66 
LEEUWENHOEK AND HIS “LITTLE ANIMALS”’ 
upwards through the tiny glass; which, after some time, 
would become tiresome. Mr. Leeuwenhoek afterwards 
fetched some cases, in each of which were two 
microscopia’ . . . likewise of quite a simple structure. 
Each of these microscopia had a_ particular 
curiosity stuck before it; but we saw the following: 
First, in tubulo capillari, upwards of thirty small young 
oysters 7m spiritu vint. These could be seen quite clearly, 
and had the perfect form and structure of old and big 
oysters. . . . We inquired how he introduced these 
young oysters into his capillary tubes, which he 
explained in the following fashion: He cuts off the 
gut of an oyster, takes some of the stuff that is in it 
on a pen-knife, and smears it on his thumb-nail; he 
then pours a drop of spirits of wine upon it, and applies 
the capillary tube thereto, whereupon the spirit runs up 
the tube of itself, through the pressure of the air, and 
takes the little oysters along with it, they being commonly 
present in the substance that is in the beard or the gut 
of the old oysters. He uses spirit for this purpose in 
order that they may not so easily become foul, which, 
being fish, they only too readily do, as happened indeed 
formerly with him, when he used only water. This ex- 
periment is one of the finest and most curious that we 
saw at Mr. Leeuwenhoek’s. He showed us further a 
“maggot”, as they are called, supposed to grow in the 
port of the nose. . . . Through another microscopium he 
showed us a sand-grain, which looked like the finest 
crystal with facettes. ... In another microscopium he 
had, on a bit of glass, a particle of gold, which he had 
previously dissolved in aqua regia and then precipitated : 
this appeared just like a little gold tree, and exceeding 
pretty. . . . Next, Mr. Leeuwenhoek showed us, through 
another microscopiwm, the scale of a fish, whose structure 
* These may have been the silver instruments bequeathed to the Royal 
Society. Cf. p. 96 wnfra. 
