136 LEEUWENHOEK AND HIS “‘ LITTLE ANIMALS ”’ 
But I took this water from the surface, and in the water 
that I took from underneath there were nowhere near as 
many. Seeing these little animals increase to so vast a 
number, but therewithal not being able to detect that 
they did wax in bigness, nor yet to espy any like creatures 
drifting in the water, I bethought me whether these 
animalcules might not well be put together in an instant 
(so to speak) *: but this speculation I leave to others.” 
The 26th dztto, in the evening, I perceived almost none 
of the little animalcules; but I now saw divers creatures 
with tails (whereof I have said heretofore that I saw ’em 
in rain-water).” And furthermore I saw one animalcule 
that was three times as long as broad. Through all the 
water floated numberless particles, like thin little hairs 
off men who haven’t been shaved for a fortnight*; but 
with this difference, that many had a kink in them. 
The 27th ditto, I perceived none at all of the very little 
animalcules, but the large creatures in greater number. 
The 28th ditto, almost all the animalcules in the pepper- 
water were become somewhat scantier.’ 
The 80th dztto, I discovered very few animalcules in 
the water, and I saw there now but one where some days 
before I had seen a good hundred. And as the water was 
' of deselvige niet wel in een moment des tijts (om soo te spreeken) en 
waren te samen gestelt MS. He means that it crossed his mind that these 
animals might possibly come into existence, on a sudden, by a fortuitous 
concourse of inanimate particles in the water. As a rule, of course, L. 
strongly opposed the doctrine of spontaneous generation. 
* dog ik geef dit aen anderen over MS. 
* i.e., Vorticella sp. 
* By this quaint simile L. means to convey the idea that the particles, if 
magnified in diameter to the size of human hairs, would be about as long, 
in proportion, as those forming the beard of a normally clean-shaven man 
who had not shaved himself for about a fortnight. 
> wat dunder MS., lit. = somewhat thinner. I take L. to mean that the 
water itself was now not so full of animalcules—not that the animalcules 
had themselves grown thinner. But Oldenburg seems to have taken the 
latter view, for he translates (Phil. Trans.) ‘all sorts of those living creatures 
in this peppery water were grown thinner.” The ensuing paragraph supports 
the above reading. 
