Leeuwenhoek’s Legacy to the Royal Society V

In this final entry on Leeuwenhoek’s legacy to the Royal Society, as found in The Philosophical Transactions and Collections, to the End of the Year 1700 By Royal Society (Great Britain), Mr Folkes discusses the skill and tenacity required to repeat the same observations as recorded by Leeuwenhoek:

But however excellent these Glasses may be judg’d, ‘Mr. Leeuwenhoek’s Discoveries are not entirely to be imputed to their Goodness only: His own great Judgment, and Experience in the Manner of using them, together with the continual Application he gave to that Business, and the indefatigable Industry with which he contemplated often and long upon the same Subject, viewing it under many and different Circumstances, cannot but have enabled him to form better Judgments of the Nature of his Objects, and see farther into their Constitution, than it can be imagined any other Person can do, that neither has the Experience, nor has taken the Pains this curious Author had so long done.

Nor ought we to forget a Piece of Skill, in which he very particularly excell’d, which was that of preparing his Objects in the best Manner, to be view’d by the Microscope -, and of this I am persuaded, any one will be satisfied, who shall apply himself to the Examination of some of the same Objects as do yet remain before these Glass; at least, I have my self found so much Difficulty in this Particular, as to observe a very sensible Difference between the Appearances of the same Object, when apply’d by my self, and when view’d with Glasses of the very same Goodness. I have the rather insisted upon this, as it may be a Caution to us, that we do not rashly condemn any of this Gentleman’s Observations, tho’ even with his own Glasses, if we Could not immediately be able to verify them our selves. We are under very great Disadvantages for want of the Experience he had, and he has himself put us in Mind, more than once, that those who are the best skill’d in the Use of magnifying Glasses, may be misled, if they give too sudden a Judgment upon what they see, or till they have been assured from repeated Experiment?. But we have seen so many, and those of his most surprizing Discoveries, so perfectly confirmed, by great numbers of the most curious and judicious Observers, that there can surely be no reason to distrust his accuracy in those others, which have not yet been so frequently or carefully examined.

‘Matters of Exchange’ wins Excellence Award.

Matters of Exchange

Harold J. Cook, author of Matters of Exchange: Commerce, Medicine, and Science in the Dutch Golden Age has won a $10 000 “Recognition of Excellence” award. This was at the inaugural competition for The Cundill International Prize in History at McGill University which was established in April by McGill alumnus and investment manager Peter Cundill. The main prize went to Stuart B. Schwartz, author of All Can Be Saved: Religious Tolerance and Salvation in the Iberian Atlantic World. A second “Recognition of Excellence” award went to Peter Fritzsche for Life and Death in the Third Reich.

Read more about the awards at McGill.

See details of the books in the Cundill Prize shortlist.

Leeuwenhoek’s Legacy to the Royal Society IV

Continuing the series, this passage opens with the visit of Queen Mary (1662-1694), wife of the Dutch William of Orange and together joint rulers of England:

Another Particular, to the same Purpose, I would not omit, and that is, That upon the late Queen Mary’s doing Mr. Leeuwenhoek the Honour of a Visit at Delft, and viewing his Curiosities with great Satisfaction, he presented her with a Couple of his Microscopes, which, as I have been inform’d by one who had them considerable Time in his Hands, were of the same Sort as these, and did not any ways differ from one of the 13 Cases contain’d in the Drawers of this Cabinet. The Glasses are all exceedingly clear and shew the Object very bright and distinct which must be owing to the great Care this Gentleman took, in the Choice of his Glass, his Exactness in giving it the true Figure; and afterwards, amongst many, reserving such only for his Use, as he, upon Tryal, found to be most excellent.

Their Powers of magnifying are different, as different Sorts of Objects may require, and, as on the one Hand, being all ground Glasses, none of them are so small, and consequently magnify tо so great a Degree, as some of those Drops, frequently us’d in other Microscopes -, yet, on the other, the Distinctness of these very much exceeds what I have met with in the Glasses of that Sort ; and this was what Mr. Leeuwenboek ever principally propos’d to himself, rejecting all those Degrees of magnifying in which he could not so well obtain that End; for he informs us in one of his Letters, where he is speaking of the excessive Praise some give to their Glasses on this Account, that although he had above Forty Years had Glasses by him of an extraordinary Smallness, he had made but very Little use of them; as having found, in a long Course of Experience, that the most considerable Discoveries were to be made with such Glasses as, magnifying but moderately, exhibited the Object with the most perfect Brightness and Distinction.

Leeuwenhoek’s Legacy to the Royal Society III

Continuing, the construction of the microscope and specimen mounting techniques are described:

It were endless to enter into any Particulars, of what is to be observed in any of these Objects, or indeed to give any Account of Mr. Leeuwenhoek’s Discoveries ; they are so numerous as to make up a considerable Part of the Philosophical Transactions, and when collected together, to fill four pretty large Volumes in Quarto, which have been publish’d by him at several Times : And of such Consequence, as to have opened entirely new Scenes in some Parts of Natura! Philosophy, as we are all sensible, in that famous Discovery of the Animálculo, in Semine Masculino, which has given a perfectly new Turn to the Theory of Generation, in almost all the Authors that have since wrote upon that Subject.

For the Construction of these Instruments, it is the fame in them all, and the Apparatus is very simple and convenient : They are all single Microscopes, consisting each of a very small double Convex-Glass, let into a Socket, between two Silver Plates rivetted together, and pierc’d with a small Hole : The Object is placed on a Silver Point, or Needle, which, by Means of Screws of the same Metal, provided for that Purpose, may be turn’d about, rais’d, or depress’d, and brought nearer, or put farther from the Glass, as the Eye of the Observer, the Nature of the Object, and the convenient Examination of its several Parts may require.

Mr. Leeuwenhoek fix’d his Objects, if they were solid, to this Silver Point, with Glew -, and when they were Fluid, or of such a Nature as not to be commodiously view’d unless spread upon Glass, he first fitted them on a little Plate of Talk, or excessively thin-blown Glass, which he afterwards glewed to the Needle, in the fame Manner as his other Objects. The Observation, indeed, of the Circulation of the Blood, and some others, require a somewhat different Apparatus, and such a one he had, to which he occasionally fix’d these same Microscopes ; but as it makes no Part of this Cabinet, I shall omit giving any farther Account of it, only taking Notice that it may be seen in a Letter to the Royal Society, of the 12th of January, 1689, and printed in his Arcana Natures Detecta, №. 69. But I was willing to mention just so much, as it may serve to shew the universal Use of these Microscopes, and as it induces me (among other Things) to believe, these were the Kind of Microscopes generally, if not solely, üs’d by this curious Gentleman in all his Observations, and to which we are oblig’d for his most surprizing Discoveries.

Is This the Face of Copernicus?

Nicolaus Copernicus (February 19, 1473 – May 24, 1543) was the first astronomer to formulate a scientifically-based heliocentric cosmology that displaced the Earth from the center of the universe. His epochal book, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres), is often regarded as the starting point of modern astronomy and the defining epiphany that began the Scientific Revolution.

His influence was felt throughout Europe and, of course, the Netherlands. Stevin, in his book on astronomy, De Hemelloop (1608) is believed to be the first of the 16th century Dutch astronomers to publish acceptance of the Copernican system.

From Jerzy Gąssowski & Beata Jurkiewicz of the Institute of Anthropology and Archaeology:

In spring 2004, at the meeting of the Scientific Council of the Frombork-based Baltic Research Centre operating within the Aleksander Gieysztor Pultusk School of Humanities, bishop Doctor Jacek Jezierski, provost of the Frombork metropolitan church, asked me (i.e. J. Gassowski) whether I would be interested in carrying out archaeological research aimed at locating the grave of Nichoalus Copernicus. At first I refused saying that the task resembled that of looking for a needle in a haystack. What is known is that the famous astronomer, a canon of the local church, was buried in the church when he died at the age of 70. Records from chapter meetings do not contain the exact date of his death or the place of his burial. No durable epitaph was placed on his grave, either. On the day of Copernicus’ death his work was being printed, so it did not bring him international renown at the time, and the astronomer himself did not give any instructions concerning the possible tombstone nor did he leave any means to finance the funeral.

Read the complete article here.