Anton van Leeuwenhoek discovers ‘Animalcules’ in the 1670s.
“I well know there are whole Universities that won't believe there are living creatures in the male seed : but such things don't worry me – I know I'm in the right.”
Just a few years after Hooke published his Micrographia, letters started to arrive at the Royal Society from one Anton van Leeuwenhoek in Holland, showing observations made with microscopes far superior to Hooke’s. Van Leeuwenhoek was the son of low-class traders, and it was rare for someone of such a lowly background and with so little education (he didn’t go to university) to make such major contributions to science. An exceptionally gifted instrument maker, Van Leeuwenhoek built over 500 microscopes, with magnifications up to 300 times (similar to the microscopes we use at school). Naturally, he looked at everything he could find, including (with apologies to his readers) his own semen, saliva and excrement. These are some of his sketches of sperm – which he was the first person ever to see.
Among other things, Van Leeuwenhoek also looked at bits of dead animal, and pond water. Almost everywhere he looked he saw tiny moving objects, which he took to be living creatures and named ‘animalcules’ (‘little animals’). He had discovered bacteria (and other micro-organisms).
First sighting of Red Blood Cells – van Leeuwenhoek, 1719
He was also the first to see, and draw, red blood cells – although he did not know their significance.
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