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
Standard reference information Collected Letters number:
Collected Letters volume:
The original manuscript on six quarto pages, written and signed by Leeuwenhoek, is preserved at the Royal Society (MS. 2084. L 4. 33). It was accompanied by five figures, the drawings of which were lost after the plates were made for publication in Philosophical Transactions .
Leeuwenhoek's summary Leeuwenhoek did not include his letters between L-405 1702-04-28 and L-487 1712-06-10 among his self-published and thus self-numbered letters. Those with scientific observations were all addressed to members of the Royal Society and almost all of them were excerpted in Philosophical Transactions .
Reception in London The letter was read in the meeting of the Royal Society of February 22, 1709 O.S. (Royal Society, ]ournal Book Original , vol. II, p. 185).
It was published, along with the letter of November 22, 1707, in no. 323 of Philosophical Transactions for September and October of 1709. The letter was written four months later, so this issue must have been very late.
The manuscript of the English translation on eight folio pages is preserved at the Royal Society in London (MS 2085, L.4.34).
Specimens and methods On the circulation of the blood in an eel and the passage from the arteries to the veins.
On the coagulation and crystals of sugar candy.
On the shape of some sulphur containing minerals from Hungary.
Description of a new apparatus, which he called a fish viewer (viskijker ) to view the circulation of the blood in a living eel.
At the beginning of this letter, Leeuwenhoek rescounted what he showed to his visitors, no doubt using the fish viewer that he described at the end of the letter.
I have shown the said gentlemen, among other discoveries, the circulation of the blood in an eel, and in particular how the blood dropped into the veins as it were through a valve, which movement we call a pulsation. Although the evening was falling when they came to me and they therefore had to make shift with candle-light (which I avoid, in particular for seeing the flow of the blood), all three saw it so clearly that they told me that they could bear witness to this.
The public and their opinions "in England I shall meet with even more contradiction than here in Holland"
Concluding his report about Alexander Stuart's visit, Leeuwenhoek wrote:
And Mr. Stuart said more than once that he would write about it to Mr. Hans Sloane, for I think that in England I shall meet with even more contradiction than here in Holland, where I have shown it to several gentlemen, among others to three of the most distinguished gentlemen at the court of His Majesty [blank in ms.], who in the late summer honored me by coming to me in order to see some discoveries, among other things the circulation of the blood dropping through a valve into the veins, which they saw with great pleasure flowing in vigorously, and they observed the circulation of the blood with the greatest pleasure, and granted me that the pulsations took place in the veins.
Visitors to his house "I should be as it were a slave"
At the beginning of this letter, Leeuwenhoek wrote about Alexander Stuart (1673-1742), a member of the Royal Society:
Mr Hans Sloane in his missive recommends Mr Stuart to me as a gentleman with a thirst for knowledge, who has travelled through many countries, and I have civilly received the said gentleman and also two Scotch gentlemen accompanying him.
And I will so receive all those who have a letter of recommendation from Mr. Sloane. But if I were to receive everyone coming or trying to come to my house, I should have no liberty and should be as it were a slave.
Publication history Related sources, especially Philosophical Transactions, and first editions only of Leeuwenhoek's volumes of letters. For later editions see Related events under Learn more.
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