The number of 'little animals' in a water drop
Date
20 May 1679
Creator
Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632 - 1723, Dutch) , Naturalist
Object type
Archive reference number
Manuscript page number
p1
Material
Dimensions
height (page): 231mm
width (page): 173mm
width (page): 173mm
Subject
Content object
Description
A copy of a letter written by Antoni van Leeuwenhoek to Constantijn Huygens (senior). This is the copy that Van Leeuwenhoek made and sent to the Royal Society.
The drawing shows a cubic inch ('cubicq duijm'), and his calculation on the same page is his estimation about the number of 'little animals' that can be found in a cubic inch of water. Van Leeuwenhoek bases his calculations on his observations of about 300 'little animals' in a water drop the size of a normal grain of sand.
The drawing shows a cubic inch ('cubicq duijm'), and his calculation on the same page is his estimation about the number of 'little animals' that can be found in a cubic inch of water. Van Leeuwenhoek bases his calculations on his observations of about 300 'little animals' in a water drop the size of a normal grain of sand.
Object history
The manuscript of the letter to Constantijn Huygens is lost. The present letter is an autographic copy sent by Leeuwenhoeck to the Royal Society in London. In the Leiden University Library there is a second copy, dated 21 May 1679, written by the same person who wrote the copy of the postscript to the letter of 25 April 1679. (Alle de brieven van Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, ed. by a committee of Dutch scientists, 17 vols [ongoing] (Amsterdam: Swets & Zeitlinger, 1939- ), III (1948), 52-67 (letter 47) (p. 53).)
Related fellows
Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632 - 1723, Dutch) , Naturalist
Associated place