218 
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LEEUWENHOEK AND HIS ‘‘ LITTLE ANIMALS ”’ 
because they were so few in the bile that I was examining. 
But afterwards, examining the bile of another cow, I 
found that the globules were of a heavier matter than the 
liquid that they floated in; wherefore I drew off the bile 
from the bottom of the gall-bladder, and then found that 
there were' many hundred times more globules in this 
bile than in that which I had taken from the upper part 
of the gall-bladder; and there were, besides, some 
corpuscles * which, to my eye, looked as big as ants’ eggs.” 
These had the figure of an egg,* only with this difference, 
that whereas an egg is more sharply pointed at one end 
than at the other, yet these corpuscles were equally 
pointed at both ends: and moreover these corpuscles 
were composed of globules joined together, and had a 
yellow colour, except several which were somewhat 
whitish ; but notwithstanding, they were so transparent 
that you could see the body of one through that of 
another. And this transparency making me wonder 
whether they might not, in fact, be little vesicles filled 
inside with liquid, I fished some of these corpuscles out of 
the bile with a fine hair; and looking at ’em on the hair, 
I perceived two which seemed to be pushed in, just as 
though you had blown up a bladder and then stuck your 
thumb in it, so as to make a dent in it; whereupon I was 
the more firmly persuaded that these corpuscles were filled 
with some sort of humor. Afterwards, on examining 
more biles from oxen, I found them the same as before; 
only with this difference, that one bile might be furnisht 
with more of the oval corpuscles than another. 
was MS. 
* deeltgens MS. 
8 
L. means that the objects looked, under his microscope, about as big 
as ‘ants’ eggs” look to the naked eye. At a later date he published a 
remarkable account of ants, from which it is clear that he was well aware 
that 
the ant’s “egg” is not really an egg, but a pupa. See Letter 58, 
9 Sept. 1687. 
4 
: ) 
2.€., a hens egg. 
