Microscopical observations on the periosteum
Date
20 November 1720
Object type
Archive reference number
Manuscript page number
p231
Material
Dimensions
height (page): 178mm
width (page): 227mm
width (page): 227mm
Subject
Description
Seven drawings in a letter by Antoni van Leeuwenhoek to the Royal Society, in which he is trying to determine how the periosteum is joined to the vessels that compose the bones. The periosteum is the membrane enveloping the bones where no cartilage is present.
Fig. 1: Periosteum, or bone membrane of a cow, sheep or calf.
Fig. 2: the same bit of bone and membrane, but then cut in the length, showing all the vessels in the tissue as dots.
Fig. 3: a small bit of bone (RSTV) with membrane (SWXT), which is not thicker than the hair on a man's chin.
Fig. 4: a piece of bone of the rib of a cow with flesh, cut sectionally. YZAB shows the membrane, ZCDA the flesh fibres.
Fig. 5: a bit of the rib bone of a cow, where the bone membrane and the bone are still partly connected between K and C.
Figs 6 & 7: circumferences of the bone from which the membrane has been taken off.
The drawings were engraved for Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, vol. 31, no. 366 (1721). Leeuwenhoek had the images drawn for him.
The printed images can be found at EL/L4/58/009.
Fig. 1: Periosteum, or bone membrane of a cow, sheep or calf.
Fig. 2: the same bit of bone and membrane, but then cut in the length, showing all the vessels in the tissue as dots.
Fig. 3: a small bit of bone (RSTV) with membrane (SWXT), which is not thicker than the hair on a man's chin.
Fig. 4: a piece of bone of the rib of a cow with flesh, cut sectionally. YZAB shows the membrane, ZCDA the flesh fibres.
Fig. 5: a bit of the rib bone of a cow, where the bone membrane and the bone are still partly connected between K and C.
Figs 6 & 7: circumferences of the bone from which the membrane has been taken off.
The drawings were engraved for Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, vol. 31, no. 366 (1721). Leeuwenhoek had the images drawn for him.
The printed images can be found at EL/L4/58/009.
Object history
Figures printed in A. Leeuwenhoek, 'Observations upon the Bones and the Periosteum', Phil. Trans. vol. 31, no. 366 (1721), pp. 91-97.
Related fellows
Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632 - 1723, Dutch) , Naturalist
Associated place