Credit: ©The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.15782

    Salt in the teeth of a horse

    Date
    4 April 1687
    Creator
    Unknown, Artist
    Object type
    Archive reference number
    Manuscript page number
    p7b
    Material
    Dimensions
    height (page): 50mm
    width (page): 71mm
    Subject
    Description
    In a letter from Antoni van Leeuwenhoek to the Royal Society.

    Van Leeuwenhoek opened the molar of a horse and found salt structures in the hollowness of the tooth. These are the different forms of salt he found.
    Object history
    At the meeting of the Royal Society on 13 April 1687, ‘Part of Mr. Leewenhoeck’s letter of April 4, N.S. was read concerning the structure of the teeth, which he found from microscopic observations in all animals to be made up of bony vessels and pipes, which all take their rise from the inside or cavity of the teeth; and that all these vessels have their particular blood-vessels, that feed them, and convey nourishment to them. And the obstruction of these bony pipes he conceived to be the cause of the rotting of the teeth and the exceedingly acute pain of the tooth-ach. The rest of the letter was ordered to be translated’ (Birch 4:531).

    On 27 April 1687, ‘The latter part of Mr. Leewenhoeck’s letter of the 4th of April was read, wherein he farther prosecuted the inquiry into the make of the teeth of several animals’ (Birch 4:533).

    The letter and images are printed in:
    Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, Vervolg der brieven, enz.. (Leiden: C. Boutesteijn, 1687), pp. 1-16. With five figures.

    Bibliothèque universelle et historique, 26 vols (Amsterdam, 1686-93), IX (1688), 292-94. (French extract)

    Acta eruditorum, 50 vols (Leipzig, 1682-1731), VIII (1689), 171-72. (Latin extract)

    Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, Continuatio epistolarum (Leiden: C. Boutesteijn. 1689), pp. 1-12. With five figures.
    Related fellows
    Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632 - 1723, Dutch) , Naturalist
    Associated place
    <The World>
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          > Netherlands
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