Observations of amber, 'burned paper' from the sky, rotifers (microscopic aquatic animals), maggots, blow flies, the stinging hairs of nettles and the East-Indian centipede
Date
17 October 1687
Creator
Unknown, Artist
Object type
Archive reference number
Manuscript page number
p25
Material
Dimensions
height (page): 190mm
width (page): 155mm
width (page): 155mm
Subject
Content object
Description
11 figures in a letter from Antoni van Leeuwenhoek to the Royal Society. The original drawings are lost.
Fig. 1: joint-like parts of green substance or phlegm
Fig. 2: worm or maggot at five days old
Fig. 3: the pupa, with hole where the fly has come out
Fig. 4: the fly
Fig. 5: sting of a nettle with small globule of sap being discharged
Fig. 6: a young nettle's sting from which no fluid has been discharged
Fig. 7: sting of nettle with sap evaporated
Fig. 8: nettle's sting cut off transversally at thickest point
Fig. 9: nettle's sting cut off more towards the sharp part
Fig. 10: the pincer or nipper of the centipede as seen through the microscope
Fig. 11: an Indian centipede.
Fig. 1: joint-like parts of green substance or phlegm
Fig. 2: worm or maggot at five days old
Fig. 3: the pupa, with hole where the fly has come out
Fig. 4: the fly
Fig. 5: sting of a nettle with small globule of sap being discharged
Fig. 6: a young nettle's sting from which no fluid has been discharged
Fig. 7: sting of nettle with sap evaporated
Fig. 8: nettle's sting cut off transversally at thickest point
Fig. 9: nettle's sting cut off more towards the sharp part
Fig. 10: the pincer or nipper of the centipede as seen through the microscope
Fig. 11: an Indian centipede.
Object history
Printed images taken from a published version of the letter (the same plate is in the Dutch and Latin versions):
Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, Vervolg der Brieven, geschreven aan de Wytvermaarde Koninglijke Societeit tot Londen (Leiden: C. Boutesteijn, 1687), pp. 115-40.
Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, Continuatio Epistolarum (Leiden: Boutesteyn, 1689), pp. 91-112.
Three small packets of specimens were attached to the final sheet of the letter. These were: a blackened fragment of paper; a specimen of algal mat; and 'paper which in 1686, 14 or 15 March in Courland, was said to have fallen from the sky'.
Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, Vervolg der Brieven, geschreven aan de Wytvermaarde Koninglijke Societeit tot Londen (Leiden: C. Boutesteijn, 1687), pp. 115-40.
Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, Continuatio Epistolarum (Leiden: Boutesteyn, 1689), pp. 91-112.
Three small packets of specimens were attached to the final sheet of the letter. These were: a blackened fragment of paper; a specimen of algal mat; and 'paper which in 1686, 14 or 15 March in Courland, was said to have fallen from the sky'.
Related fellows
Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632 - 1723, Dutch) , Naturalist
Associated place