HIS LANGUAGE AND MICROSCOPES ole 
words and phrases current in Sewel’s day. For modern Dutch 
and Dutch-English dictionaries I have relied in the main 
upon van Dale and ten Bruggencate, though I have frequently 
referred to other similar works. In common with all students 
of early English, I have received help at times from the well- 
known French Dictionary of Cotgrave, and Florio’s famous 
Italian-English vocabulary. The English dictionaries—of 
every period—which I have consulted, are all those to which 
I have had access: they are therefore far too numerous to 
mention. (I possess and regularly use more than a dozen.) 
As several old Dutch-English phrase-books and grammars, 
and the old Dutch Bible, have given me occasional assistance 
in arriving at the exact meaning of old-fashioned spellings 
ea I quote the editions of these which I have 
used. 
REFERENCES.—See, in the general bibliography at the 
end, the following entries especially : Anonymus (1658), 
de Beer & Laurillard (1899), Brenia (1702), Bosman 
(1928), ten Bruggencate (1920), Cappelli (1912), Cotgrave 
(1650), van Dale (1884), Florio (1688), Halma (1729), 
Hannot (1719), Heugelenburg (1727), Hexham, (1658, 
1660), Kiliaan (1599), Kilianus auctus (1642), Maigne 
d’Arnis (1890), Martinez (1687), Meijer (1745), Minsheu 
(1627), Oudemans (1869-1880), Sewel (1691, 1708, 1754). 
(iii) LEEUWENHOEK’S MICROSCOPES AND 
MICROSCOPICAL METHODS 
Leeuwenhoek left us no description of the apparatus which 
he used for making his observations on protozoa and bacteria. 
As we have already seen, he kept “for himself alone” his 
“best microscopes” and his “ particular manner of observing 
very small creatures.” He never divulged his secret method: 
though undoubtedly he had a real secret, which enabled him 
to outstrip all other microscopists for at least a century. But 
he left many microscopes behind him when he died, and a 
few of these are still in existence. Consequently, we know 
something about his apparatus, though we can still only guess 
how he used it in making his “ best observations.” 
The earliest particular accounts of Leeuwenhoek’s micro- 
scopes are the descriptions of the instruments bequeathed 
