222 THE MINUTE ANATOMISTS 



tor's coat from a distance of five or six paces, an 

 infinity of little worms seemed to be devouring the 

 cloth. When the same trick was practised upon 

 Leeuwenhoek, he discovered that holes had been ground 

 in the lens, into which minute objects could be placed. 

 The objects, whatever they were, would of course appear 

 enormous when judged to be several feet ofi".^ 



ESTIMATE OF LEEUWENHOEK 



The modern biologist, whose task is lightened by the 

 improvements of many preceding generations, who has 

 at command microscopes which do not fatigue the eyes 

 and text-books which summarise what is already known, 

 finds it hard to put himself in the place of the minute 

 observer of the seventeenth century. The animal and 

 vegetable kingdoms seemed vast and intricate even to 

 those who never gave a thought to animals smaller than 

 insects, or to plants smaller than duckweed. Before the 

 objects easily visible without a lens had been tolerably 

 classed, the microscope revealed a new world of minute 

 organisms, many of them small enough to be wafted by 

 the lightest summer breeze. We need not wonder that 

 Leeuwenhoek should have studied many things super- 

 ficially ; it is enough for his fame that he studied some 

 things carefully, kindled curiosity, and opened out 

 inquiries which others have pursued much farther. 



No one would reckon Leeuwenhoek among the great 

 philosophers. He held, however, decided opinions on 

 two great biological questions which already engaged 

 attention, the question of spontaneous generation, and 

 that of the origin of species. The reasoning of Eedi, 

 supported by his own observations, convinced him that 

 when living things seemed to arise independently in 



lEpist. 139, Ep. Soc. B. (1701). Vol. Ill, pp. 346-354. 



