OTD in Science History!
On September 17, 1683 Dutch scientist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek wrote to the Royal Society reporting his discovery of microscopic living animalcules, or live bacteria! Known as the "Father of Microbiology," Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723) is considered one of the first microscopists and microbiologists.
He made observations on the plaque between his teeth:
"a little white matter, which is as thick as if 'twere batter.” Looking at these samples with his microscope, Leeuwenhoek reported how in his own mouth: “I then most always saw, with great wonder, that in the said matter there were many very little living animalcules, very prettily a-moving. The biggest sort. . . had a very strong and swift motion, and shot through the water (or spittle) like a pike does through the water. The second sort. . .oft-times spun round like a top. . . and these were far more in number.
After writing numerous letters to the Society regarding his scientific findings, van Leeuwenhoek finally was elected to the Royal Society of London in 1680 in spite of their earlier skepticism of his research. His work with the microscope revealed microbes, which he referred to as animalcules, and are now known as unicellular organisms. In this pioneering work on microscopy, engraved plates detail the physiology of natural history specimens.
Check out van Leeuwenhoeck's Arcana Naturae Detecta, digitized on our digital collections site.
