Summer Notice

I hope to return to this blog in the the fall, with the hope of catching up with lost articles and unfinished pages. Have a good summer!

A Leuwenhoek Time Line

Google has a time-line for Leeuwenhoek:

Stamps Feature Dutch Scientists.

“Summer stamps” (1937) with Jacob Maris (1837-1899) painter, F. de la Boë Sylvius (1614-1672) medical doctor, J. van den Vondel (1587-1679) writer and playwright, A. Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723) scientist.

“Summer stamps” (1938) Marnix van Sint Aldegonde (1540-1598) writer, Ottho Gerhard Heldring (1804-1876) preacher and author, Maria Tesselschade Roemersdochter Visscher (1594-1649) poet and engraver, Rembrandt Harmens-zoon van Rhijn (1606-1669) painter, Herman Boerhaave (1668-1738) anatomist, botanist,chemist, humanist and researcher.

Images provided by Wouter Hagens at Wikimedia Commons.

Huygens in France

Etablissement de l'Académie des Sciences et fondation de l'observatoire. 1666

Is this Christiaan Huygens (right) by Cassini's side?

This painting shows the establishment of the Academy of Sciences in France in 1666, during the reign of Louis XIV. Christiaan Huygens was one of the founding members of the Academy, and he  lived in Paris from 1666 to 1681. Research done by  C.J. (Kees) Verduin  indicates that there may be an unknown portrait of Christian Huygens in this painting, which now hangs in the Musée National du Château et des Trianons in Versailles.

Go to A Portrait of Christiaan Huygens for more information on his research.

He also has a Christiaan Huygens web page here.

Swammerdam’s Scorpion

The Scorpion

From Jan Swammerdam’s Historia Insectorum Generalis, ofte, Algemeene Verhandeling van de Bloedeloose Dierkens : waar in, de waaragtige gronden van haare langsaame aangroeingen in leedemaaten, klaarelijk werden voorgestelt : kragtiglijk, van de gemeene dwaaling der vervorming, anders metamorphosis genoemt, gesuyvert : ende beknoptelijk, in vier onderscheide orderen van veranderingen, ofte natuurelijke uytbottingen in leeden, begreepen. t’Utrrecht : By Meinardus van Dreunen, 1669.

As found at University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Born Today – Christiaan Huygens

Christiaan Huyghens, 1629-1695

From Today in Science History:

Christiaan Huygens, born 14 Apr 1629; died 8 Jul 1695. Dutch mathematician, astronomer, and physicist, who founded the wave theory of light, discovered the true shape of the rings of Saturn, and contributed to the science of dynamics – the study of the action of forces on bodies. Using a lens he ground for himself, on 25 Mar 1655, he discovered the first moon of Saturn, later named Titan. In 1656, he patented the first pendulum clock, which he developed to enable exact time measurement while observing the heavens. Huygens studied the relation of the length of a pendulum to its period of oscillation (1673) and stated theories on centrifugal force in circular motion which influenced Sir Isaac Newton in formulating his Law of Gravity. Huygens also studied and drew the first maps of Mars. On 14 Jan 2005, a NASA space probe, named after Huygens, landed on Titan.

Leeuwenhoek Microscope Sold

The Leeuwenhoek microscope that was being offered at Christies (see previous entry) has been sold to an anonymous bidder for a record $461,104. This is the highest price ever paid for a Dutch scientific instrument, selling at three times the estimated value. See a report by  Adriana Stuijt here.

Antoni van Leeuwenhoek

Plancius and the Indus Constellation

NGC 7049, as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope

This brilliant photo taken by the Hubble Space Telescope reveals a scattering of dust clouds around the galaxy NGC 7049. The dust clouds are silhouetted by the light of millions of background stars and frame a galaxy that is about 150 000 light years wide. The NGC 7049 galaxy lies within the Indus constellation which was created by Petrus Plancius from the observations of Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Frederick de Houtma.

Petrus Plancius

Plancius was born in 1555 with the name Pieter Plaatevoet (lit,”Peter Flatfoot“) in Dranouter in what is now West Flanders. He was a student of theology in England and Germany and became a minister in the Dutch Reformed Church in 1579. Fearing persecution under the Spanish in 1585, he fled from Brussels to Amsterdam where he became interested in cartography, navigation and the making of starcharts.

The Strange Case of Joannes Lethaeus

Nicolaes Tulp

Educated at the University of Leiden, Nicolaes Tulp became a well known and influential member of the  Amsterdam Guild of Surgeons, where he held the position of official city anatomist. While today he is most well known for his appearance in the Rembrandt painting, The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp (now in the Mauritshuis museum), he was also known for his involvement in creating  the first pharmacopoeia for Amsterdam, the Pharmacopoea Amstelredamensis (1636) and his book on his medical observations, Observationes Medicae (1641).

It is in the Observationes medicae, that we can find the following story:

Observations, Book IV, Chapter 31. Wherein a patient cuts a stone out of himself.

Joannes Lethaeus, a Smith, a courageous man, and very astute, who had already been treated twice by a stonecutter, desired so little to be treated a third time by such a man among his daily trials and repeated slayings, that he decided any wild adventure was more attractive to him than subjecting himself to the knife of the stonecutter ever again. Convincing himself that his health could only improve, and having decided that no one but himself would cut into his flesh, he sent his wife to the fish market, which she didn’t mind doing. Only letting his brother help him, he instructed him to pull aside his scrotum while he grabbed the stone in his left hand and cut bravely in the perineum with a knife he had secretly prepared, and by standing again and again managed to make the wound long enough to allow the stone to pass. To get the stone out was more difficult, and he had to stick two fingers into the wound on either side to remove it with leveraged force, and it finally popped out of hiding with an explosive noise and tearing of the bladder.

Now the more courageous than careful operation was completed, and the enemy that had declared war on him was safely on the ground, he sent for a healer who sewed up the two sides of the wound together, and the opening that he had cut himself, and properly bound it up; the flesh of which grew so happily that there was no small hope of health , but the wound was too big, and the bladder too torn, not to have ulcers forming.

But this stone weighing 4 ounces and the size of a hen’s egg was a wonder how it came out with the help of one hand, without the proper tools, and then from the patient himself, whose greatest help was courage and impatience embedded in a truly impenetrable faith which caused a brave deed as none other. So was he no less than those whose deeds are related in the old scriptures. Sometimes daring helps when reason doesn’t.

From: Geneeskundige Waarnemingen van Nikolaas Tulp. Oud Burgermeester der stad Amsterdam. Naar den zelfden Druk uit het Latyn vertaalt. Te Leiden, By Juriaan Wishoff. 1740

This article became the basis of the painting  by Carel van Savoyen (ca. 1621-1665) Jan Jansz de Doot (1655) which literally translates as Jan Jansz  ‘the Dead’. How long he survived after his self-operation is not known.

Jan Jansz de Dood by Carel van Savoyen (1655)

(The first two images and the translation of the Joannes Lethaeus article can be found at Wikipedea. The image of the painting by Savoyen is from the  Digitale Bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse Letteren)

Leeuwenhoek Microscope to be Auctioned

24 Oranges, an English language blog on all things Dutch, is reporting that one of Leeuwenhoek’s microscopes is to be auctioned at Christies. The microscope (Lot 88, Sale 5808)  is to be sold at the London, South Kensington salesroom and is described as:

A highly important Dutch silver microscope
Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723), circa 1690
The lens held between two riveted silver plates; stage with rounded step design, specimen pin and focusing screw; main screw with rounded handle, with angle bracket and securing screw. Marked with an incuse 3, and two later Dutch sale marks (for the periods 1813-1893 and 1814-1831).
dimensions of plates 39 x 22mm.

The silver Leeuwenhoek microscope.

The origins of this microscope are said to be:

Found in 1978 among a box of laboratory impedimenta from the Zoological Department of Leiden University and purchased by the present owner.
Believed to be no. 62 in the 1875 exhibition catalogue by Harting, and from the collection of the Dutch zoologist R.T. Maitland (1823-1904).
Bought at an unknown auction between 1814 and 1831.

Read the complete description and background here.

The auction date is 8 April 2009 and the price range is expected to be between $102,340 – $146,200.

Will a Dutch National treasure be lost?

Perhaps Delft should purchase this as the basis for a much needed Leeuwenhoek Museum!

(Image from Christies. Original news source for the 24 Oranges article is in the Dutch newspaper,  De Telegraaf.)