Credit: ©The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.15788

    Spermatozoa of a ram

    Date
    25 December 1700
    Creator
    Unknown, Artist
    Object type
    Archive reference number
    Manuscript page number
    p13
    Material
    Dimensions
    height (page): 90mm
    width (page): 175mm
    Subject
    Description
    Seven figues in a letter from Antoni van Leeuwenhoek to Hans Sloane.

    Fig. 1: animalcule in the male sperm of a ram
    Fig. 2: animalcule in the male sperm of a ram, lying dead
    Fig. 3: animalcule in the male sperm of a ram, with a tail slightly more bent
    Fig. 4: another animalcule
    Fig. 5: another animalcule
    Fig. 6: 2 animalcules
    Fig. 7: animalcule as Hartsoeker described them, against whom Van Leeuwenhoek wrote this letter.
    Object history
    The Journal Book mentions on 15 January 1700/1, 'A Letter was read from Mr Leewenhoek of the 25th of December 1700. Containing his Observations on the Animalcula in semime masculo. He was order'd the thanks of the Society' (JBO/10/208).

    The images and letter were published in:
    A. Leeuwenhoek, ‘Concerning His Further Observations on the Animalcula in Semine Masculino’, Phil. Trans. vol. 23, no. 268 (Jan 1701), pp. 739-46. With seven figures.
    A. van Leeuwenhoek, Sevende vervolg der brieven (Delft: H. van Krooneveld, 1702), pp. 295-307.
    A. van Leeuwenhoek, Epistolae Ad Societatem Regiam Anglicam (Leiden: J. A. Langerak, 1719), pp. 281-92.
    Related fellows
    Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632 - 1723, Dutch) , Naturalist
    Hans Sloane (1660 - 1753, Irish) , Physician
    Associated place
    <The World>
       > Europe
          > Netherlands
    Powered by CollectionsIndex+/CollectionsOnline