Wrote Letter L-102 of 1680-04-05 to Robert Hooke about the testicles and sperm of a rat and organisms in the gills of oysters and in the sap of vines

Date: 
April 5, 1680
Standard reference information
L-number: 
L-102
Leeuwenhoek's number: 
30
Collected Letters number: 
57
Collected Letters volume: 
3

Text of the letter in the original Dutch and in English translation from Alle de Brieven. The Collected Letters at the DBNL - De Digitale Bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse Letteren.

The original manuscript on three quarto pages, written and signed by Leeuwenhoek, along with a red-chalk drawing and an ink drawing on separate sheets, is preserved at the Royal Society (MS. 1881. Early Letters L1.52). An English translation by Robert Hooke is found at Early Letters H3.73.

An excerpt was published thirteen years later in Philosophical Transactions, vol. 17, no. 196, dated 31 January 1693, titled "The abstract of two letters sent some time since by Mr. Anth. Van. Leeuwenhoeek to Dr. Gale and Dr. Hooke." See Publication history below.