sé 
270 LEEUWENHOEK AND HIS “‘ LITTLE ANIMALS” 
Now since we see that these animalcules can lie bedded 
so long in dry matter, as before described, and then on 
coming into water can swell out their bodies, and swim 
off; we may therefore conclude that in all pools and 
marshes, which have water standing in them in winter, 
but which dry up in summer, many kinds of animalcules 
ought to be found; and even though there were none at 
first in such waters, they would be brought thither by 
water-fowl, by way of the mud or water sticking to their 
feet and feathers.’ 
Seeing these wondrous dispensations of NATURE, 
whereby these little creatures are created so that they 
may live and continue their kind, our thoughts must be 
all abashed; and we ask ourselves, Can there even now 
be people who still hang on to the antient belief that 
living creatures are generated out of corruption ? 
About a couple of months after the foregoing lines were 
written, Leeuwenhoek sent the Royal Society some further 
observations on the animalcules occurring in rain-water. 
The following is a translation of the greater part of this 
letter : ° 
his Letter XXIX (5 Noy. 1716, to Boerhaave); Send-brieven, p. 288 (published 
1718). Vide p. 297 infra. 
1 These remarks recall a well-known passage in The Origin of Species, 
where Darwin discusses the dispersal of organisms by similar means. 
2MS. 28 April 1702. To the Royal Society. Not published in Dutch 
or Latin works. English version (abbreviated) printed in Phil. Trans. (1702), 
Vol. XXIII, No. 279, pp. 1152-1155 [where the date is wrongly given as 
1701]. I translate from the original Dutch MS. According to my numera- 
tion this is Letter 147: but Vandevelde (1924, p. 132), who did not detect 
the error in the date as printed in the Phil. Trans., calls it “‘ Brief 2 Tr 1 
[137a]”. The MS. of the English version is extant, along with the Dutch 
original, in the Royal Society collection, and is in the hand of John 
Chamberlayne.—Chamberlayne (1666-1723) was a miscellaneous writer 
and translator—said to have been conversant with 16 languages—who was 
educated at Oxford (1685) and Leyden (1688). He became a Fellow of the 
Society in 1702, and translated—as will appear presently—several of L.’s 
other letters for publication. His best known work—Magnae Britanniae 
Notitia, which went through many editions—was a rescript of a smaller 
book by his father, Edward C. It contains an interesting account of the 
Royal Society—among many other things. 
