LETTER 34. 4 NOVEMBER 1681 293 
this summer! this befell me very often, and especially 
when I partook of hot smoked beef, that was a bit fat,” or 
ham, which food I’m very fond of; indeed, it persisted 
once for three days running, and whatever food I took, I 
kept in my body not much > above 4 hours; and I 
imagined (for divers reasons) that I could get myself well 
again by drinking uncommon hot tea, as hath happened * 
many a time before. 
My excrement being so thin,’ I was at divers times 
persuaded to examine it ;° and each time "T kept in mind 
what food I had eaten, and what drink I had drunk, and 
what I found afterwards*: but to tell all my observations 
here would make all too long a story. I will only say that 
I have generally seen, in my excrement, many irregular 
particles of sundry sizes, most of them tending to a round 
figure, which are very clear and of a yellow colour :’ these 
were the ones that make the whole material look yellow 
to our eye. And there were also, besides, suchlike 
particles that were very bright and clear, without one 
being able to discern any colour in them.” 
I have, moreover, at divers times seen globules that 
were as big as” the corpuscles in our blood, and that each 
a 
" i.e., anno 1681. 
2 
dat een weynig vet was. These words are in the printed version but 
not in the original MS.—A similar remark is made by L. much later in 
Send-brief XX XIX, 13 July 1717, to J. G. Kerkherdere. 
3 
veel is here in the printed letter, but not in the MS. 
‘ is gelukt [=succeeded] MS. is geschied [ =befell] printed version. 
> 7.e., dilute or watery. 
6 
7 
8 
9 
i.e., with the microscope. 
soo nu en dan MS. soo nu als dan printed version. 
This word is not in the originals. I add it to preserve the sense. 
Probably incompletely digested remains of meat (striated muscle). 
0 fe., the faeces en masse. 
11 Pyobably fat-droplets. 
12 The Latin version mistranslates soo groot als as ° bigger than” 
(globulos globulis nostra sanguinis majores vidi). 
