82 LEEUWENHOEK AND HIS “‘ LITTLE ANIMALS ”’ 
‘Professors Cink, Narrez,’ Rega,’ and other Gentlemen of the 
College of The Wild Boar”’.’ In this letter he wrote : 
By the hand of Mr. Gerard van Loon, the advocate, I 
have received an obliging letter from Your Excellencies, 
dated 24 May last, and a purse made of cloth-of-gold ; 
wherein lieth, in a little black box, a silver medal showing 
my bust on one side of it, and an emblem with the Town 
of Delft in the distance on t’other. 
Along with this, in further explanation and as a 
dedication, was enclosed a certain Latin Poem of praise,’ 
overflowing with elegant expressions; but notwithstand- 
ing my praises be therein sung very high, yet the poet’s 
cleverness deserveth still higher praise for screwing them 
up to such a pretty pitch: and when I think on the 
flatteries expressed in your letter, and in the poem, I 
don’t only blush, but my eyes filled with tears too, many 
a time: especially because my work, which I’ve done for 
many a long year, was not pursued in order to gain the 
praise I now enjoy, but chiefly from a craving after 
————— eee 
1 Ursmer Narez (1678-1744), M.D. Louvain (1718), in his day a 
distinguished man. After devoting himself to religious studies in his youth, 
he became lecturer on philosophy in the University; and after qualifying 
as licentiate in medicine (1706) was successively professor of botany, 
anatomy and surgery, and institutes of medicine. He was also head of the 
hospital at Louvain. Cf. Biogr. Nat. Belg. (1899), XV, 471. 
® Henri-Joseph Réga (1690-1754), M.D. Louvain (1718). Entered the 
University of Louvain—where he was born and died—in 1707, and became 
licentiate in medicine in 1712. He was afterwards professor of chemistry 
(1716), anatomy (1718), and clinical medicine (1719), and is an influential 
and outstanding figure in the history of medicine in Belgium. Cf. Brogr. 
Nat. Belg. (1903), XVII, 842. 
> °t wilt Swijn (= Het wilde Zwijn or Het Varken). There were formerly 
four principal schools of philosophy in the University of Louvain—each 
having a particular name and symbol. The members of © The Wild Boar ’”’ 
or “ Collége du Porc”’ took theirs from a sign-board opposite the house 
where they first assembled in 1430. Cinck and van Loon (who was his 
pupil) both belonged to this ‘‘ college” or “ pedagogy’, whose fellows were 
known by the apparently uncomplimentary title of “ Porkers” (Porcenses). 
Cf. Ray (1673, pp. 15-17), and S. v. Rooijen (1904). 
* Composed by J. G. Kerkherdere: vide infra. 
