56 LEEUWENHOEK AND HIS ‘‘ LITTLE ANIMALS” 
ik zien”’..) Consequently, we may suppose that his interview 
with Leeuwenhoek in the canal-yacht on the outskirts of 
Delft was somewhat informal, and more satisfactory both to 
the exhibitor and to his audience than some other like meetings 
which required the presence of an interpreter. It is probable 
that Leeuwenhoek, on this occasion, presented the T’sar with 
some of his microscopes*—including his instrument for 
examining the circulation in the tail of an eel: for at a later 
date some similar apparatus of his manufacture was brought 
back to Holland from Russia.’ 
What manner of man was this “ celebrated Leeuwenhoek ”’ ? 
Unfortunately we get little direct information from the writings 
of his contemporaries. Kings and princes, philosophers and 
physicians and men of science, statesmen and clergymen, and 
even common men, went to see him and looked through his 
wonderful glasses: but few indeed left any written record of 
what they saw, or of their impressions of the man himself. 
Nevertheless, there are some extant descriptions of 
Leeuwenhoek by people who actually interviewed him, though 
only two are of any real importance. One of these is contained 
in a manuscript letter written by a young Irish doctor, 
Thomas Molyneux, who waited upon him early in 1685 on 
behalf of the Royal Society; the other is a lengthier printed 
account by one von Uffenbach, a German, who paid him a visit 
in 1710 when he was already a very old man. But all the 
records are interesting, and I shall therefore give them at 
length. Here isthe first—that of Molyneux,’ whose autograph 
letter is still preserved by the Royal Society. I give it word 
for word, as he wrote it, though I take the liberty of expanding 
1 “T want to see that.” Tsar Peter was evidently the father of “ the 
man from Missouri.”’ 
* As he did to our Queen Mary II (ef. p. 317 infra). 
° Discovered and recorded by Haaxman (1875), p.35. lL. never sold or 
gave away microscopes to ordinary people. 
* Thomas Molyneux (1661-1733), physician and zoologist, was brother 
of William Molyneux the mathematician and writer on dioptrics. Thomas 
was at Trinity College, Dublin, where he took his M.D. degree in 1687. He 
became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1686, President of the College 
of Physicians of Ireland in 1702, Professor of Medicine at Dublin University 
in 1717, and was madea Baronet in 1730. For further details of his life see 
the Dict. Nat. Biogr. (art. by Norman Moore). 
