Members of the Royal Society

Leeuwenhoek addressed almost a hundred letters to the Royal Society without naming a specific member. He used a variety of phrases and spellings, standardized here as "Members of the Royal Society".

The image on the right (click to enlarge) shows a meeting at Crane Court with Isaac Newton in the chair.

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Year	Author	Title
1697	Leeuwenhoek, A. van	Sesde Vervolg

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Period 3 - 1687-1694
Period 4 - 1694-1702
Period 5 - 1702-1712
Period 6 - 1712-1719
Specimens: Ovaries
Specimens: Sperm
Specimens: Wood and Bark
Spontaneous generation

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What Leeuwenhoek wrote ...
Wrote Letter L-104 of 1680-05-13 to Members of the Royal Society expressing his surprise and gratitude at being elected a member
Wrote Letter L-150 of 1684-07-25 to Members of the Royal Society about parts of the brain of several animals, chalk stones of gout, leprosy, and the scales of eels
Wrote Letter L-152 of 1685-01-05 to Members of the Royal Society about salts in wine and vinegar and in the stomach, the eye, the need for food and water, Descartes's theory on smallest water particles, and a theory of taste - salt, sour and sweet
Wrote Letter L-154 of 1685-01-23 to Members of the Royal Society about salts and their crystals and his theory about the causes of taste
Wrote Letter L-157 of 1685-03-30 to Members of the Royal Society about sperm, the uterus of a bitch, sheep embryos, ovaries in young animals and apples, and his claims that sperm are the life-carriers and that there are male and female sperm
Wrote Letter L-159 of 1685-07-13 to members of the Royal Society about reproduction of trees, transfer of nutrients, male and female trees, hazelnut, comparing reproduction of mammals with reproduction of plants, cross-breeding, and germination
Wrote Letter L-166 of 1685-10-12 to members of the Royal Society about the beginning of plants in seeds; chyle, sweat, about skin, optic nerve, and bile of fish; salts in beer vinegar and lemon juice; and spirits mixed with blood and wine vinegar
Wrote Letter L-168 of 1686-01-22 to members of the Royal Society about cinnabar naturalis, gunpowder, saltpeter, and air made by gunpowder and crab's eyes
Wrote Letter L-173 of 1686-04-02 to members of the Royal Society about the structure of bone, the bark of trees, skin and scales, the moisture evaporating from his body, and a little peeling piece of skin
Wrote Letter L-175 of 1686-05-14 to members of the Royal Society about gall-nuts found on oak trees and the germination of plants
Wrote Letter L-177 of 1686-06-10 to members of the Royal Society about seeds of cotton, kapok, Bupariti, and coconuts, the reproduction of shrimp and lobster, and the eggs of shell fish
Wrote Letter L-178 of 1686-07-10 to members of the Royal Society about the growth and durability of wood felled in different seasons and countries, the annual growth rings, and how wooden barrels can be made watertight
Wrote Letter L-186 of 1687-04-04 to the members of the Royal Society about the structure of the teeth of elephants, pigs, humans, oxen, and horses and about toothache
Wrote Letter L-187 of 1687-05-09 to members of the Royal Society about the structure of 'stone' of the medlar and the coffee bean and acid in plants
Wrote Letter L-188 of 1687-06-13 to members of the Royal Society about wheat and the seeds from a variety of plants
Wrote Letter L-189 of 1687-07-11 to members of the Royal Society about eggs of silkworms and caterpillars and humans' squinting and a theory for its cause
Wrote Letter L-190 of 1687-08-06 to members of the Royal Society about the calander and the louse and against spontaneous generation
Wrote Letter L-192 of 1687-09-09 to members of the Royal Society about ant eggs, larvae and its development, feeding, sting, cocoon and nest
Wrote Letter L-193 of 1687-10-17 to members of the Royal Society about amber, 'burned paper' from the sky, rotifers, maggots, blow flies, the stinging hairs of nettles, and the East-Indian centipede
Wrote Letter L-194 of 1687-11-28 to members of the Royal Society about his discovery that cochineal was an insect and his experiments with cinchona bark
Wrote Letter L-196 of 1688-05-25 to members of the Royal Society about a medicinal root and bladderstones
Wrote Letter L-197 of 1688-07-06 to the members of the Royal Society bezoar stone, monkey stone, gout tubercles, and red coral and white coral
Wrote Letter L-198 of 1688-08-03 to the members of the Royal Society about plaster, alabaster, gypsum, Muscovite glass, cobblestone, shell lime, masonry mortar, lime, cement, sand stone, and slate
Wrote Letter L-199 of 1688-08-24 to the members of the Royal Society about gnats, horseflies; growth of branches, germination of wheat plants, the soft and hard roe of cod, and the number of sperm in a cod's soft roe
Wrote Letter L-200 of 1688-09-07 to the members of the Royal Society about development of the eggs of green frogs, blood circulation in frogs and the tail fin of roach and bream, and the shape of red blood cells
Wrote Letter L-204 of 1689-01-12 to the members of the Royal Society about his observation of the circulation of the blood in a variety of fish as well as a description of the construction of his ‘eel spy-glass’ and the slime on the skin of an eel
Wrote Letter L-206 of 1689-04-01 to the members of the Royal Society
Wrote Letter L-212 of 1691-11-27 to the members of the Royal Society about blood, chyle, and an experiment to discover the volume of water when it is cold and when it is heated
Wrote Letter L-213 of 1692-01-04 to the members of the Royal Society about bladder and kidney stones and a chalk-like substance from a gout stone
Wrote Letter L-214 of 1692-02-01 to the members of the Royal Society about various peppers and their taste, tea and its effects of tea on digestion, and Spanish fly
Wrote Letter L-216 of 1692-03-07 to the members of the Royal Society about corn-weevels, corn-moths, caterpillars, butterflies, calanders, lice in corn-lofts, little animals in rain water, black-flies in blossoms, and maggots in cheese
Wrote Letter L-218 of 1692-06-24 to the members of the Royal Society about more experiments with his air-pump, the structure of and blood in an insect's wing, a grey owlet moth, and the wing of a very small fly
Wrote Letter L-220 of 1692-08-12 to the members of the Royal Society about the shaft of a bird's feather as used in a quill, the lens and cornea of the human and calf eyes, 'wood-pipes' in different species of wood, bulrushes, and pine and lime wood
Wrote Letter L-221 of 1692-09-16 to the members of the Royal Society about little animals in dental tartar, theories of eel reproduction, worms in eel intestines, and blood vessels in grasshoppers
Wrote Letter L-228 of 1693-10-15 to the members of the Royal Society about colors and the life cycle of fleas
Wrote Letter L-231 of 1693-12-20 to the members of the Royal Society about spiders, lice, and mites
Wrote Letter L-233 of 1694-01-24 to the members of the Royal Society about tapeworms and salt and sand in cod intestines
Wrote Letter L-236 of 1694-02-24 to the members of the Royal Society about his experiments with solid phosphorus
Wrote Letter L-239 of 1694-03-02 to the members of the Royal Society about ear wax and hair, body hair, the amount of sweat secreted from the human body, and the possibility that sperm might penetrate the ovum
Wrote Letter L-240 of 1694-03-19 to the members of the Royal Society refuting George Garden's ideas in Letter L-227 about the role of the ovary and eggs
Wrote Letter L-241 of 1694-04-02 to the members of the Royal Society about the tongue of an ox and a pig and the heart of a sheep, ox, duck, chicken and cod
Wrote Letter L-242 of 1694-04-30 to the members of the Royal Society about his criticisms of Buonanni's theory of spontaneous generation, about mussels, barnacles, shrimp larvae, the eye of a dragon-fly, gnat, fly, and ant, and about ant eggs
Wrote Letter L-295 of 1696-07-10 to the members of the Royal Society about the circulation of blood in eels; mites, figs, strawberries, and a lobster's leg; a transcription of Christiaan Huygens's Letter L-223 about the reproduction of eels
Wrote Letter L-316 of 1697-03-25 to the members of the Royal Society as a cover letter to Continuatio Arcanorum Naturae
Wrote Letter L-318 of 1697-04-05 to the members of the Royal Society about experiments with magnets, a meniscus in a glass, and patients given 'sympathetic' powder as a medicine by a German quack doctor
Wrote Letter L-329 of 1697-09-10 to the members of the Royal Society about small white eggs mixed with earth, a pulsating pulmonary vein in an egg, Roman snails, the rootlets of a wheat grain, one of his own teeth, and young oysters
Wrote Letter L-343 of 1698-05-09 to the members of the Royal Society about the compound eye of a beetle and the number of facets, the human cornea, drone flies, and gnat brains and leg muscles
Wrote Letter L-356 of 1699-06-09 to the members of the Royal Society to dispute Dalenpatius's 'Nouvelles de la Republique des lettres', in which sperm are described as having the shape of the human body
Wrote Letter L-357 of 1699-06-23 to the members of the Royal Society in response to Martin Lister's objections against his theory of generation; his opposition to the theory of spontaneous generation; the assumption of male and female spermatozoa
Wrote Letter L-361 of 1699-09-25 to the members of the Royal Society about the circulation of blood in tadpole capillaries, the transition from arteries to veins, blood clotting, the dissolution of clotted blood, and the origin of the name thunder-pad
Wrote Letter L-385 of 1701-04-15 to the members of the Royal Society about sperm from cod, a calculation of its size, and ram and pike sperm
Wrote Letter L-390 of 1701-06-21 to the members of the Royal Society about spiders, their blood, their silk thread and its structure, their sting, and laying their eggs
Wrote Letter L-392 of 1701-08-02 to the members of the Royal Society about circulation of blood in young eels and announcing his bequest of 26 magnifying glasses
Wrote Letter L-399 of 1701-12-20 to the members of the Royal Society about the sperm of spiders and how they copulate
Wrote Letter L-401 of 1702-02-14 to the members of the Royal Society about balsam, an apparatus he designed to inhale smoke and vapour, blood vessels in sheep lungs, his own phlegm, and the theory that cold air harms lungs
Wrote Letter L-405 of 1702-04-28 to the members of the Royal Society about little animals and air bubbles in rain water and the circulation of blood in an eel
Wrote Letter L-408 of 1702-12-25 to the members of the Royal Society about duckweed, its roots and reproduction, the little animals attached to it, and asexual reproduction
Wrote Letter L-409 of 1703-02-05 to the members of the Royal Society about colony-forming little animals from Delft canal water, dissolving silver and gold in acids, and why there is little duckweed on the surface of water in cold weather
Wrote Letter L-410 of 1703-02-26 to the members of the Royal Society about the structure and germination of pips of oranges from Surinam and Curaçao
Wrote Letter L-413 of 1703-11-03 to the members of the Royal Society about the liver fluke in soil from meadows, worms and other little animals in soil, and a theory about how they propogate
Wrote Letter L-414 of 1703-12-04 to the members of the Royal Society about the shape of a grain of fine sand from the Dutch East Indies
Wrote Letter L-415 of 1704-01-08 to the members of the Royal Society about salt crystals out of rainwater that during a "frightful storm" in December had dashed against the windows of his house
Wrote Letter L-416 of 1704-02-01 to the members of the Royal Society about red sandstone from the cathedral at Utrecht compared to diamond, his theory about the origin of diamonds, and marble, Bentheim stone, alabaster, and gold and silver ore
Wrote Letter L-422 of 1704-03-21 to the members of the Royal Society about cochineal and the insects that are the source of this dye
Wrote Letter L-423 of 1704-07-22 to the members of the Royal Society about muscle fibers of whales, the structure of the eyes' lenses of whales and cod, and his theory about why fish have no eyelids
Wrote Letter L-426 of 1704-09-16 to the members of the Royal Society about leaves of aloe and a plant called dragon's blood sent to him by Pieter Hotton with Letter L-425
Wrote Letter L-428 of 1704-11-04 to the members of the Royal Society about little animals with two wheels, found on duckweed, how they move, their parasites, and the theory that sea water makes land more fertile
Wrote Letter L-431 of 1704-12-13 to the members of the Royal Society about the origin of rock-crystal and a description and analysis of fossils of sea animals and two Roman dice all found in Switzerland and given to him by Pieter Valkenier
Wrote Letter L-433 of 1705-03-03 to the members of the Royal Society about silver deposits on his own hands after he mixed gold and silver with acid and treatment of a callous on his own finger with vitriol and then acid
Wrote Letter L-437 of 1705-03-27 to the members of the Royal Society about his theory that bark tissue is formed from wood; cross-sections and pictures of vessels and cells of bark and wood tissue of cherry, birch, cinnamon, and lime trees and from cork
Wrote Letter L-438 of 1705-04-24 to the members of the Royal Society about a fern and its seed capsules and an experiment to open and close them
Wrote Letter L-439 of 1705-05-25 to the members of the Royal Society about crystals from various minerals that Pieter Valkenier left after his recent visit and experiments to dissolve and recrystallize them
Wrote Letter L-442 of 1705-12-29 to the members of the Royal Society about pumice stone, its origins, and its salts, sponge and a theory about how it absorbs water, and coral
Wrote Letter L-446 of 1706-03-19 to the members of the Royal Society about an East Indian tree and mixing his own blood with the crushed seed of the tree and water, the effects of a drink made from hemp seed, and a dissected hemp seed
Wrote Letter L-447 of 1706-04-20 to the members of the Royal Society about a piece of hanged woman's intestinal wall brought to him by Govert Bidloo
Wrote Letter L-448 of 1706-06-01 to the members of the Royal Society about the structure of a sheep's spleen and a flea's organ for stinging and sucking
Wrote Letter L-454 of 1707-07-05 to the members of the Royal Society to acknowledge the receipt of Letter L-453 and to cover the enclosed copy of Letter L-436 of 12 March 1705 to Magliabechi
Wrote Letter L-455 of 1707-07-12 to the members of the Royal Society as thanks for numbers of Philosophical Transactions and as cover to a copy of Letter L-441 to Corner; mentioned the visit of Gilbert Burnet
Wrote Letter L-457 of 1707-07-25 to the members of the Royal Society about cinchona bark and using it as a treatment for fever
Wrote Letter L-459 of 1707-10-18 to the members of the Royal Society about the fur on his own tongue after an attack of fever, the fur of a thrush patient, and a theory about the origin of tongue fur
Wrote Letter L-461 of 1707-11-22 to the members of the Royal Society about a hairy substance, received with Letter L-460, supposedly excreted by a woman suffering from a kidney infection
Wrote Letter L-462 of 1707-12-06 to the members of the Royal Society about the tongue of an ox, its skin and papillae, and the tongue of a pig with its papillae and muscle fibres
Wrote Letter L-463 of 1708-01-01 to the members of the Royal Society about the composition of red coral, the effects when heated and when dissolved in aqua fortis and boiling rain water, and crystals in dissolved coral
Wrote Letter L-464 of 1708-06-29 to the members of the Royal Society about his further observations of the white furry substance on his own tongue during attacks of fever
Wrote Letter L-467 of 1708-08-28 to the members of the Royal Society about how an eel's heart and the valves in the vien of its tail work; his own pulse and pulsation of the heart of an eel and a pike
Wrote Letter L-468 of 1708-10-09 to the members of the Royal Society about the mucous membrane in the palate and in the nose of a cow and about its tongue
Wrote Letter L-474 of 1710-01-14 to the members of the Royal Society about Alexander Stuart's visit, blood circulation in eels, crystallisation of sugar, minerals from Hungary, and his new fish viewer for visitors to see blood circulating in an eel's tail
Wrote Letter L-475 of 1710-02-21 to the members of the Royal Society about the shape and crystallization of diamonds
Wrote Letter L-476 of 1710-06-06 to the members of the Royal Society about silver dissolved in aqua fortis
Wrote Letter L-477 of 1710-11-11 to the members of the Royal Society about what happened when he dissolved gold dust from Guinea in aqua regia
Wrote Letter L-481 of 1711-09-22 to the members of the Royal Society about mites, their reproduction, eggs, larvae, a calculation of the size of a mite egg, the hair of a honey-bee, and metamorphis of larvae from dried fish into a full-grown animal
Wrote Letter L-485 of 1712-03-01 to the members of the Royal Society about the skin and flesh of a whale, its seminal vessels, and its blood with comparisons to the blood of other fish
Wrote Letter L-486 of 1712-04-12 to the members of the Royal Society about the structure of the genetalia of a female elephant and the structure of an elephant's skin
Wrote Letter L-487 of 1712-06-10 to the members of the Royal Society about little animals on a mussel's shell, the ciliar motion of the gills, and the intestines and ovaries of mussels
Wrote Letter L-496 of 1713-06-28 to the members of the Royal Society about little animals on duckweed, muscle fiber membranes, and a list of unanswered letters; little animals in his mouth come from rinsing glasses with pond water
Wrote Letter L-504 of 1714-06-22 to the members of the Royal Society to acknowledge Letter L-503 and numbers of Philosophical Transactions and to query why figures of the muscle fibres of whales were not published
Wrote Letter L-507 of 1714-08-21 to the members of the Royal Society about the muscle fibres of cow, chicken, mouse, honeybee, flea, ant, and whale and the blood vessels in the leg of a fly; thanks for recent numbers of Philosophical Transactions
Wrote Letter L-509 of 1714-10-26 to the members of the Royal Society about muscle fibres and enclosing membranes in the legs of a mosquito, rose chafer, fly, crane fly, honeybee and cow; rectifying earlier opinion, the contractions in a muscle are spiral
Wrote Letter L-512 of 1714-11-09 to the members of the Royal Society about the muscles of an ox, sheep, chicken, mouse, and hare
Wrote Letter L-513 of 1714-11-20 to the members of the Royal Society about muscle fibres and tendons from a mouse leg, a duck wing, a honeybee, a polecat leg, and between the ribs of a mouse; a theory about the structure and action of tendons
Wrote Letter L-549 of 1717-03-06 to the members of the Royal Society about pig brains, apples, and coconuts; blood circulation nourishes; new technique to examine brains; tea and coffee keep the blood thin
Wrote Letter L-548 of 1717-03-06 to the members of the Royal Society tendons and muscle fibres in sheep, flea, ox, honeybee, oyster, and mussel
Wrote Letter L-552 of 1717-06-15 to the members of the Royal Society about the muscle fibres of an ox and a flea and the reproduction of fleas
Wrote Letter L-559 of 1717-09-17 to the members of the Royal Society about his own skin's fat globules and sweat ducts, holes in his finger nails, sweat ducts in humans and in cow teats, and how lice and fleas use sweat ducts to obtain their food
Wrote Letter L-560 of 1717-10-08 to the members of the Royal Society about Pareira Brava root and the effect of salt particles from it upon blood, starch grains from the membranes of the root, and the roots of “China” and “Irias"
Wrote Letter L-561 of 1717-10-22 to the members of the Royal Society about the brain of a cod, the nerves of cod and haddock, and the spinal cord of haddock
Wrote Letter L-562 of 1717-11-20 to the members of the Royal Society about tendons and nerves of sheep, lamb, cow, and ox; his last letter to the Royal Society; expresses his gratitude for being elected a fellow and for Philosophical Transactions
Wrote Letter L-566 of 1720-11-20 to the members of the Royal Society about bone membrane and the canals in bone, the cell layers and blood vessels in the bone membrane, and bone from the rib of a cow
Wrote Letter L-567 of 1721-01-15 to members of the Royal Society about the stomata of the leaves of boxwood, the number of them, and the down on the skin of a peach and a quince
Wrote Letter L-568 of 1721-01-24 to the members of the Royal Society about vessels in wood from Ambon (Indonesia), oakwood, and pinewood, the muscle fibres of a cow, a whale, and a mouse, and the structure of a red blood cell
Wrote Letter L-569 of 1721-04-11 to the members of the Royal Society about how flesh fibers are nourished by the blood vessels, this time in fish
Wrote Letter L-570 of 1721-06-27 to the members of the Royal Society about finally discovering the little holes in the membranes of beans and peas and about the little vessels in seed membranes
Wrote Letter L-572 of 1722-04-21 to the members of the Royal Society about the muscular fibres of different animals and whether iron becomes magnetic over time
Wrote Letter L-573 of 1722-05-01 to the members of the Royal Society about the structure of fat particles in sheep, lamb, flatfish, and perch
Wrote Letter L-576 of 1722-06-13 to the members of the Royal Society about the reproductive organs of a ewe and a fetus from it
Wrote Letter L-584 of 1723-03-19 to James Jurin about blood, the size of blood globules, the state of his health, and the role of the ovary in reproduction
Wrote Letter L-585 of 1723-05-31 to the members of the Royal Society about the structure and texture of the diaphragm, the source of his most severe ailment

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Life in Holland

in the 1600's

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in the 1600's

Members of the Royal Society

Life in Holland

in the 1600's