64 
ce 
LEEUWENHOEK AND HIS ‘“‘ LITTLE ANIMALS ”’ 
to see the famous observator microscopicus, Leeuwenhoek,’ 
by whom . . . we were most courteously received. 
The only daughter that he has, a person of about forty,” 
led us first into an antechamber, and told us that her 
father, though he had discovered many new things with 
his microscopia in recent years, did not wish to publish 
any more of his observations during his lifetime, because 
of the affronts he had suffered, presumably in the writings 
of others ; for he has now and then been ridiculed for the 
odd views expressed in his own writings, and has been 
accused of seeing more with his imagination than with 
his magnifying glasses. Mr. Leeuwenhoek is a man of 
seventy-eight, but still hale and hearty, save that he 
cannot much use his feet. We were surprised to find him 
not at all shaky, and he still has almost incomparable 
eyesight, though he taxes his eyes greatly with his 
observations. He showed us the following experiments : 
First, the circulation of the blood, very fine and clear, in 
the tail of a quite little flounder (which is one of the 
greatest delicacies among sea-fish). He was not only of 
opinion that where the blood runs upwards, these are the 
arteries, and where it runs downwards, the venae (of 
which I justly doubted whether such a sweeping assump- 
tion were allowable?), but also he maintained that 
it is the venae and not the artervae which pulsate. 
He also insisted that he could see with the naked 
eye that the pulse at the wrist beats downwards 
rather than upwards. Methinks, however, that herein 
Mr. Leeuwenhoek does but show his ignorance of 
anatomy; for the structure of the arteries sufficiently 
proves that the valvulae in them undoubtedly cause the 
pulse-beat, whereas the blood merely flows along and 
‘ His name is spelled “ Leuwenhoeck” by Uffenbach throughout—a 
mistake which I have taken the liberty of correcting wherever it occurs in 
his narrative. 
* Maria was really aged 54 at this time; and consequently Uffenbach’s 
statement is an unintentional compliment on her personal appearance. 
