BIOLOGICAL BEGINNINGS 1 9 



hand in it for long. Having no thought that there would be living creatures 

 in it (for 'tis very palatable and clear), I examined it in September of last 

 year, and discovered therein a great number of very small animacules, 

 which were very clear, and a bit bigger than the very smallest animacules 

 that I've ever seen. And I imagine (having aforetime weighed a grain of 

 water), that there were commonly more than 500 living creatures in one 

 grain of this water. These animacules were very sedate, moving without 

 any jerks. 



In the winter I perceived no little animals, nor did I see any of them this 

 year before the month of July, and then not in such great plenty; but in 

 the month of August, their number was much increased. 



OBSERVATIONS ON SEA- WATER 



The 27th of July, 1676, 1 betook myself to the seaside, hard by the village 

 of Schevelinge. Finding myself upon the shore, and observing the sea-water 

 as well as I could, I discovered in it divers little animacules. I gave to a 

 certain person who went into the sea, to bathe himself, a new glass vial 

 and besought him that, when he was in the sea, he would rinse it out twice 

 or thrice and then fill it up with water. This having been carried out ac- 

 cording to my orders, I tied the vial up tight with a clean bit of bladder: 

 and on reaching home and examining the water, I perceived therein a little 

 animal that was blackish, having a shape as if 'twere made up of two glo- 

 bules. This little animal had a peculiar motion, after the manner of a very 

 little flea, when seen, by the naked eye, jumping on a white paper; yet 

 'twas only displaced, at every jump, within the compass of a coarse sand- 

 grain, or thereabouts. It might right well be called a water flea; but 'twas 

 not so big, by a long way, as the eye of that little animal which Swammer- 

 dam calls the water-flea. 



The 31st ditto, having examined this water every day since the 27th, 

 and perceived no little animals in it; upon this date I did now see a good 

 hundred of 'em where at first I had seen but one; but they were now of 

 another figure, and not only smaller, but also very clear. They were like 

 an oblong oval, only with this difference, that they tapered somewhat more 

 sharply to a point at what I imagined to be the head end. And although 

 these were at least a thousand times smaller than a very small sand-grain, 

 I saw, notwithstanding, that whenever they lay high and dry out of the 

 water they burst asunder, and flowed apart or scattered into three or 

 four very small globules and some watery matter, without my being able 

 to discern any other parts. 



The 8th of August, I again discovered a very few of the foresaid anima- 

 cules; and I now saw a few so exceeding small that, even through my 

 microscope, they well-nigh escaped the sight. And here I stopped my 

 observations. 



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