Credit: ©The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.15756

    Observations on the Jesuit's bark, or cinchona

    Date
    28 November 1687
    Creator
    Unknown, Artist
    Object type
    Archive reference number
    Manuscript page number
    p11
    Material
    Dimensions
    height (page): 195mm
    width (page): 155mm
    Subject
    Content object
    Description
    Five figures in a letter from Antoni van Leeuwenhoek to the Royal Society. The original drawings are lost.

    Fig. 1: a piece of cinchona bark drawn through the microscope
    Fig. 2: the same piece of bark as it appears to the naked eye
    Fig. 3: a single such particle
    Fig. 4: a few such particles together
    Fig. 5: a small piece of cinchona bark cut crosswise.
    Object history
    At the meeting of the Royal Society on 1 December 1687, ‘A letter of Mr. Leewenhoeck, containing his microscopical observations on cochineal and the Jesuit’s bark, or chinachina, was produced, and ordered to be translated’ (Birch 4:556).

    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. 141-55.

    Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, Continuatio Epistolarum (Leiden: Boutesteyn, 1689), pp. 113-24.
    Related fellows
    Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632 - 1723, Dutch) , Naturalist
    Associated place
    <The World>
       > Europe
          > Netherlands
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