch physician Reinier de Graaf. When the Royal Society in London published the groundbreaking work of an Italian lensmaker in their journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, de Graaf wrote to the editor of the journal, Henry Oldenburg, with a ringing endorsement of van Leeuwenhoek's microscopes which, he claimed, "far surpass those which we have hitherto seen". In response, in 1673 the society published a letter from van Leeuwenhoek that included his microscopic observations on mold, bees, and lice.[18]

Page in a handwritten manuscript volume A 1677 letter from van Leeuwenhoek to Oldenburg, with the latter's English translation behind, the full correspondence remains in the Royal Society Library Van Leeuwenhoek's work fully captured the attention of the Royal Society, and he began corresponding regularly with the society regarding his observations. At first he had been reluctant to publicize his findings, regarding himself as a businessman with little scientific, artistic, or writing background, but de Graaf urged him to be more confident in his work.[19] By the time van Leeuwenhoek died in 1723, he had written some 190 letters to the Royal Society, detailing his findings in a wide variety of fields, centered on his work in microscopy. He only wrote letters in his own colloquial Dutch; he never published a proper scientific paper in Latin. He strongly preferred to work alone, distrusting the sincerity of those who offered their assistance.[20] The letters were translated into Latin or English by Henry Oldenburg, who had learned Dutch for this very purpose. He was also the first to use the word animalcules to translate the Dutch words that Leeuwenhoek used to describe microorganisms.[8] Despite the initial success of van Leeuwenhoek's relationship with the Royal Society, soon relations became severely strained. His credibility was questioned when he sent the Royal Society a copy of his first observations of microscopic single-celled organisms dated 9 October 1676.[21] Previously, the existence of single-celled organisms was entirely unknown. Thus, even with his established reputation with the Royal Society as a reliable observer, his observations of microscopic life were initially met with some skepticism.[22]

Eventually, in the face of van Leeuwenhoek's insistence, the Royal Society arranged for Alexander Petrie, minister to the English Reformed Church in Delft; Benedict Haan, at that time Lutheran minister at Delft; and Henrik Cordes, then Lutheran minister at the Hague, accompanied by Sir Robert Gordon and four others, to determine whether it was in fact van Leeuwenhoek's ability to observe and reason clearly, or perhaps, the Royal Society's theories of life that might require reform. Finally in 1677, van Leeuwenhoek's observations were fully acknowledged by the Royal Society.

Antonie van Leeuwenhoek was elected to the Royal Society in February 1680 on the nomination of William Croone, a then-prominent physician.[note 5] Van Leeuwenhoek was "taken aback" by the nomination, which he considered a high honor, although he did not attend the induction ceremony in London, nor did he ever attend a Royal Society meeting.[26]

Scientific fame

By the end of the seventeenth century, van Leeuwenhoek had a virtual monopoly on microscopic study and discovery. His contemporary Robert Hooke, an early microscope pioneer, bemoaned that the field had come to rest entirely on one man's shoulders. He was visited over the years by many notable individuals, such as the Russian Tsar Peter the Great. To the disappointment of his guests, van Leeuwenhoek refused to reveal the cutting-edge microscopes he relied on for his discoveries, instead showing visitors a collection of average-quality lenses.[28]

An experienced businessman, van Leeuwenhoek believed that if his simple method for creating the critically important lens was revealed, the scientific community of his time would likely disregard or even forget his role in microscopy. He therefore allowed others to believe that he was laboriously spending most of his nights and free time grinding increasingly tiny lenses to use in microscopes, even though this belief conflicted both with his construction of hundreds of microscopes and his habit of building a new microscope whenever he chanced upon an interesting specimen that he wanted to preserve. He made about 200 microscopes of various magnifications.[citation needed]

Van Leeuwenhoek was visited by Leibniz, William III of Orange and his wife, Mary II of England, and the burgemeester (mayor) Johan Huydecoper of Amsterdam, the latter being very interested in collecting and growing plants for the Hortus Botanicus Amsterdam, and all gazed at the tiny creatures. In 1698, van Leeuwenhoek was invited to visit the Tsar Peter the Great on his boat. On this occasion van Leeuwenhoek presented the Tsar with an "eel-viewer", so Peter could study blood circulation whenever he wanted.[29]

Techniques and discoveries

Antonie van Leeuwenhoek made more than 500 optical lenses. He also created at least 25 single-lens microscopes, of differing types, of which only nine have survived. These microscopes were made of silver or copper frames, holding hand-made lenses. Those that have survived are capable of magnification up to 275 times. It is suspected that van Leeuwenhoek possessed some microscopes that could magnify up to 500 times. Although he has been widely regarded as a dilettante or amateur, his scientific research was of remarkably high quality.

The single-lens microscopes of van Leeuwenhoek were relatively small devices, the largest being about 5 cm long. They are used by placing the lens very close in front of the eye, while looking in the direction of the sun. The other side of the microscope had a pin, where the sample was attached in order to stay close to the lens. There were also three screws to move the pin and the sample along three axes: one axis to change the focus, and the two other axes to navigate through the sample.

Van Leeuwenhoek maintained throughout his life that there are aspects of microscope construction "which I only keep for myself", in particular his most critical secret of how he made the lenses. For many years no one was able to reconstruct van Leeuwenhoek's design techniques, but in 1957, C. L. Stong used thin glass thread fusing instead of polishing, and successfully created some working samples of a van Leeuwenhoek design microscope.[33] Such a method was also discovered independently by A. Mosolov and A. Belkin at the Russian Novosibirsk State Medical Institute.[34]

Van Leeuwenhoek used samples and measurements to estimate numbers of microorganisms in units of water.[35][36] He also made good use of the huge advantage provided by his method. He studied a broad range of microscopic phenomena, and shared the resulting observations freely with groups such as the British Royal Society.[37] Such work firmly established his place in history as one of the first and most important explorers of the microscopic world. Van Leeuwenhoek was one of the first people to observe cells, much like Robert Hooke.[38]

Van Leeuwenhoek's main discoveries are:

infusoria (protists in modern zoological classification), in 1674 bacteria, (e.g., large Selenomonads from the human mouth), in 1683[39][note 6][40][note 7] the vacuole of the cell spermatozoa, in 1677 the banded pattern of muscular fibers, in 1682 In 1687, van Leeuwenhoek reported his research on the coffee bean. He roasted the bean, cut it into slices and saw a spongy interior. The bean was pressed, and an oil appeared. He boiled the coffee with rain water twice and set it aside.[41]

Van Leeuwenhoek has been attributed as the first person to use a histological stain to color specimens observed under the microscope using saffron[42]

Like Robert Boyle and Nicolaas Hartsoeker, van Leeuwenhoek was interested in dried cochineal, trying to find out if the dye came from a berry or an insect.

Van Leeuwenhoek's religion was "Dutch Reformed" Calvinist. He often referred with reverence to the wonders God designed in making creatures great and small, and believed that his discoveries were merely further proof of the wonder of creation.

Legacy and recognition

By the end of his life, van Leeuwenhoek had written approximately 560 letters to the Royal Society and other scientific institutions concerning his observations and discoveries. Even during the last weeks of his life, van Leeuwenhoek continued to send letters full of observations to London. The last few contained a precise description of his own illness. He suffered from a rare disease, an uncontrolled movement of the midriff, which now is named van Leeuwenhoek's disease.[49] He died at the age of 90, on 26 August 1723, and was buried four days later in the Oude Kerk in Delft.

In 1981, the British microscopist Brian J. Ford found that van Leeuwenhoek's original specimens had survived in the collections of the Royal Society of London. They were found to be of high quality, and all were well preserved.[51][52][53] Ford carried out observations with a range of single-lens microscopes, adding to our knowledge of van Leeuwenhoek's work.[54] In Ford's opinion, Leeuwenhoek remained imperfectly understood, the popular view that his work was crude and undisciplined at odds with the evidence of conscientious and painstaking observation. He constructed rational and repeatable experimental procedures and was willing to oppose received opinion, such as spontaneous generation, and he changed his mind in the light of evidence.

On his importance in the history of microbiology and science in general, the British biochemist Nick Lane wrote that he was "the first even to think of looking—certainly, the first with the power to see." His experiments were ingenious and he was "a scientist of the highest calibre", attacked by people who envied him or "scorned his unschooled origins", not helped by his secrecy about his methods.[22]

The Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Hospital in Amsterdam, named after van Leeuwenhoek, is specialized in oncology.[55] In 2004, a public poll in the Netherlands to determine the greatest Dutchman ("De Grootste Nederlander") named van Leeuwenhoek the 4th-greatest Dutchman of all time.[56]

On 24 October 2016, Google commemorated the 384th anniversary of van Leeuwenhoek's birth with a Doodle that depicted his discovery of "little animals" or animalcules, now known as bacteria.[57]

The Leeuwenhoek Medal, Leeuwenhoek Lecture, Leeuwenhoek (crater), Leeuwenhoeckia, Levenhookia (a genus in the family Stylidiaceae), and Leeuwenhoekiella (an aerobic bacterial genus) are named after him.[citation needed]

A cluster of Escherichia coli bacteria magnified 10,000 times. In the early modern period, Leeuwenhoek's discovery and study of the microscopic world, like the Dutch discovery and mapping of largely unknown lands and skies, is considered one of the most notable achievements of the Golden Age of Dutch exploration and discovery (c. 1590s–1720s).

Notes

Van Leeuwenhoek is universally acknowledged as the father of microbiology because he was the first to undisputedly discover/observe, describe, study, conduct scientific experiments with microscopic organisms (microbes), and relatively determine their size, using single-lensed microscopes of his own design.[1] Leeuwenhoek is also considered to be the father of bacteriology and protozoology (recently known as protistology).[2][3]
The spelling of van Leeuwenhoek's name is exceptionally varied. He was christened as Thonis, but always went by Antonj (corresponding with the English Antony). The final j of his given name is the Dutch tense i. Until 1683 he consistently used the spelling Antonj Leeuwenhoeck (ending in –oeck) when signing his letters. Throughout the mid-1680s he experimented with the spelling of his surname, and after 1685 settled on the most recognized spelling, van Leeuwenhoek.[4]
Note that the existence of microscopic organisms (microbes, microorganisms) was predicted or hypothesized many centuries before they were first observed by van Leeuwenhoek.
In A Short History of Nearly Everything (p. 236) Bill Bryson alludes to rumors that Vermeer's mastery of light and perspective came from use of a camera obscura produced by van Leeuwenhoek. This is one of the examples of the controversial Hockney–Falco thesis, which claims that some of the Old Masters used optical aids to produce their masterpieces.
He was also nominated as a "corresponding member" of the French Academy of Sciences in 1699, but there is no evidence that the nomination was accepted, nor that he was ever aware of it.[25]
The "Lens on Leeuwenhoek" site, which is exhaustively researched and annotated, prints this letter in the original Dutch and in English translation, with the date 17 September 1683. Assuming that the date of 1676 is accurately reported from Pommerville (2014), that book seems more likely to be in error than the intensely detailed, scholarly researched website focused entirely on van Leeuwenhoek.
Sixty-two years later, in 1745, a physician correctly attributed a diarrhea epidemic to van Leeuwenhoek's "bloodless animals" (Valk 1745, cited by Moll 2003).

References

Lane, Nick (6 March 2015). "The Unseen World: Reflections on Leeuwenhoek (1677) 'Concerning Little Animal'." Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2015 Apr; 370 (1666): doi:10.1098/rstb.2014.0344
Dobell, Clifford (1923). "A Protozoological Bicentenary: Antony van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723) and Louis Joblot (1645–1723)". Parasitology. 15 (3): 308–19. doi:10.1017/s0031182000014797.
Corliss, John O (1975). "Three Centuries of Protozoology: A Brief Tribute to its Founding Father, A. van Leeuwenhoek of Delft". The Journal of Protozoology. 22 (1): 3–7. doi:10.1111/j.1550-7408.1975.tb00934.x. PMID 1090737.
Dobell, pp. 300–05.
"How to pronounce Anton van Leeuvenhoek". howtopronounce.com. 2018. Retrieved 12 July 2018.
Chung, King-thom; Liu, Jong-kang: Pioneers in Microbiology: The Human Side of Science. (World Scientific Publishing, 2017, ISBN 978-9813202948). "We may fairly call Leeuwenhoek "The first microbiologist" because he was the first individual to actually culture, see, and describe a large array of microbial life. He actually measured the multiplication of the bugs. What is more amazing is that he published his discoveries."
Scott Chimileski, Roberto Kolter. "Life at the Edge of Sight". hup.harvard.edu. Harvard University Press. Retrieved 26 January 2018.
Anderson, Douglas. "Animalcules". Lens on Leeuwenhoek. Retrieved 9 October 2019.
Dobell, pp. 19–21.
Dobell, pp. 23–24.
The curious observer. Events of the first half of van Leeuwenhoek's life. Lens on Leeuwenhoek (1 September 2009). Retrieved 20 April 2013.
Huerta, p. 31.
Dobell, pp. 27–31.
Dobell, pp. 33–37.
Van Berkel, K. (24 February 1996). Vermeer, Van Leeuwenhoek en De Astronoom. Vrij Nederland (Dutch magazine), p. 62–67.
"Anton van Leeuwenhoek – History of the compound microscope". history-of-the-microscope.org. Retrieved 29 September 2017.
Observationes microscopicae Antonii Lewenhoeck, circa particulas liquorum globosa et animalia. Acta Eruditorum. Leipzig. 1682. p. 321.
Anderson, Douglas. "Wrote Letter 18 of 1676-10-09 (AB 26) to Henry Oldenburg". Lens on Leeuwenhoek. Retrieved 3 March 2016.
Lane, Nick (6 March 2015). "The Unseen World: Reflections on Leeuwenhoek (1677) 'Concerning Little Animal'". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2015 Apr 19; 370(1666). 370 (1666): 20140344. doi:10.1098/rstb.2014.0344. PMC 4360124. PMID 25750239.
Schierbeek, A.: "The Disbelief of the Royal Society". Measuring the Invisible World. London and New York: Abelard-Schuman, 1959. N. pag. Print.
Full text of "Antony van Leeuwenhoek and his "Little animals"; being some account of the father of protozoology and bacteriology and his multifarious discoveries in these disciplines;". Recall.archive.org. Retrieved 20 April 2013.
Mesler, Bill; Cleaves, H. James (7 December 2015). A Brief History of Creation: Science and the Search for the Origin of Life. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 45. ISBN 978-0-393-24854-8.
Brian J. Ford (1992). "From Dilettante to Diligent Experimenter: a Reappraisal of Leeuwenhoek as microscopist and investigator". Biology History. 5 (3).
Anderson, Douglas. "Tiny Microscopes". Lens on Leeuwenhoek. Archived from the original on 2 May 2015. Retrieved 3 March 2016.
Lens on Leeuwenhoek: How he made his tiny microscopes. Lensonleeuwenhoek.net. Retrieved 15 September 2013.
"A glass-sphere microscope". Funsci.com. Archived from the original on 11 June 2010. Retrieved 13 June 2010.
A. Mosolov & A. Belkin (1980). "Секрет Антони ван Левенгука (N 122468)" [Secret of Antony van Leeuwenhoek?]. Nauka i Zhizn (in Russian). 09-1980: 80–82. Archived from the original on 23 September 2008.
F. N. Egerton (1967). "Leeuwenhoek as a founder of animal demography". Journal of the History of Biology. 1 (1): 1–22. doi:10.1007/BF00149773. JSTOR 4330484.
Frank N. Egerton (2006). "A History of the Ecological Sciences, Part 19: Leeuwenhoek's Microscopic Natural History". Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America. 87: 47. doi:10.1890/0012-9623(2006)87[47:AHOTES]2.0.CO;2.
"Robert Hooke (1635–1703)". Ucmp.berkeley.edu. Retrieved 13 June 2010.
"Life at the Edge of Sight – Scott Chimileski, Roberto Kolter | Harvard University Press". www.hup.harvard.edu. Retrieved 26 January 2018.
Anderson, Douglas. "Wrote Letter 39 of 1683-09-17 (AB 76) to Francis Aston". Lens on Leeuwenhoek. Archived from the original on 20 August 2016. Retrieved 26 September 2016.
Pommerville, Jeffrey (2014). Fundamentals of microbiology. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning. p. 6. ISBN 978-1-4496-8861-5.
9 May 1687, Missive 54.
Schulte EK (1991). "Standardization of biological dyes and stains: pitfalls and possibilities". Histochemistry. 95 (4): 319–28. doi:10.1007/BF00266958. PMID 1708749.
Antoni van Leeuwenhoek; Samuel Hoole (1800). The Select Works of Antony van Leeuwenhoek, Containing His Microscopical Discoveries in Many of the Works of Nature. G. Sidney. pp. 213–.
Rocky Road: Leeuwenhoek. Strangescience.net (22 November 2012). Retrieved 20 April 2013.
Greenfield, Amy Butler (2005). A Perfect Red: Empire, Espionage, and the Quest for the Color of Desire. New York: Harper Collins Press. ISBN 0-06-052276-3
"The religious affiliation of Biologist A. van Leeuwenhoek". Adherents.com. 8 July 2005. Archived from the original on 7 July 2010. Retrieved 13 June 2010.
"The Religion of Antony van Leeuwenhoek". 2006. Archived from the original on 4 May 2006. Retrieved 23 April 2006.
A. Schierbeek, Editor-in-Chief of the Collected Letters of A. van Leeuwenhoek, Measuring the Invisible World: The Life and Works of Antoni van Leeuwenhoek F R S, Abelard-Schuman (London and New York, 1959), QH 31 L55 S3, LC 59-13233. This book contains excerpts of van Leeuwenhoek's letters and focuses on his priority in several new branches of science, but makes several important references to his spiritual life and motivation.
Life and work of Antoni van Leeuwenhoek of Delft in Holland; 1632–1723 (1980) Published by the Municipal Archives Delft, p. 9
van Leeuwenhoek, Antoni (1962). On the circulation of the blood: Latin text of his 65th letter to the Royal Society, Sept. 7th, 1688. Brill Hes & De Graaf. p. 28. ISBN 9789060040980.
Biology History vol 5(3), December 1992
The Microscope vol 43(2) pp 47–57
Spektrum der Wissenschaft pp. 68–71, June 1998
"The discovery by Brian J Ford of Leeuwenhoek's original specimens, from the dawn of microscopy in the 16th century". Brianjford.com. Retrieved 13 June 2010.
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"Fortuyn voted greatest Dutchman". 16 November 2004. Retrieved 26 March 2020.
New Google Doodle Celebrates Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, Inventor of Microbiology. Retrieved 24 October 2016.

Sources Cobb, Matthew: Generation: The Seventeenth-Century Scientists Who Unraveled the Secrets of Sex, Life, and Growth. (US: Bloomsbury, 2006)[ISBN missing] Cobb, Matthew: The Egg and Sperm Race: The Seventeenth-Century Scientists Who Unlocked the Secrets of Sex and Growth. (London: Simon & Schuster, 2006) Davids, Karel: The Rise and Decline of Dutch Technological Leadership: Technology, Economy and Culture in the Netherlands, 1350–1800 [2 vols.]. (Brill, 2008, ISBN 978-9004168657) Dobell, Clifford (1960) [1932]. Antony van Leeuwenhoek and His "Little Animals": being some account of the father of protozoology and bacteriology and his multifarious discoveries in these disciplines (Dover Publications ed.). New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company. Ford, Brian J. (1991). The Leeuwenhoek Legacy. Bristol and London: Biopress and Farrand Press. Ford, Brian J.: Single Lens: The Story of the Simple Microscope. (London: William Heinemann, 1985, 182 pp) Ford, Brian J.: The Revealing Lens: Mankind and the Microscope. (London: George Harrap, 1973, 208 pp) Fournier, Marian: The Fabric of Life: The Rise and Decline of Seventeenth-Century Microscopy (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, ISBN 978-0801851384) Huerta, Robert (2003). Giants of Delft: Johannes Vermeer and the Natural Philosophers: The Parallel Search for Knowledge during the Age of Discovery. Pennsylvania: Bucknell University Press. Moll, Warnar (2003). "Antonie van Leeuwenhoek". Onderzoeksportal [Research Portal]. University of Amsterdam. Archived from the original on 18 February 2004. Retrieved 3 March 2016. Indeed, in this publication "Geneeskundig Verhaal van de Algemeene Loop-ziekte..." [‍Valk (1745)‍], the author uses the work of Leeuwenhoek in describing the disease, draws some (preliminary) conclusions about the cause of the disease, he warns "non-believers of Van Leeuwenhoek to use a magnifying glass" and gives commentaries on the work of Anthonie van Leeuwenhoek and his findings. Payne, Alma Smith (1970). The Cleere Observer: A biography of Antoni van Leeuwenhoek. London: Macmillan. Ratcliff, Marc J.: The Quest for the Invisible: Microscopy in the Enlightenment. (Ashgate, 2009, 332 pp)[ISBN missing] Robertson, Lesley; Backer, Jantien et al.: Antoni van Leeuwenhoek: Master of the Minuscule. (Brill, 2016, ISBN 978-9004304284) Ruestow, Edward G (1996). The Microscope in the Dutch Republic: The Shaping of Discovery. New York: Cambridge University Press. Snyder, Laura J. (2015). Eye of the Beholder: Johannes Vermeer, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, and the Reinvention of Seeing. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. Struik, Dirk J.: The Land of Stevin and Huygens: A Sketch of Science and Technology in the Dutch Republic during the Golden Century (Studies in the History of Modern Science). (Springer, 1981, 208 pp) Valk, Evert (1745). Een geneeskundig verhaal van de algemeene loop-ziekte, die te Kampen en in de om-geleegene streeken heeft gewoed in 't jaar 1736 neevens een werktuigkunstige, en natuurkundige beschryvinge van de oorzaak, uitwerking en genezinge waar in word aan-getoond, dat dezelve, waarschynlyk, door bloed-loose diertjes, beschreven in de werken van Anthony van Leeuwenhoek, het werd te weeg gebragt, en door kwik voor-naamentlyk, uit-geroeid [A work on a disease in the city of Kampen in 1736 caused by "little animals". These bloodless animals are most likely the little animals described in the work of Leeuwenhoek and they can be killed by treatment of mercury] (in Dutch). Haarlem: Van der Vinne. p. 97. Retrieved 3 March 2016. Wilson, Catherine: The Invisible World: Early Modern Philosophy and the Invention of the Microscope. (Princeton University Press, 1997, ISBN 978-0691017099)

External links

Wikisource has original works written by or about: Antonie van Leeuwenhoek Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Anton van Leeuwenhoek (category) Leeuwenhoek's letters to the Royal Society The Correspondence of Anthonie van Leeuwenhoek in EMLO Lens on Leeuwenhoek (site on Leeuwenhoek's life and observations) Vermeer connection website University of California, Berkeley article on van Leeuwenhoek Works by Antoni van Leeuwenhoek at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Antonie van Leeuwenhoek at Internet Archive Retrospective paper on the Leeuwenhoek research by Brian J. Ford. Images seen through a van Leeuwenhoek microscope by Brian J. Ford. Instructions on making a van Leeuwenhoek Microscope Replica by Alan Shinn