LETTER 18. RIVER,- WELL,- SEA-WATER 129 
palatable and clear), I examined it in September of last 
year, and discovered therein a great number of very 
small animalcules, which were very clear, and a bit bigger 
than the very smallest animalcules that I’ve ever seen. 
And I imagine (having aforetime weighed a grain of 
water), that there were commonly more than 500 living 
creatures in one grain of this water. ‘These animalcules 
were very sedate, moving without any jerks.” 
In the winter’ I perceived no little animals, nor did I 
see any of them this year before the month of July, and 
then not in such great plenty; but in the month of 
August, their number was much increased. 
[ Observations on Sea-water.| 
The 27th of July, 1676, I betook myself to the seaside, 
hard by the village of Schevelinge.* Finding myself upon 
the shore (the wind coming off the sea, with very warm 
sunshine), and observing the sea-water as well as I could, 
I discovered in it divers living animalcules. I gave to a 
certain person, who went into the sea to bathe himself, a 
—_—_—__ 
‘G.e., anno 1675. 
* dese diertgens waren seer sedig, sonder eenige horten in haer beweginge 
MS. - + + Were very quiet and without motion” Phil. Trans.— 
Oldenburg’s translation is clearly wrong, and entirely changes the meaning 
of this passage. The organisms were probably very small flagellates 
(? Cercomonas sp.): and I imagine that L. is here contrasting their even 
(creeping) movements with the jumping motions of the Cyclidiwm which he 
had previously seen in rain-water.—According to Sewel (1708), hort means 
“a Hunch, push, jog, tug”: and to do a thing “ met horten en stooten”’ 
signifies to do it “ by fits and starts”, as we now say. 
* Presumably 1675-1676. 
* Now called Scheveningen—the well-known sea-side resort near The 
Hague: but the name is so spelled by L. here and elsewhere (cf. Send-brief 
XLII, 10 Sept. 1717), as it is in some old Dutch maps which I have 
examined. Pepys, in his Diary, also calls the place ‘ ‘ Scheveling, ” while 
Temple (1693), our Ambassador to Holland in 1668, writes ‘Skeveling ”’ ; 
and Professor Beijerinck informs me further that the spelling © Schevelingen ”’ 
was sometimes used formerly. The appearance of the ‘‘ Shore at Schevelinge ”’ 
in L.’s day is shown in the well-known picture by Jacob van Ruisdael (1628- 
1682) in the National Gallery (No. 1390). See Plate XXI. 
9 
