The Letters
Period 4 - 1686-1692

editor: Edmond Halley

Through the murky lens of Birch's History and the private letters of those involved, we can see that there was a struggle within the Royal Society over its direction.

A temporary solution was to have a paid clerk who would be responsible for the Society's correspondence, finances, and publications. After several ballots, Edmond Halley, from the mathematics-oriented researchers favoring physical sciences, was elected. He beat Hans Sloane, from the naturalist-oriented researchers favoring biological sciences.

In London

Halley was busy doing other things, chiefly helping Isaac Newton, and as shown on the table on the left, he neglected Philosophical Transactions. On the other hand, the "salary" of this astronomer was paid in copies of books about the biological sciences that the Society had on hand. At the meeting of July 6, 1687, Birch wrote:

The question being put, whether Mr. HALLEY should have fifty copies of the History of Fishes instead of the fifty pounds ordered him by the last meeting of the council, ... it was determined by ballot in the affirmative. ...

It was ordered, that Mr. HALLEY receive a gratuity of twenty other copies of the History of Fishes, in consideration of his arrears in the last year ending January 27, 1686.

So Halley had a stack of 70 copies of a book about fish to show for keeping the Society's notes and finances and editing Philosophical Transactions.

Looking at the list of article titles in volume 16 shows that most of the articles were about astronomy, chemistry, and mechanics, including 13 of Halley's own articles. Just a handful of articles were about biology, botany, or medicine. None was about microbiology. After Halley, the most published author in volume 16 was William Molyneux, older brother of Thomas, whose visit to van Leeuwenhoek is noted below.

The Society tried to keep Halley as editor, but he didn't seem to want to do it. Richard Waller agreed to edit volume 17 early in 1691, but didn't get serious about it until 1693, when he began publishing letters from van Leeuwenhoek that had been lying around for thirteen years, since 1680. (See Period 5 page.)

In Delft

Over these seven years, van Leeuwenhoek wrote 30 letters that were eventually published. Three were published by editor Richard Waller in Philosophical Transactions, two in volume 17, 1693, and one in volume 18, 1694.

The rest, van Leeuwenhoek published himself, as shown on the table, left, and on the Publications page. He changed printers, from Boutesteyn in Leiden to Voorstad in Delft, publishing more than two dozen letters from 1686 to 1689.

Note the blank cell on the table next to 1690. For eighteen months from April 1, 1689, when he was publishing Tweede Vervolg / Second Continuation, until September 18, 1691, van Leeuwenhoek wrote no letters at all. Perhaps by 1689 he had been struck by the fact that he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1680, yet none of the two dozen letters he wrote had been published in Philosophical Transactions since the letter of March 30, 1685.

Samuel Hoole selected and translated into English pieces from almost all the self-published letters of this period and scattered them through his two volumes. The complete letters from this period were not translated into English until Alle de Brieven / Collected Letters in the late 20th century.

In early 1685, Thomas Molyneux visited van Leeuwenhoek at his home in Delft. He was the 24-year-old brother of Royal Society fellow and Halley ally William Molyneux. The young man reported back to the Royal Society about van Leeuwenhoek:

His only secret I believe is in making clearer glasses, and giving them a better polish than others can do.

I found him a very civil complaisant man, and doubtless of great natural abilities; but, contrary to my expectations, quite a stranger to letters, master neither of Latin, French or English, or any other of the modern tongues besides his own, which is a great hindrance to him in his reasonings upon his observations; for being ignorant of all other men's thoughts, he is wholly trusting to his own, which, I observe, now and then lead him into extravagances and suggest very odd accounts of things, nay, sometimes such as are wholly irreconcilable with all truth.

No doubt van Leeuwenhoek had a different impression of such a visit from a representative of the Halley camp of mathematics-oriented researchers, a young man half his age who presumably spoke less Dutch than van Leeuwenhoek spoke English. While there is no record of van Leeuwenhoek's side of the story, Molyneux also reported:

Such were the microscopes, which I saw, and these are they he shews to the curious that come and visit him; but besides these he told me he had another sort, which no man living had looked through setting aside himself; these he reserves for his own private observations wholly, and he assur'd me they performed far beyond any that he had shewed me yet; but would not allow me a sight of them.

It is from such reports that van Leeuwenhoek got the reputation for being secretive and amateurish. Perhaps he just lacked patience with snippy young foreigners.

And what happened next? Molyneux' letter was read to the Royal Society in early 1685. After that, there would not be another letter by van Leeuwenhoek published in Philosophical Transactions until early 1693.