Editing Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (section)

==Discoveries==

[[File:Antonius van Leeuwenhoek. Mezzotint by J. Verkolje, 1686, af Wellcome V0003466.jpg|thumb|Antoni van Leeuwenhoek. [[Mezzotint]] by J. Verkolje, 1686]]

*Leeuwenhoek was one of the first to conduct experiments on himself. It was from his finger that blood was drawn for examination, and he placed pieces of his skin under a microscope, examining its structure in various parts of the body, and counting the number of vessels that permeate it.<ref name="ReferenceA">{{Cite web |title=Levende Dierkens |url=https://lensonleeuwenhoek.net/content/levende-dierkens |website=Lens on Leeuwenhoek}}</ref>
* Both [[Marcello Malpighi]] and Jan Swammerdam saw these structures before Leeuwenhoek, but Leeuwenhoek was the first to recognize what they are: [[red blood cells]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=1674: Perhaps will to many seem incredible |url=https://lensonleeuwenhoek.net/content/1674-perhaps-will-many-seem-incredible |website=Lens on Leeuwenhoek}}</ref>
* [[Infusoria]] ([[protist]]s in modern [[zoology|zoological]] classification), in 1674
* In 1675, he was studying a variety of minerals, especially salts, and parts of plants and animals.
* The [[vacuole]] of the cell in 1676
* [[spermatozoon|Spermatozoa]], in 1677
* The banded pattern of [[muscular fibers]], in 1682
* Bacteria, (e.g., large [[Selenomonad]]s from the human mouth), in 1683<ref>{{cite web|last=Anderson |first=Douglas |title=Wrote Letter 39 of 1683-09-17 (AB 76) to Francis Aston |url=http://lensonleeuwenhoek.net/content/wrote-letter-39-1683-09-17-ab-76-francis-aston |work=Lens on Leeuwenhoek |access-date=26 September 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160820153516/http://lensonleeuwenhoek.net/content/wrote-letter-39-1683-09-17-ab-76-francis-aston |archive-date=20 August 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref group=note>The "Lens on Leeuwenhoek" site, which is exhaustively researched and annotated, prints this letter in the original Dutch and in English translation, with the date 17 September 1683. Assuming that the date of 1676 is accurately reported from Pommerville (2014), that book seems more likely to be in error than the intensely detailed, [http://lensonleeuwenhoek.net/content/about-web scholarly researched] website focused entirely on Van Leeuwenhoek.</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Pommerville |first=Jeffrey |title=Fundamentals of microbiology |publisher=[[Jones & Bartlett Learning]] |location=Burlington, Mass. |date=2014 |page=6 |isbn=978-1-4496-8861-5 }}</ref><ref group=note>Sixty-two years later, in 1745, a physician correctly attributed a diarrhea epidemic to Van Leeuwenhoek's "bloodless animals" ([[#Valk|Valk 1745]], cited by [[#Moll|Moll 2003]]).</ref>
* It seems he used [[horseradish]] to find out what causes irritation on the tongue.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://bibliotekar.ru/100otkr/68.htm | title=Микробы. Антони ван Левенгук |trans-title=Microbes. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek |website=bibliotekar.ru |lang=ru}}</ref> He used the effect of [[vinegar]].
* Leeuwenhoek diligently began to search for his animalcules.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> He found them everywhere: in rotten water, in ditches, on his own teeth. "Although I am now fifty years old," he wrote to the Royal Society, "my teeth are well preserved, because I am in the habit of rubbing them with salt every morning." He described [[paradontitis]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/leeu027alle04_01/leeu027alle04_01_0008.php#b0076 | title=Brief No. 76 &#91;39&#93;. 17 September 1683., Alle de brieven. Deel 4: 1683–1684, Anthoni van Leeuwenhoek |trans-title= |website=www.dbnl.org |lang= }}</ref>
* In 1684 he published his research on the [[ovary]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://lensonleeuwenhoek.net/content/eyerstok | title=Eyerstok &#124; Lens on Leeuwenhoek |website=lensonleeuwenhoek.net}}</ref>
* In 1687, Van Leeuwenhoek reported his research on the [[coffee bean]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://lensonleeuwenhoek.net/content/wrote-letter-187-of-1687-05-09-members-royal-society | title=Wrote Letter L-187 of 1687-05-09 to members of the Royal Society about the structure of 'stone' of the medlar and the coffee bean and acid in plants &#124; Lens on Leeuwenhoek |website=lensonleeuwenhoek.net}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://lensonleeuwenhoek.net/content/rs-read-and-discussed-letter-187 | title=The Royal Society read and discussed part of Letter L-187 about coffee &#124; Lens on Leeuwenhoek |website=lensonleeuwenhoek.net}}</ref> He roasted the bean, cut it into slices and saw a spongy interior. The bean was pressed, and an oil appeared. He boiled the coffee with rain water twice and set it aside.<ref>9 May 1687, Missive 54.</ref>
* Leeuwenhoek corresponded regularly with [[Anthonie Heinsius]], the Delft [[pensionary]] in the [[States of Holland]] and in 1687 member of the board of the Delft chamber of the [[Dutch East India Company|VOC]].
* In 1696 [[Nicolaas Witsen]] sent him a map of [[Tartary]] and [[ore]] found near the [[Amur]] in Siberia.<ref>Marion Peters (2010) De wijze koopman, Het wereldwijde onderzoek van Nicolaes Witsen (1641–1717), burgemeester en VOC-bewindhebber van Amsterdam. p. 139</ref>

* Van Leeuwenhoek has been recognized as the first person to use a [[histological stain]] to color specimens observed under the microscope using [[saffron]].<ref name="Schulte, 1991">{{cite journal| author=Schulte EK| title=Standardization of biological dyes and stains: pitfalls and possibilities. |journal=Histochemistry |year=1991 |volume=95 |issue=4 |pages=319–28 |pmid=1708749 |doi=10.1007/BF00266958| s2cid=29628388 }}</ref> He used this technique only once.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://lensonleeuwenhoek.net/content/specimen-preparation | title=Specimen preparation &#124; Lens on Leeuwenhoek |website=lensonleeuwenhoek.net}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://lensonleeuwenhoek.net/content/illumination | title=Illumination &#124; Lens on Leeuwenhoek |website=lensonleeuwenhoek.net}}</ref>

* In 1702 he requested a book on Peruvian silver mines in [[Potosí]].

Like [[Robert Boyle]] and [[Nicolaas Hartsoeker]], Van Leeuwenhoek was interested in dried [[cochineal]], trying to find out if the [[dye]] came from a [[berry]] or an insect.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Antoni van Leeuwenhoek |author2=Samuel Hoole |title=The Select Works of Antony van Leeuwenhoek, Containing His Microscopical Discoveries in Many of the Works of Nature |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SfIKAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA213 |date=1800 |publisher=G. Sidney |pages=213–}}</ref><ref>[http://www.strangescience.net/leeuwenhoek.htm Rocky Road: Leeuwenhoek]. Strangescience.net (22 November 2012). accessed 20 April 2013.</ref><ref>Greenfield, Amy Butler (2005). ''A Perfect Red: Empire, Espionage, and the Quest for the Color of Desire''. New York: Harper Collins Press. {{ISBN|0-06-052276-3}} {{page?|date=September 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://lensonleeuwenhoek.net/content/wrote-letter-194-of-1687-11-28-members-royal-society | title=Wrote Letter L-194 of 1687-11-28 to members of the Royal Society about his discovery that cochineal was an insect and his experiments with cinchona bark &#124; Lens on Leeuwenhoek |website=lensonleeuwenhoek.net}}</ref>

He studied rainwater, the seeds of oranges, worms in sheep's liver, the eye of a whale, the blood of fishes, [[mite]]s, [[coccinellidae]], the skin of elephants, [[Chelidonium majus|Celandine]], and [[Cinchona]].<ref name="dbnl.org"/>

<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px">
File:Van Leeuwenhoek's microscopes by Henry Baker.jpg|alt=Schematic drawings|Van Leeuwenhoek's microscopes by [[Henry Baker (naturalist)|Henry Baker]]
File:Leeuwenhoek boerhaave.jpg|Leeuwenhoek Boerhaave museum
File:Leeuwenhoek Microscope.png|alt=See caption|A replica of a microscope by Van Leeuwenhoek

</gallery>