Wrote Letter L-084 of 1679-05-15 to Christiaan Huygens to explain more about his observations of little animals

Date:

May 15, 1679

Standard reference information

L-number:

L-084

Leeuwenhoek's number:

28a

Collected Letters number:

Collected Letters volume:

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.

Leeuwenhoek wrote this short letter to Christiaan Huygens to explain more about his observations of microorganisms that he first described in Letter 18 (AB 26) of October 9, 1676, to Henry Oldenburg and the letter of December 26, 1678, to Christiaan's father Contstantijn.

The signed autograph of this letter is in Leiden University's Library, Huygens collection, Hug. 45. One quarto page.

In this letter Leeuwenhoek reverts to two micro-organisms, described in Letter L-040 of 9 October 1676 and Letter L-077 of 26 December 1678). He particularly lays the stress upon their locomotion (observation of ciliar movement). He also directs the attention of Huygens to a treatise by Hooke.

Response to other researchers

Noting that Christiaan's book Dioptrica was almost ready for publication, Leeuwenhoek called his attention to a similar book:

I must not omit telling you that Mr. Robert Hooke last year published a little book entitled Lectures and Collections, made by Robert Hooke, Secretary of the Royal Society. He sent me a copy of this little book. I do not understand English, but it seems to me that in between two letters by me, which are contained in it, he writes about the manufacture and the use of the microscope.

And as you know Mr. Hooke, it would seem to me - with your leave - that if you should not have read the book in question you ought to read it before your book appears, the more so since there are people whose greatest pleasure it is to find fault with others.

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.