10 



Microbes and You 



became an apprentice in a dry goods store in Amsterdam until he 

 reached the age of twenty-one. For the next twenty years Leeuwen- 

 hoek ran his private dry goods estabHshment, but Httle is recorded 

 of this period in his hfe. It is beheved, however, that he was twice 



X 





Fig. 2. One of Leeuwenhoek's microscopes. {Courtesy of the 

 American Optical Company, Instrument Division, Buffalo, New York.) 



married and had children, but most of the children died. Some- 

 where during this period he was appointed janitor of the Cit}^ 

 Hall of Delft, and sandwiched in between his official duties he 

 began his passionate lens-grinding activities which must have 



