Volume 1
Alle de brieven van Antoni van Leeuwenhoek / uitgegeven, geïllustreerd en van aanteekeningen voorzien door een Commissie van Nederlandsche geleerden.
- Antonie van Leeuwenhoek
- Date:
- 1939-
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Alle de brieven van Antoni van Leeuwenhoek / uitgegeven, geïllustreerd en van aanteekeningen voorzien door een Commissie van Nederlandsche geleerden. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![short tapering Nose, with a hole in it, out of which that Insect, when it will draw food, thrusts its sting '), which, to my Eye, was at least five and twenty times less than one single Hair7 8 9). But I find the Head every where else very close round about, and without any such sutures as some have repesented it. The Skin of the Head is rough, resembling a skin that hath many dints in it. In the two Horns'1) I find ƒive Joints; others having marked but /our. One Claw of her foot0) is of the structure of that of an Eagles, but the other of the same foot stands out straight, and is very small; and between these two claws there is a raised part or knob, the better to clasp and hold fast the hair. The figures of some of Mr. Leewenhoeck’s Micros¬ copical Observations, formerly publish'! (in Numb. 94. p. 6037. 6038.) together with their Explication. This Curious observer, having been desired by the Publisher, since his first Communications, already printed in these Papers, that for further satisfaction, he would please to transmit the Figures of what he had so well observed, and he having not only very obligingly complied with that desire, but also added New Observ¬ ations; we thought ourselves bound to do him right in publishing both the Figures10) of his former Communications, and his Additions thereunto; though for this time we must content our selves only with the former of these, reserving the latter for another opportunity. And in the Explication of these Figures we shall here give you in English, what the observer sent us in Dutch. 7) Cf. the letter of August 15th 1673. 8) A hair is a common measure of thickness with L. The thickness of a hair varies between 50 g and 110 g. See C. Dobell, Antony van Leeuwen¬ hoek and his “little animals’’ (1932), p. 336, where, starting from L’s statement that 20 hairs cover 1J30 inch, 43,6 /a is given as measure. Also compare L’s letter of May 20th 1679. [H.] 9) For the leg of a louse cf. the letters of February 11th and March 26th 1675. 10) That the editor of the Phil. Trans, (the writer of the above introduct¬ ion) does not print a figure of the louse, may be connected with his remark added to a following letter by L. (Vol. IX, 1674. No. 124, p. 24), where he refers to Hooke’s Micrographia, p. 54. [S.] Explanation o£ the figures.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b31364962_0001_0041.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
