1683-84: Contradicted by many

1683-1684: "I shall be contradicted by many all over the world."

While this was the shortest of the seven periods of Leeuwenhoek's publication history, it was pivotal. The Royal Society was so successful, its members' research so broad and deep, that what was seen as one -- natural philosophy, what we now call science -- was becoming too complex.

The first great division was between the researchers who used lots of mathematics and those who didn't. Astronomy, from Copernicus, Brahe, Kepler, and Galileo to van Leeuwenhoek's contemporaries Edmond Halley, Christiaan Huygens, and Isaac Newton, used mathematics to "see", to make sense of their numerical data, which was basically all they had. Biology and botany "saw" more directly. Human researchers sought patterns with their eyes, not with numbers.

Up through this period, the editors of Philosophical Transactions published articles, reviews, and letters of both types, what we'll call the physical sciences and the biological sciences. The editor after Oldenburg's death, Nehemiah Grew, was mostly a botanist. Robert Plot, who agreed to be editor after Hooke stopped Philosophical Collections, did research of both types. He was joined in his third year and volume by William Musgrave, a physician who wrote about human diseases.

In this two-year period, Leeuwenhoek wrote 12 letters, 11 of them to the Royal Society. He addressed two in 1683 to Christopher Wren, four to Francis Aston, and five to the members of the Royal Society in general. All were eventually extracted and published in the Philosophical Transactions in 12 different articles.

the first two, January 22, 1683 (AB 70), and July 16, 1683 (AB 72), were addressed to Wren. Robert Plot published them in volume 13 of 1683 along with the letter from January 1680 from period 2.

the next three -- September 17, 1683 (AB 76), December 28, 1683 (AB 79), and April 14, 1684 (AB 80) -- were addressed to Aston. Plot published the in volume 14 of 1684. A shorter extract from the letter of September 17, 1683, an entirely new translation with the figures reversed and missing one of them, was published in volume 17 by Richard Waller.

of final one, July 25, 1684 (AB 81), was addressed to Aston. William Musgrave published it in volume 15 of 1685.

Interspersed with these letters, Leeuwenhoek addressed six of the period's 19 letters to Anthonie Heinsius. Cole was not aware of their existence when he compiled his list in 1937. Their first publication was in Alles de Brieven / Collected Letters volume 4 in 1952.

For a chronology of events and letters in 1680, see What happened? and Learn more below.

What happened?

Date	Event
January 1, 1683	Visited by Marie-Anne Mancini, Duchess of Bouillon and others
February 8, 1683	Received assistant wine gauger for emergencies
February 17, 1683	The Royal Society read Letter L-122 of 1683-01-22 to Christopher Wren
February 26, 1683	Francis Aston wrote Letter L-123 of 26 February 1683 about problems translating his letters and opposition to his views
July 28, 1683	The Royal Society read Letter L-128 of 1683-07-16 about reproduction, little animals, digestion, and blood
August 4, 1683	The Royal Society discussed Letter L-128 of 1683-07-16 about the male seed in egg yolks
November 3, 1683	The Royal Society read and discussed Letter L-135
November 10, 1683	The Royal Society discussed Leeuwenhoek's observations about pores in the skin in Letter L-135
January 1, 1684	Published Humor Cristallinus (Crystalline Humor), Letter 41 (L-147)
January 1, 1684	Published Eyerstok (Ovary), Letters 37, 39 (L-122, L-135)
January 1, 1684	Published Onsigtbare Geschapene Waarheden (Invisible Creation Truths), Letters 32, 33, 39 (L-108, L-111, L-135)
January 1, 1684	Published Schobbens in de Mond (Scales in the Mouth), Letter 40 (L-144)
February 23, 1684	The Royal Society read Letter L-144 of 1683-12-28 to Francis Aston
April 2, 1684	cousin Margrieta Maertens Leeuwenhoek married Michiel Reijniers van Hasseld
May 24, 1684	The Royal Society read the first part of Letter L-147 about the crystalline humour of the eye
May 26, 1684	William Molyneux demonstrated blood flow in a newt to the Dublin Philosophical Society
May 31, 1684	The Royal Society discussed Leeuwenhoek's observations in Letter L-147 about the crystalline humour of the eye
June 14, 1684	The Royal Society read the latter part of Letter L-147 about the crystalline humour of bird and fish eyes, the vitreous humour, the cornea tunica, and the colour of a Blackamore
December 13, 1684	The Royal Society read the first part of Letter L-150 about the brain of several animals, chalk stones of gout, leprosy, and scales of eels
December 13, 1684	sister Catharina Philips Leeuwenhoek received legacy from great uncle Johan Sebastiaans van den Berch
December 20, 1684	cousin Geertruijt Huijchs Leeuwenhoek buried
June 27, 1685	The Royal Society read the latter part of Letter L-157 about sperm and eggs in sheep and rabbits

Learn more

Related letters:

What Leeuwenhoek wrote ...
Wrote Letter L-122 of 1683-01-22 to Christopher Wren about the function of the ovary, muscles of insects, drinking tea and mild beer, erythrocytes, and a theory on the formation of blood
Wrote Letter L-126 of 1683-05-20 to Anthonie Heinsius about generation and about the circulation of the blood, which he intends to communicate in a letter to the Royal Society
Wrote Letter L-128 of 1683-07-16 to Christopher Wren about the procreation of frogs, sperm in fowl's egg, reproduction of rabbits, little animals in frog intestines, a theory about digestion in humans and fish, and blood
Wrote Letter L-129 of 1683-07-22 to Anthonie Heinsius about Heinsius's reactions to an earlier letter
Wrote Letter L-132 of 1683-09-02 to Anthonie Heinsius, requesting his opinion of observations in Letter L-128
Wrote Letter L-134 of 1683-09-16 to Anthonie Heinsius about whether Heinsius would like a copy of his speculations on the living organisms in mouths and on the structure of the skin
Wrote Letter L-135 of 1683-09-17 to Francis Aston about saliva, nasal hairs and blackheads, skin, pores, calluses, and cleaning teeth; the discovery of bacteria in tartar
Wrote Letter L-136 of 1683-09-30 to Anthonie Heinsius, a note accompanying a copy of Letter L-135
Wrote Letter L-141 of 1683-10-14 to Anthonie Heinsius in reply to his recent Letter L-139
Wrote Letter L-144 of 1683-12-28 to Francis Aston about human skin and its diseases, the intestines, the effects of vinegar, the intestinal wall and peristalsis, and an experiment to demonstrate the adsorption of food nutrients in the intestines.
Wrote Letter L-147 of 1684-04-14 to Francis Aston about lenses and corneas, the function of eye-lids, the involuntariness of blinking, the optic nerve, and the skin of Moors
Wrote Letter L-150 of 1684-07-25 to Members of the Royal Society about parts of the brain of several animals, chalk stones of gout, leprosy, and the scales of eels

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Life in Holland

in the 1600's

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in the 1600's

1683-84: Contradicted by many

1683-1684: "I shall be contradicted by many all over the world."

Period 2 - 1679-1686

Life in Holland

in the 1600's