LEEUWENHOEK 201 



wenlioek was born at Delft of a family of burghers, some 

 of whom had been brewers, and was first put to business 

 in Amsterdam. Afterwards he obtained the office of 

 sheriffs chamberlain in Delft, which yielded him a small 

 income with apparently little labour, and to this occu- 

 pation he settled down for life. In his leisure-time he 

 began to make and use magnifying glasses, and before 

 he had reached middle life his microscopic demonstra- 

 tions had become celebrated. De Graaf introduced him 

 to our Royal Society, which printed his first paper in 

 1674. Swammerdam repeatedly examined his prepara- 

 tions, and any distinguished person, such as the duke of 

 York or Peter the Great, who happened to visit Holland, 

 was taken to look at Leeuwenhoek's microscopes as chief 

 curiosities of the country. In these placid occupations 

 his life was passed ; in his eighty-fifth year he wrote his 

 last published letter, as he says, with a torpid and 

 trembling hand, and died at ninety-one. 



Leeuwenhoek did not methodically study any science ; 

 his curiosity led him to examine a great variety of 

 minute objects, and he found something new in every 

 one. An attentive inspection, perhaps a drawing made 

 by another hand, a few reflections, sometimes remarkably 

 penetrating, and then he sits down to indite another 

 page of the Secrets of Nature. Next week or next 

 month he may be busy with something quite diff"erent. 

 Desultory work like this reminds us of Hooke's Micro- 

 graphia. Both inquirers resemble men who have found 

 their way into a place rich in fragments of ore, and pick 

 up whatever happens to catch their eye, without attempt- 

 ing to sink shafts or run galleries. When we are inclined 

 to disparage Leeuwenhoek's hasty methods it is well to 

 recollect that he initiated biological inquiries of the 

 greatest interest, e.g. the parthenogenesis of aphids and 



