SOME EARLY MICROSCOPISTS 



serum in which floated an immense number of 

 rounded particles, possessing the shape of, as it 

 were, a flat oval, but nevertheless wholly regular. 

 These particles seemed, however, to contain within 

 themselves the humour* of other particles. When 

 they were looked at sideways, they resembled trans- 

 parent rods, as it were, and many other figures, 

 according, no doubt, to the different ways in which 

 they were rolled about in the serum of the blood. 

 I remarked besides that the colour of the objects 

 was the paler the more highly they were magnified 

 by means of the microscope." Of the snail he made 

 a number of strikingly accurate studies, in all of 

 which he was aided by his lenses, so that it is the 

 more remarkable that he considered snails to be 

 insects. 



Leeuwenhoek, another Dutchman, we have al- ^-^*=^ 

 ready mentioned in our previous chapter. He of 

 all men brought the simple microscope to its highest 

 state of development. His instruments were one 

 of the sights of Holland, and many eminent per- 

 sonages made a point of seeing them. Though he 

 had not the advantage of any scientific training and 

 spoke no other language than his own, he made some 

 remarkable additions to the scientific knowledge of * 

 the time. Like Hooke, he was not a methodical 

 worker, he was impelled by an unbounded curiosity. 

 '* When we are inclined to disparage Leeuwenhoek 's 

 ki hasty methods it is well to recollect that he initiated 



* Humour is here used in its original sense, meaning moisture 

 I or a liquid. 



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