134 LEEUWENHOEK AND HIS “ LITTLE ANIMALS” 
of the pepper-corns began to lie dry. And this water was 
now so thick with particles, that you might almost 
imagine you were looking at the spawn of very wee fish, 
what time the fish discharges its roe, when the roe-corns 
are very soft, and as ’twere hang together. Thereupon 
I added snow-water to the pepper once more, until the 
pepper-corns lay under about half an inch. 
The 4th and 5th of May, examined it again, but 
perceived no living creatures. 
The 6th ditto, I discovered very many exceeding small 
animalcules.' Their body seemed, to my eye, twice as 
long as broad. Their motion was very slow, and oft-times 
roundabout. 
The 7th ditto, I saw the last-mentioned animalcules 
in still greater numbers. 
On the 10th ditto, I added more snow-water to the 
pepper, because the water was again so diminished that 
the pepper-corns began to lie dry. 
The 13th and 14th ditto, the animalcules as before. 
The 18th of May, the water was again so dried away, 
that I added snow-water to it once more. 
The 23rd of May, I discovered, besides the foresaid 
animalcules, living creatures that were perfectly oval, like 
plovers’ eggs.” I fancied that the head was placed at the 
pointed end, which at times was stuck out a bit more. 
Their body within was furnished with some 10, 12, or 14 
globules, which lay separated from one another. When 
I put these animalcules on a dry place, they then changed 
" Probably bacilli. 
® de Kievits eijeren gelijk MS. “like Cuckow-eggs”’ Phil. Trans. Kievit 
means the Peewit or Lapwing (Vanellus cristatus), not the Cuckoo (Cuculus 
canorus). The eggs of the former are, of course, those which are known 
commercially as “ Plovers’ eggs”. The distinction is not without import- 
ance here, as the “ Plover’s egg” is conspicuously pointed—that of the 
Cuckoo being much more rounded.—The organism was probably Colpidium 
or an allied ciliate. L.’s remarks a little later support the view that he was 
observing the “small variety’ of C. colpoda—a very common inhabitant of 
such infusions. 
