120 
LEEUWENHOEK AND HIS “‘ LITTLE ANIMALS” 
were very clear. These little animals would change their 
body into a perfect round, but mostly when they came to 
lie high and dry. Their body was also very yielding: for 
if they so much as brushed against a tiny filament, their 
body bent in, which bend also presently sprang out again ; 
just as if you stuck your finger into a bladder full of 
water, and then, on removing the finger, the inpitting 
went away. Yet the greatest marvel was when I brought 
any of the animalcules on a dry place, for I then saw 
them change themselves at last into a round, and then the 
upper part of the body rose up pyramid-like, with a point 
jutting out in the middle; and after having thus lain 
moving with their feet for a little while, they burst 
asunder, and the globules and a watery humour flowed 
away on all sides, without my being able to discern even 
the least sign of any skin wherein these globules and the 
liquid had, to all appearance, been inclosed ; and at such 
times I could discern more globules than when they were 
alive. This bursting asunder I figure to myself to happen 
thus: imagine, for example, that you have a sheep’s 
bladder filled with shot, peas, and water; then, if you 
were to dash it apieces on the ground, the shot, peas, and 
water would scatter themselves all over the place.’ 
Furthermore, I discovered a third sort’ of little 
animals, that were about twice as long as broad, and to 
my eye quite eight times smaller* than the animalcules 
first mentioned: and I imagined, although they were so 
small, that I could yet make out their little legs, or little 
fins. Their motion was very quick, both roundabout and 
in a straight line. 
ee ee 
* The foregoing graphic account of the bursting of the “ little animals” is 
of great interest, as it shows clearly that L. was really observing protozoa. 
An animal whose body consisted entirely of soft ‘‘ protoplasm ”—without any 
skeletal parts or obvious skin—was, of course, a considerable novelty at this 
date. 
2 
Not identifiable. Probably a small ciliate. 
* «.e., having a diameter equal to about half that of the Vorticella. 
