Chronology of events: 1673--1702

For some events, the year is certain but the month and day are not. Example: We know only the year for the collections of Leeuwenhoek's letters published in Dutch during his lifetime.

For other events, the season or month are certain but the day is not. Example: Leeuwenhoek mentions that someone visited him "last month".

On the other hand, many events did indeed happen on the first day of a month. Example: public appointments to Delft's city offices took effect on January 1 of each year. Thus:

  • A date of January 1 in a given year may indicate that the year is certain but the month and day are not.
  • A date of 1 in a given month may indicate that the year and month are certain but the day is not.

Unless otherwise indicated, for events in England, the date given is Old Style, 10 days behind the Dutch Republic's New Style until 1700 and then 11 days behind.

Date
June 2, 1700 Wrote Letter L-368 of 1700-06-02 to Frederik Adriaan van Reede about the eyes, mouth parts, food, intestines, and eggs of a shrimp
June 8, 1700 Hans Sloane wrote Letter L-369 to Leeuwenhoek about translation problems and parasitic worms
June 14, 1700 Wrote Letter L-370 of 1700-06-14 to answer Hans Sloane's Letter L-369 that he has examined the sperm of many animals, but if there is any animal that the Royal Society would like him to investigate, he will do so.
June 16, 1700 Wrote Letter L-371 of 1700-06-16 to a "Highly Learned Sir" summarizing his earlier investigations of bees, especially the queen bee and her eggs, and of the propagation of other insects
July 9, 1700 Wrote Letter L-372 of 1700-07-09 to Hans Sloane about red blood cells in flounder and salmon, how their oval form changes shape to pass through capillaries, and the sperm of a young cock
July 10, 1700 Wrote Letter L-373 of 1700-07-10 to Anthonie Heinsius about seeds of plants and parts of invertebrates in peat found near Hellevoetsluis
July 15, 1700 Hans Sloane wrote Letter L-374 to Leeuwenhoek about the three living larvae that he was sending
July 19, 1700 Received Letter L-374 from Hans Sloane with larvae to examine
July 24, 1700 Began series of observations of rams' testicles
July 27, 1700 Continued observations of rams' testicles
July 27, 1700 Wrote Letter L-375 of 1700-07-27 to Hans Sloane about experiments with the larvae of cheese flies received from Sloane a week earlier and the treatment of his wife's toothache with vitriol
July 30, 1700 Concluded series of observations of rams' testicles
August 1, 1700 Wrote Letter L-376 of 1700-08-01 to "Your Most Serene Highness" about the influence of atmospheric pressure on the level of a water column in a glass tube during a capillary rise; comparison to the column of mercury in a barometer
August 14, 1700 John Chamberlayne wrote to Hans Sloane about whether his Dutch was good enough to translate Leeuwenhoek's letters
September 7, 1700 Wrote Letter L-377 of 1700-09-07 to Hans Sloane to follow up on Letter L-375 to Sloane about fly larvae in cheese
October 26, 1700 Wrote Letter L-378 of 1700-10-26 to Hans Sloane about black flies on fruit trees, aphids, comparing the parthenogenetic procreation of aphids with sperm, and the development of the pupae of moths
November 9, 1700 John Chamberlayne wrote to Hans Sloane about difficulties translating Leeuwenhoek's letters, full of "frequent tautologies, incoherent expressions, ungrammatical & unsyntaxical sentences without number"
November 29, 1700 Hans Sloane wrote Letter L-379 of 1700-11-29 to Leeuwenhoek about the reception of his recent letters at the Royal Society
December 8, 1700 Royal Society read Letter L-378 of 26 October 1700
December 25, 1700 Wrote Letter L-380 of 1700-12-25 to Hans Sloane about the sperm of a ram and his objections to Nicolaas Hartsoeker's claim to have discovered sperm first in 1678 when Leeuwenhoek had written to the Royal Society about sperm in 1677
January 1, 1701 Antonio Magliabechi wrote Letter L-381 to Leeuwenhoek with reports on several recent books written in Latin by Italians that he thought might be of interest
January 4, 1701 cousin Lambrecht Huijchs Leeuwenhoek buried
January 26, 1701 Royal Society read Letter L-380 of 25 December 1700
January 28, 1701 Wrote Letter L-382 of 1701-01-28 to Hans Sloane about gall on a willow and more about larvae from cheese
February 9, 1701 Wrote Letter L-383 of 1701-02-09 to Frederik Adriaan van Reede about pores in willow wood and advice for the improvement of peat
March 11, 1701 Royal Society read Letter L-382 of 28 January 1701
April 8, 1701 Wrote Letter L-384 of 1701-04-08 to the mayors of Delft about his calculation of the difference between the coal measures of Delft and Rotterdam and how to calculate the volume of a pyramid
April 15, 1701 Wrote Letter L-385 of 1701-04-15 to the members of the Royal Society about sperm from cod, a calculation of its size, and ram and pike sperm
April 24, 1701 Hans Sloane wrote Letter L-387 of 1701-04-24 to Leeuwenhoek to introduce him to his new translator, John Chamberlayne
April 24, 1701 John Chamberlayne wrote Letter L-386 to Leeuwenhoek to ask about the taste of water and whether razors are spoiled by extreme heat and cold
May 20, 1701 Hans Sloane wrote Letter L-388 to Leeuwenhoek about the reception of his recent letters in London
June 6, 1701 John Chamberlayne wrote to Hans Sloane about difficulties translating Leeuwenhoek's Dutch, "so abstruse that even his own countrymen cannot explain him"
June 21, 1701 Wrote Letter L-389 of 1701-06-21 to John Chamberlayne about salt crystals in rain-water and notches in a sharpened knife
June 21, 1701 Wrote Letter L-390 of 1701-06-21 to the members of the Royal Society about spiders, their blood, their silk thread and its structure, their sting, and laying their eggs
June 21, 1701 Wrote Letter L-391 of 1701-06-21 to Hans Sloane about the claimed qualtity of other people's magnifying glasses, injuries to the cornea, and the impossibility of observing the smallest particles of matter
August 1, 1701 At age 68, his 50th publication in Philosophical Transactions
August 2, 1701 Wrote Letter L-392 of 1701-08-02 to the members of the Royal Society about circulation of blood in young eels and announcing his bequest of 26 magnifying glasses
August 26, 1701 Wrote Letter L-393 of 1701-08-26 to Frederik Adriaan van Reede about measuring the fall of water, an accurate instrument for such measurements, and his invention of a level
September 27, 1701 Hans Sloane wrote Letter L-394 to Leeuwenhoek personally thanking him for the bequest of 26 magnifying glasses
November 15, 1701 John Somers wrote Letter L-395 of 15 November 1701 to Leeuwenhoek about the bequest of 26 magnifying glasses and accepting Leeuwenhoek's unverified observations as "matters of fact"
November 18, 1701 Hans Sloane wrote Letter L-396 to Leeuwenhoek to express the thanks of the Royal Society for the bequest of 26 magnifying glasses and as a cover letter for Letter L-395 from John Somers
December 6, 1701 Wrote Letter L-397 of 1701-12-06 to Hans Sloane as a cover letter for Letter L-398 to John Somers
December 6, 1701 Wrote Letter L-398 of 1701-12-06 to John Somers about the sperm of young cocks living for days outside the cock and whether that was long enough to fertilise a hen's egg
December 20, 1701 Wrote Letter L-399 of 1701-12-20 to the members of the Royal Society about the sperm of spiders and how they copulate
January 1, 1702 Published Sevende Vervolg der Brieven (Seventh Continuation of the Letters), Letters 108 - 146
February 9, 1702 Wrote Letter L-400 of 1702-02-09 to Hendrik van Bleyswijk about three types of little animals from the gutter of his house, one of which was eaten by a larger animal, which could revive after being dried out
February 14, 1702 Wrote Letter L-401 of 1702-02-14 to the members of the Royal Society about balsam, an apparatus he designed to inhale smoke and vapour, blood vessels in sheep lungs, his own phlegm, and the theory that cold air harms lungs
April 1, 1702 Hans Sloane wrote Letter L-402 of sometime before April 1702 to introduce James Vernon when he visited Leeuwenhoek
April 19, 1702 cousin Cornelis Lambrechts Leeuwenhoek (1670-1702) buried
April 20, 1702 Wrote Letter L-403 of 1702-04-20 to Karl von Hessen-Kassel as a cover letter for Letter L-404
April 20, 1702 Wrote Letter L-404 of 1702-04-20 to Karl von Hessen-Kassel about silkworms, the structure of the silk thread, and the organs that produce it, eyes, pincers, blood vessels, and cocoons, sperm from an adult silk moth, and the scales on its wings
April 28, 1702 Wrote Letter L-405 of 1702-04-28 to the members of the Royal Society about little animals and air bubbles in rain water and the circulation of blood in an eel
September 12, 1702 John Chamberlayne wrote Letter L-406 to Leeuwenhoek about a friend’s dental problems as well as his dental hygiene practices, enclosing one of the teeth that fell out of his friend’s mouth
December 8, 1702 Wrote Letter L-407 of 1702-12-08 to John Chamberlayne about cleaning and preserving teeth by polishing them with salt and ash of tobacco and whether tea and coffee harm teeth; requested a book on Peruvian silver mines
December 25, 1702 Wrote Letter L-408 of 1702-12-25 to the members of the Royal Society about duckweed, its roots and reproduction, the little animals attached to it, and asexual reproduction

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