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Who did the levenguk know? Anthony van Leeuwenhoek discoveries and contributions to biology

Antoni van Leeuwenhoek is a great Dutch biologist, self-taught scientist, inventor of the microscope.

Leeuwenhoek was born on October 24, 1632 in the city of Delft.(Delft) in the family of the poor Margaret van den Berch (Grietje van den Berch) and Philips Thoniszoon (Philips Thoniszoon), who wove and sold baskets. The father dreamed of teaching his son the profession of a clothmaker.

At the age of 6, the boy lost his father, and his mother arranged for him to study at the gymnasium, located on the outskirts of the city of Leiden. It is believed that the boy invented the surname for himself: it is formed from the name of the Lion's Gate (Leeuwenpoort) located not far from his father's house, to which he added the part hoek ("corner").

Leeuwenhoek had an educated uncle who passed on to his little nephew his knowledge of the mathematical and physical sciences.

In 1648, without graduating from the gymnasium, the future scientist went to study the basics of accounting sciences in Amsterdam (Amsterdam). But he did not study, but began to earn money in a haberdashery store. For the first time there, he met with a magnifying glass, which was used by the masters in the manufacture of fabrics. The magnifying glass was fixed with a tripod and became the prototype of Leeuwenhoek's future invention.

Since 1654, Leeuwenhoek again lives in Delft, acts as a gatekeeper in the local court, then becomes a shopkeeper. He will live in Delft for the rest of his life. Leeuwenhoek lived for 90 years and died on August 26, 1723.

Family and friends

At the age of 21, Anthony got married, had six children, but they all died in childhood or adolescence, there is almost no information about them.

After the death of his wife, Anthony was married a second time. But details about Leeuwenhoek's family life have not been preserved. According to contemporaries, Leeuwenhoek's friend was the painter Jan Vermeer. There is an assumption that in the paintings "Astronomer" and "Geographer" Vermeer portrayed his scientist friend.

Inventor

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Leeuwenhoek was interested in science since childhood. In 1665, the scientific treatise of the Englishman Robert Hooke "Micrography" (Robert Hooke, "Micrographia") falls into his hands. Since then, he became interested in studying the phenomena of the world around him with a magnifying glass. Particularly interested in his research in the field of zoology, which he conducted together with Marcello Malpighi (Marcello Malpighi).

Leeuwenhoek gradually became interested in the manufacture of magnifying glasses, acquired the skills of a grinder and became famous as a skilled craftsman.

Most of the lenses were small in diameter, no larger than the human eye. According to modern researchers, Leeuwenhoek mastered the art of not only polishing, but also the production of lenses by melting a thin thread of glass and processing a hot glass drop of a spherical shape. Scientists from the University of Novosibirsk in the 70s of the XX century were able to make exactly the same lenses and the same microscope as Leeuwenhoek.

The scientist made the thinnest lenses in frames made of copper, silver, and gold. They magnified 275 times. So the microscope was born - a design of several lenses.

Despite the small size of the lenses, Anthony van Leeuwenhoek became the discoverer of many natural phenomena. It is known that scientists have made five hundred lenses and more than a hundred microscopes. 9 of these unique devices can be seen in modern museums.

Discoverer

The fact that Leeuwenhoek was one of the greatest researchers of his time was written to the London Scientific Society in 1673 by his compatriot doctor named Graaf. Since then, Leeuwenhoek became the "scientific correspondent" of English academicians. Everything that Leeuwenhoek examined under a microscope, he drew, and sent his notes and drawings to the Royal Scientific Society in London. There are more than 300 such notes, and 50 years of the life of the researcher were devoted to scientific research. One of Leeuwenhoek's letters to English academicians was published in 1673 in the scientific bulletin "Philosophical Notes" ("Philosophical Transactions").

Leeuwenhoek's discoveries were often not believed. This happened in 1676 with his studies of unicellular organisms, when an entire expedition, led by Nehemia Grue (Door Nehemia Groeide), was sent from England to Holland to double-check the results of Leeuwenhoek's observations. Only in this way did the scientific world recognize the discoveries of the great Dutchman, and February 8, 1680 Leeuwenhoek was named a full member of the Royal Society of London, and a few years later - a member of the French Academy of Sciences.

After that, in 1683, significant discoveries were made that became the basis of microbiological science:

Erythrocytes, which are part of the blood;
Bacteria and microbes, their varieties, etc.

Studies of microbes led the naturalist to the idea that they are divided into several subspecies, live in rain and drinking water, on the surface of the skin and mucous membranes of a person, but die when water is boiled.

Leeuwenhoek conducts scientific experiments and describes microscopic objects:

human lens;
The epidermis of the skin;
spermatozoa;
Human muscle tissue.

Like many great scientists, Leeuwenhoek conducted some experiments on himself, using his own blood, muscle tissue, and skin particles.

On himself, he studied the dependence of the components of substances secreted by the human body on the composition of food, tested the effect of drugs. Even feeling the approach of death, he described his condition from the point of view of a biologist.

His discoveries and conclusions are still considered relevant, for example, the results of studies of the structure of the cell and the cell nucleus.

In addition to research in the field of anatomy and physiology, Leeuwenhoek conducts a study of the natural world:

yeast fungus;
ciliates;
Insect eye;
The mechanism of reproduction of hydra, etc.

In addition to biological and medical research, Leeuwenhoek was interested in physical phenomena. For example, he repeatedly, at the risk of his life, observed the process of a powder explosion in a microscope.

Fame

During the life of the scientist, his notes were published in 1685, 1718 in the native language of the naturalist and in Latin, a 7-volume edition was published from 1695 to 1722. After Leeuwenhoek's death, an English edition appeared (1798-1801).

The scientist believed in the truth and thus sought to destroy the superstitions of his contemporaries, revealing to them the endless secrets of nature.
Leeuwenhoek was a world-famous scientist: the Queen of England and the Russian Tsar Peter I, the writer Jonathan Swift was proud of his personal acquaintance with Anthony van Leeuwenhoek.

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Through Leeuwenhoek's magic device
On the surface of a drop of water
Discovered by our science
Surprising life traces.
But for the abysses where meteors fly
Neither big nor small
And equally endless spaces
For microbes, people and planets.
Nikolay Zabolotsky

(Antoni van Leeuwenhoek) Dutch naturalist, microscope designer, founder of scientific microscopy, member of the Royal Society of London, who studied the structure of various forms of living matter with his microscopes.

The biography of Anthony van Leeuwenhoek is amazing. Nothing foreshadowed scientific activity and great discoveries. Moreover, he did not receive a proper education, did not study at universities. His interest in microscopes would now be called just a hobby (hobby). But he certainly had the talent of a researcher and an irresistible desire to engage in these studies.

Anthony van Leeuwenhoek was born on October 24, 1632 in the city of Delft. His father Phillips Antonius van Leeuwenhoek was a master basket maker and his mother Margaretha (Bel van den Burch) came from a very wealthy and respected family of brewers. His father died very early, when Anthony was only five years old. Little is known about his childhood. He attended a school near Leiden, then lived with his uncle, who taught him the basics of mathematics and physics. At the age of 16, he began working as an apprentice trader in a flax shop in Amsterdam.

There, the young man first saw a simple microscope - a magnifying glass that was mounted on a small tripod and used by textile workers. Soon he bought himself the same.

Obviously, the quality of the lenses did not suit the young researcher. Leeuwenhoek began to manufacture lenses for his microscopes himself, and achieved the best results and kept the method of their production a secret.

Leeuwenhoek's microscope Leeuwenhoek's microscope was extremely simple and consisted of two metal plates. A lens was fixed in the center of one plate, a needle was attached to the other, the tip of which was moved in focus with the help of screws. The object was mounted on a needle or glued to it.

And through this "magic device" Leeuwenhoek saw an amazing microcosm, about which no one in those days had any idea. The researcher saw living creatures that moved, had flagella and cilia, they moved and multiplied. Microbes, bacteria, bacilli, yeast - it was all exciting and new.

Leeuwenhoek's research is unusually varied. He carefully prepared sections of various tree trunks, made excellent drawings and descriptions of the vessels and the arrangement of cells in the medullary rays. He first discovered crystals in plants, and by studying the structure of various seeds and their germination, he established the difference between monocots and dicots.

He was the first to see how blood circulates in the smallest blood vessels. He discovered that blood is not a homogeneous liquid, as his contemporaries thought, but a living stream in which a great many tiny particles move. Now they are called red blood cells.

For the first time, he saw spermatozoa in the seminal fluid - those small cells with tails that, penetrating into the egg, fertilize it, as a result of which a new organism arises and develops.

Leeuwenhoek was the first to discover the faceted structure of the insect eye, transverse muscle fibers, tubules of dental substance, lens fibers, scales, etc. He discovered and described a number of rotifers, hydra budding, and most importantly, discovered ciliates and described quite a few of their forms. He was the first resolute and strong opponent of the doctrine of the spontaneous generation of life, which dominated the biology of that period.

Leeuwenhoek's most outstanding discovery was the simplest organisms and bacteria found in the water. For fifty years of work, the researcher discovered more than two hundred species of the smallest organisms. These observations opened a new era in biology.

Drawings and descriptions of Leeuwenhoek

Anthony van Leeuwenhoek observed, sketched and described everything he saw with his microscopes. In 1673, his friend, the famous Dutch physician Reinier de Graaf, sent a letter to the Royal Society of London (the most authoritative scientific center of that time) from Leeuwenhoek with the first report of his invention and discovery. In the drawings attached to the scientist's reports, one can see various forms of bacteria: bacilli, cocci, spirilla, filamentous bacteria.

In 1673 Leeuwenhoek's letter was first published in Philosophical Papers, a journal of the Royal Society of London. In the future, for 50 years, he sent his messages there. The scientist's research was so innovative, and the microcosm he discovered so unusual, that despite the reputation of a trustworthy researcher, his observations were sometimes perceived with some skepticism. To check their authenticity, a group of scientists headed by Nehemiah Grew went to Delft, who confirmed the authenticity of all the studies. February 8, 1680 Leeuwenhoek was elected a full member of the Royal Society of London.

His letters were first published in scientific journals, and in 1695, they were published in Latin as a separate large book entitled "The Secrets of Nature, discovered by Antony Leeuwenhoek with the help of microscopes."

Leeuwenhoek corresponded with famous scientists - Leibniz, Robert Hooke, Christian Huygens. To look into the wonderful lenses, many famous people, scientists, politicians came to Delft, including Peter I, William III of Orange, Jonathan Swift.

Thanks to Leeuwenhoek's microscopes and his research, an unknown and unexplored microworld has opened up to mankind, as huge and interesting as the comsos, stars and the Universe, which Galileo Galilei studied through a telescope.

Leeuwenhoek's microscope aroused great interest among contemporaries and did not die out over the centuries. It would seem, what can be surprised at the beginning of the 21st century, when there are electron microscopes? The fact is that Leeuwenhoek, in addition to his outstanding scientific discoveries and legendary microscopes, left several mysteries to his descendant.

Undoubtedly, even a very experienced researcher of our day could not, using this microscope, see everything that was described by Leeuwenhoek, since the scientist over the years has developed a perfect method of observation. He never published the method he used for "better research", saying that "I will keep it for myself." During his research, Leeuwenhoek designed various ingenious devices that made it easier for him to observe or carry out experiments.

Another important feature. In the second half of the 17th century, an outstanding scientist manually made microscopes with one rather strong lens, which made it possible to examine objects in detail. Leeuwenhoek's microscopes were essentially large lenses mounted on a tripod. But he kept the secret of making lenses a secret. The Utrecht Museum houses Leeuwenhoek's microscope, which gives a magnification of 300 times. And this is with one lens. Unfathomable!

Now the secret of making lenses has been unraveled. Leeuwenhoek put a small glass rod into the flame of the burner, then took it out in molten form and reinserted a piece of fiber into the burner, thus obtaining a very small glass ball. This ball was a high quality lens. This is one of the most revolutionary ideas in the history of science, which could only be unraveled in the 20th century. In 1957, S. Stong, using a glass thread, obtained several samples of such lenses. Independently of him, the Russian scientists A. Mosolova and A. Belkin achieved the same results in Novosibirsk.

Leeuwenhoek went down in history as one of the greatest experimenters of his time. Glorifying the experiment, he wrote prophetic words six years before his death: "One should refrain from reasoning when experience speaks."

Unfortunately, there is very little biographical information about Leeuwenhoek's life.

Anthony van Leeuwenhoek was born on October 24, 1632 in Delft, Holland. Father and mother were respected burghers and were engaged in basket weaving and, which was especially appreciated at that time, brewing. Leeuwenhoek was raised by his mother, as his father died early. She dreamed of making an official out of her son and therefore sent him to school. At the age of 15, Anthony decided to leave school and move to Amsterdam, where he began to study trading in a shop, where he worked as an accountant and cashier.

It is known that he acquired a manufacturing shop, where he worked for several years. In June 1654, he married Barbara de Mey (Barbara de Mey), four of their children died in infancy, daughter Maria was not just his only surviving child, she was his friend and enthusiastically examined everything that her father examined in a microscope. His first wife Barbara died in 1666 and in 1671 Leeuwenhoek married Cornelia Swalmius, with whom he had no children.

In his native city of Delft, he was a well-known and respected person; in the local town hall, he received the position of guardian of the court chamber, then inspector of the city's wine chamber. He lived a long life, doing his research, improving microscopes, lenses and research methods. Anthony van Leeuwenhoek died on August 26, 1723 in Delft and bequeathed his microscopes to the Royal Society of London.

During his long life, the great inventor and scientist Anthony van Leeuwenhoek made more than 500 optical lenses and about 25 microscopes. Only 9 have survived to this day and these are priceless relics of the history of science, the history of search and great discoveries.

Date of death: Citizenship: Scientific area: Known as:

Anthony van Leeuwenhoek(Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, Thonius Philips van Leeuwenhoek; October 24, Delft - August 26, Delft) - Dutch naturalist, microscope designer, founder of scientific microscopy, member of the Royal Society of London (since a year), who studied the structure of various forms of living matter with his microscopes . In the Russian historical tradition, there are different spellings of the scientist's name - Anton, Anthony and Antonius.

Biography

Anthony van Leeuwenhoek was born on October 24, 1632 in Delft, the son of Philips Thoniszoon, a basket maker. Anthony took the surname Leeuwenhoek from the name of the Lion Gate adjacent to his house (Dutch. Leeuwenpoort). The combination "guk" in his pseudonym means "corner" (hoek).

Father died when Anthony was six years old. Mother Margaret van den Berch (Grietje van den Berch) sent the boy to study at a gymnasium in the suburbs of Leiden. The future naturalist's uncle taught him the basics of mathematics and physics. In the year Anthony went to Amsterdam to study as an accountant, but instead of studying, he got a job in a haberdashery shop. There he first saw the simplest microscope - a magnifying glass that was mounted on a small tripod and used by textile workers. Soon he bought himself the same.

Creating a microscope

Shortly after publication, Leeuwenhoek read the work of the English naturalist Robert Hooke "Micrography" (Eng. Micrographia), published in . Reading this book aroused his interest in studying the natural environment with the help of lenses. Together with Marcello Malpighi, Leeuwenhoek introduced the use of microscopes for zoological research.

Having mastered the craft of a grinder, Leeuwenhoek became a highly skilled and successful lens maker. In total, during his life, he made about 250 lenses, achieving a 300-fold increase. Installing his lenses in metal frames, he built a microscope and with its help carried out the most advanced research at that time. The lenses that he made were uncomfortable and small, and a certain skill was needed to work with them, but with the help of them a number of important discoveries were made.

Lens manufacturing method

It was long believed that Leeuwenhoek ground his lenses, which, given their tiny size, was an unusually laborious task that required great precision. No one after Leeuwenhoek has succeeded in making devices similar in design to the same image quality.

However, in the late 1970s, A. Mosolov and A. Belkin, employees of the Department of General Biology and Fundamentals of Genetics, tested the method of manufacturing lenses not by grinding, but by melting a thin glass thread. This method made it possible to manufacture lenses that fully meet all the necessary criteria and even completely recreate the microscope of the Leeuwenhoek system, although an examination of his original microscopes of the 17th century in order to confirm or refute this hypothesis was never carried out. Lenses were made by melting the end of a glass filament to form a glass ball , followed by grinding and polishing one of its sides (plano-convex lens). Works great as a converging lens and glass ball. Thus, there are 2 versions of the manufacture of lenses by Leeuwenhoek (A.D. Belkin) - using the thermal grinding method (glass ball) or after heat treatment, one of its sides was additionally ground and polished in the usual way (plano-convex lens).

Discoveries

Leeuwenhoek sketched the objects he observed, and described his observations in letters (a total of about 300), which he sent to the Royal Society of London for more than 50 years, as well as to some scientists. In the same year, his letter was first published in the Philosophical Papers of the Royal Society of London. Philosophical Transactions).

However, in 1676 the validity of his research was called into question when he sent a copy of his observations of unicellular organisms. Prior to this, nothing was known about the existence of such organisms. Despite his reputation as a trustworthy researcher, his observations were met with some skepticism. To check the accuracy of the information reported by Leeuwenhoek, a group of scientists headed by Nehemiah Gru went to Delft, who confirmed the authenticity of all the studies. February 8, 1680 Leeuwenhoek was elected a full member of the Royal Society of London.

Among other things, Leeuwenhoek was the first to discover erythrocytes, described bacteria (), yeast, protozoa, lens fibers, scales (shrunken cells) of the skin, sketched spermatozoa (), the structure of insect eyes and muscle fibers. He found and described a number of rotifers, hydra budding, etc. He discovered ciliates and described many of their forms.

Curious facts

In honor of Anthony Van Leeuwenhoek, after almost 3 centuries, Levenhuk was founded, specializing in the production of professional and amateur optics. In particular, at the release of microscopes that proudly carry the Levenhuk name, just like their founder.

The hero of Hoffmann's fairy tale is the "Lord of the Fleas".

Leeuwenhoek's works

netherl. Sendbrieven ontleedingen en ontkellingen etc., ( -)
lat. Opera omnia s. arcana naturae, ()

Notes

Links

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See what "Levenhoek" is in other dictionaries:

- (Leeuwenhoek) Anthony van (1632-1723), Dutch naturalist, one of the founders of scientific microscopy. Having made lenses with 150,300 times magnification, he first observed and sketched (published since 1673) a number of protozoa, bacteria, spermatozoa ... Modern Encyclopedia

- (Leeuwenhoek) Anthony van (1632 1723), a Dutch amateur scientist who created simple MICROSCOPES with a single lens, but of such high quality that they gave much greater magnification than complex microscopes of his day ... ... Scientific and technical encyclopedic dictionary

- (Antonius van Leeuwenhoek) Dutch zoologist (1632 1723). Initially (until 1654) he was a cashier and accountant in a trading institution in Amsterdam, then in Delft (his hometown) he devoted himself to the natural sciences. L. did not receive a scientific ... ... Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron

LEVENGUK- Anthony (Antoni van Leeuwen hoek, 1632-1723), the famous Dutch microscopist and naturalist of the second half of the 17th and early 18th centuries. Together with Malpighi is one of the founders of scientific microscopy, microscopic. anatomy, zoology, ... ... Big Medical Encyclopedia

- (Leeuwenhoek) Anthony van (October 24, 1632, Delft, August 26, 1723, ibid.), Dutch naturalist, founder of scientific microscopy, member of the Royal Society of London (since 1680). He was engaged in trade in manufactory and haberdashery. Using your... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

Leeuwenhoek- see Leeuwenhoek Anthony ... General Embryology: Terminological Dictionary

- (leeuwenhoek) Anthony van (1632-1723), Dutch naturalist, the greatest microscopist of his time. Being engaged in the manufacture of lenses that gave an increase of almost 300 times, he first described and sketched a number of protozoa, bacteria, spermatozoa. ... ... Biological encyclopedic dictionary

Leeuwenhoek- a nickname * A woman is a nickname of the same type, like in one, so in a plurality they do not change ... Spelling Dictionary of Ukrainian Movies

Levenguk A.- Leeuwenhoek (Leeuwenhoek) Anthony van (1632-1723), the Netherlands. naturalist, one of the founders of scientific. microscopy. He made lenses with 150-300 times magnification, for the first time observed and sketched (published from 1673) a number of protozoa, bacteria, ... ... Biographical Dictionary

Dutch merchant (had a shop), lens grinder and naturalist.

In my free time from work in the shop, Anthony Leeuwenhoek made about 250 tiny lenses, seeking 150-300 -fold (!) increase. Often he made a lens for a new object of study. After A. Leeuwenhoek, no one not it was possible to produce similar devices of the same image quality.

"Opening Leeuwenhoek happened because he chose microscopy as his hobby. In those days, of course, it was impossible to buy a microscope in a shop, and therefore Leeuwenhoek designed his own instruments. He was never a professional lens maker, had no idea about it, but he developed a remarkable art in himself, far higher than any of the professionals of that time. Although the compound microscope was invented by a previous generation of people, Leeuwenhoek not enjoyed.
By precisely and accurately grinding small lenses with very short focus, he was able to achieve a much higher resolution than any previously made compound microscope. One of his surviving lenses has a fantastic magnification power of 270 times, and it is speculated that Leeuwenhoek created even more powerful ones. He was an incredibly patient and careful observer, with a keen eye and unlimited curiosity.
With his small lenses, Leeuwenhoek examined various materials, from human hair to dog semen; from rainwater to small insects; as well as muscle fibers, skin fragments and many other samples. He kept detailed notes and made neat drawings of the things he observed. From 1673 Leeuwenhoek corresponded with English Royal Society, the leading scientific society of the time. Despite the lack of education (he completed a regular school, but did not know any language other than Dutch), Leeuwenhoek was accepted into this society in 1680.
He also became a corresponding member of the Paris Academies of Sciences. Leeuwenhoek was married twice, had six children and no grandchildren. He enjoyed his excellent health and could continue to work until old age. It was visited by many celebrities, including the Russian Tsar Peter the Great and the Queen of England. Leeuwenhoek died in 1723 at the age of ninety. He made many significant discoveries.
This was the man who first described spermatozoa (1677) and one of the first to describe red blood cells. He refuted the theory of spontaneous generation of lower life forms and presented a lot of evidence against it. He was able, for example, to show that fleas spread like ordinary winged insects. His greatest discovery came in 1674 when he made the first observations of microbes. It was one of the greatest constructive discoveries in human history. In a small drop of water, Leeuwenhoek discovered a whole new world, a completely unexpected new world, teeming with life.”

Michael Hart, 100 great people, M., Veche, 1998, p. 210-211

The micro-objects he observed Leeuwenhoek sketched, described in letters, which he sent to the Royal Society of London for more than 50 years (later, many of his works were lost).

“Levenhoek was a born demonstrator... But he was not a teacher. "I have never not taught,” he wrote to the famous philosopher Leibniz, - because if I began to teach one, I would have to teach others ... I would have to give myself into slavery, but I want to remain a free person.

“But the art of grinding lenses and observing the little creatures you discover will disappear from the face of the earth if you do not teach it to young people,” replied Leibniz.

“Professors and students at the University of Leiden have been interested in my discoveries for many years; they hired themselves three lens grinders to teach students. And what came of it? - wrote the stubborn Dutchman in response, - As far as I can tell, absolutely nothing, because the ultimate goal of all these courses is either the acquisition of money through knowledge, or the pursuit of fame with flaunting their learning, and these things have nothing to do with the discovery of the hidden secrets of nature. I am sure that out of a thousand people there will not be even one who would be able to overcome all the difficulty of these studies, because this requires an enormous investment of time and money, and a person must always be immersed in his thoughts if he wants to achieve anything ... »

Paul de Kruy, Hunters for microbes, M., Detizdat, 1936, p. 38-39.

On one of the warm May days in 1698, a yacht stopped on a large canal near the city of Delft, in Holland. A very elderly but unusually vigorous man boarded her. From the excited expression on his face, one could guess what brought him here is not an ordinary thing. On the yacht, the guest was met by a man of enormous stature, surrounded by a retinue. In broken Dutch, the giant greeted the guest who bowed in respect. It was the Russian Tsar Peter I. His guest was a resident of Delft - the Dutchman Anthony van Leeuwenhoek.

Anthony van Leeuwenhoek was born on October 24, 1623 in the Dutch city of Delft to Antonison van Leeuwenhoek and Margaret Bel van den Burch. His childhood was not easy. He received no education. The father, a poor craftsman, gave the boy an apprenticeship to a cloth maker. Soon Anthony began to independently trade in manufactory.

Then Leeuwenhoek was a cashier and accountant in one of the trading establishments in Amsterdam. Later, he served as a guardian of the judicial chamber in his native city, which, according to modern concepts, corresponds to the positions of a janitor, stoker and watchman at the same time. Leeuwenhoek became famous because of his unusual hobby.

Even in his youth, Anthony learned how to make magnifying glasses, became interested in this business and achieved amazing art in it. In his spare time, he enjoyed grinding optical glasses and did so with virtuoso skill. In those days, the strongest lenses magnified the image only twenty times. Leeuwenhoek's "microscope" is, in fact, a very powerful magnifying glass. She magnified up to 250-300 times. Such powerful magnifying glasses were completely unknown at the time. Lenses, i.e. Leeuwenhoek's magnifying glasses, were very small - the size of a large pea. They were difficult to use. A tiny glass in a frame with a long handle had to be applied close to the eye. But, despite this, Leeuwenhoek's observations were distinguished for that time by great accuracy. These wonderful lenses turned out to be a window to a new world.

Leeuwenhoek was engaged in improving his microscopes all his life: he changed lenses, invented some devices, varied the conditions of the experiment. After his death, 273 microscopes and 172 lenses were counted in his office, which he called a museum, 160 microscopes were mounted in silver frames, 3 in gold. And how many devices he lost - after all, he tried, at the risk of his own eyes, to observe under a microscope the moment of the explosion of gunpowder.

At the beginning of 1673, Dr. Graaff sent a letter to the secretary of the Royal Society of London. In this letter, he reported "about a certain inventor living in Holland by the name of Anthony van Leeuwenhoek, who makes microscopes far superior to those known to this day by Eustache Divina."

Science should be grateful to Dr. Graaf for the fact that, having learned about Leeuwenhoek, he managed to write his letter: in August of the same year, Graaf died at the age of thirty-two. Perhaps, if it weren't for him, the world would never have known bGo Leeuwenhoek, whose talent, deprived of support, would have withered, and his discoveries would have been made again by others, but much later.

The Royal Society contacted Leeuwenhoek and a correspondence began.

Carrying out his research without any plan, the self-taught scientist made many important discoveries. For almost fifty years, Leeuwenhoek carefully sent long letters to England. In them, he talked about such truly extraordinary things that gray-haired scientists in powdered wigs shook their heads in amazement. In London, his reports were carefully studied. For fifty years of work, the researcher discovered more than two hundred species of the smallest organisms.

Leeuwenhoek really made such great discoveries in biology that each of them could glorify and forever keep his name in the annals of science.

At that time, biological science was at a very low stage of development. The basic laws governing the development and life of plants and animals were not yet known. Scientists also knew little about the structure of the body of animals and humans. And many amazing secrets of nature were revealed before the eyes of every observant naturalist who possessed talent and perseverance.

Leeuwenhoek was one of the most prominent researchers of nature. He was the first to notice how blood moves in the smallest blood vessels - capillaries. Leeuwenhoek saw that blood is not some kind of homogeneous liquid, as his contemporaries thought, but a living stream in which a great many tiny bodies move. Now they are called red blood cells. There are about 4-5 million red blood cells in one cubic millimeter of blood. They play an important role in the life of the body as oxygen carriers to all tissues and organs. Many years after Leeuwenhoek, scientists learned that it is thanks to red blood cells, which contain a special dye hemoglobin, that blood has a red color.

Another discovery of Leeuwenhoek is also very important: he first saw spermatozoa in the seminal fluid - those small cells with tails that, penetrating into the egg, fertilize it, as a result of which a new organism arises.

Examining thin plates of meat under his magnifying glass, Leeuwenhoek discovered that meat, or rather, muscles, consists of microscopic fibers. At the same time, the muscles of the limbs and trunk (skeletal muscles) consist of striated fibers, which is why they are called striated, in contrast to the smooth muscles that are found in most internal organs (intestines, etc.) and in the walls of blood vessels.

But Leeuwenhoek's most surprising and most important discovery is not this. He was the first who had the great honor to lift the veil into the hitherto unknown world of living beings - microorganisms that play a huge role in nature and in human life.

Some of the most perspicacious minds have previously expressed vague conjectures about the existence of some smallest creatures, invisible to the naked eye, responsible for the spread and occurrence of infectious diseases. But all these conjectures remained only guesses. After all, no one has ever seen such small organisms.

In 1673 Leeuwenhoek was the first person to see microbes. For long, long hours, he examined everything that caught his eye through a microscope: a piece of meat, a drop of rainwater or hay infusion, the tail of a tadpole, the eye of a fly, a grayish coating from his teeth, etc. What was his amazement when in the dentist on the fly, in a drop of water and many other liquids, he saw a myriad of living beings. They looked like sticks, and spirals, and balls. Sometimes these creatures had bizarre processes or cilia. Many of them moved quickly.

Here is what Leeuwenhoek wrote to the English Royal Society about his observations: “After all the attempts to find out what forces in the root (horseradish) act on the tongue and cause it irritation, I put about half an ounce of the root in water: in a softened state it is easier to study. A piece of root remained in the water for about three weeks. On April 24, 1673, I looked at this water under a microscope and with great surprise saw in it a huge number of the smallest living beings.

Some of them were three or four times longer than wide, although they were not thicker than the hairs covering the body of the louse ... Others had the correct oval shape. There was also a third type of organisms, the most numerous, - the smallest creatures with tails. Thus, one of the great discoveries was made, which marked the beginning of microbiology - the science of microscopic organisms.

Leeuwenhoek was one of the first to conduct experiments on himself. It was from his finger that blood flowed for research, 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 penetrate it. Studying the reproduction of such little respected insects as lice, he put them in his stocking for several days, endured bites, but in the end he found out what kind of offspring his wards had. He studied the secretions of his body depending on the quality of the food eaten.

Leeuwenhoek also experienced the effects of drugs. When he fell ill, he noted all the features of the course of his illness, and before his death, he meticulously recorded the extinction of life in his body. Over the long years of association with the Royal Society, Leeuwenhoek received from him many necessary books, and over time his horizons became much wider, but he continued to work not in order to surprise the world, but in order to "saturate, as far as possible, his passion to penetrate into the beginning of things ".

“I spent more time in my observations than some people think,” Leeuwenhoek wrote. “However, I dealt with them with pleasure and did not care about the chatter of those who make such a fuss about it: “Why spend so much work, what is the use of it?”, But I do not write for such, but only for lovers of knowledge.”

It is not known for sure whether anyone interfered with Leeuwenhoek's activities, but he once accidentally wrote: "All my efforts are aimed at one goal alone - to make the truth obvious and apply the little talent I have received to distract people from old and superstitious prejudices."

In 1680, the scientific world officially recognized Leeuwenhoek's achievements and elected him a full and equal member of the Royal Society of London - despite the fact that he did not know Latin and, according to the then rules, could not be considered a real scientist. Later he was admitted to the French Academy of Sciences. Many famous people came to Delft to look into the wonderful lenses, including Peter 1. The published secrets of the nature of Leeuwenhoek revealed the wonders of the microworld to Jonathan Swift. The great English satirist visited Delft, and to this trip we owe two of the four parts of the amazing Gulliver's Travels.

Leeuwenhoek's letters to the Royal Society, to scientists, to political and public figures of his time - Leibniz, Robert Hooke, Christian Huygens - were published in Latin during his lifetime and took up four volumes. The last one was published in 1722, when Leeuwenhoek was 90 years old, a year before his death, Leeuwenhoek went down in history as one of the greatest experimenters of his time. Glorifying the experiment, he wrote the prophetic words six years before his death: “One should refrain from reasoning when experience speaks.”

From the time of Leeuwenhoek to the present day, microbiology has made great progress. It has grown into a widely branched field of knowledge and is of great importance for all human practice - medicine, agriculture, industry - and for the knowledge of the laws of nature. Tens of thousands of researchers in all countries of the world tirelessly study the vast and diverse world of microscopic creatures. And they all honor Leeuwenhoek - an outstanding Dutch biologist, who begins the history of microbiology.

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