254 LEEUWENHOEK AND HIS “LITTLE ANIMALS ”’ 
mouth, I shall quote his words here—as they are not wholly 
irrelevant in the present context. In an interesting letter 
written in June, 1708, he said:? 
At the latter end of the month of April, 1708, I was 
again seized with a high fever, which stayed with me for 
four days, rising higher each night; and as my tongue 
was again coated with a thick whitish matter, I oft-times 
removed some of it, which seemed stuck very tight 
to the parts of the tongue, with a small penknife or with a 
silver tongue-scraper: and viewing it many times through 
the magnifying-glass, I could see nought else but what I 
have described * in my previous dicconenee 
On two occasions, I took some of the foresaid stuf from 
my tongue, and put it in a small clean China coffee-cup,’ 
and then poured boiling rain-water upon it, and let 
it seethe a good half hour; with the idea of separating the 
glue-like matter (wherewith the particles seemed to be 
stuck to one another) by so doing, in order that I should 
the better be able to view the parts themselves. 
Now when the stuff which I had taken off my tongue 
had lain in the water, in which it was boiled, for about 
a fortnight,’ I saw that the water was well-nigh evaporated 
away; so I poured again a little rain-water, which had 
stood some days in a clean phial in my closet,’ into the 
boiled water aforesaid. And five or six days afterwards, 
1 Brom Letter dated 29 June 1708. To the Royal Society. MS.Roy.Soc. 
Not published in Dutch or Latin editions. English translation (incomplete) 
printed in Phil. Trans. (1708), Vol. XXVI, No. 318, pp. 210-214. I 
translate from the MS. in L.’s own hand. 
2 A reference to a letter dated 18 Oct. 1707. MS.Roy.Soc. Incomplete 
English translation in Phil. Trans. (1707), Vol. XXV, No. 312, p. 2456 
[misprinted 1456]. Not published in Dutch or Latin. 
® een schoon jndiaanse Coffe Copje MS. ‘‘a clean China Coffee-dish ”’ 
Phil. Trans. 
* ontrent veertien dagen MS. “above a Fortnight”? Phil.Trans. 
> op mijn Comptoir MS. “upon my Desk near the said boil’d Water ” 
Phil. Trans. Cf. p. 114 supra. 
