105

Nouember . 1 1677.
The Society met at the vsuall place & ^ /the President being Absent/ mr. Henshaw the vice president tooke
the chair. the first thing there produced was a great many exceeding small and
exceeding thin glasse pipes of glasse of various sizes some 10 times as big as the
hair of a mans head others 10 time lesse. these were made in order to try a conjectur
of R H formerly propounded to this Society, that the discouerys affirmd to be made by Mr. Lewe
Liewenhook were made by help of ^ /viewing wth a good microscope/ such small pipes .. . . conteining the liquor or
water in wch. the discouery those multitudes of exceeding small insects or animalls wrigling
among each other are discouerd, for that ^ /as he alledged/ the said pipes being filld wth. the said liquors.
become themselues as it were magnifying glasses /augmenting/ aggrandising such bodys as swim
in the said liquor on those parts of the said pipes wch. are furthest from the eyeglasse
/for/And the pipes themselues being Looked on by the help of a very good microscope
are made very large and conspicuous and they againe augmenting the opposite parts by
the refraction on their cylindricall surfaces doe double the effect of a Single micros
cope as was very euident. But not wth.standing this there was noe Discouery made in the
liquor that was ^ /made/ vse of ^ /which was only common pump water/ of any such minute animalls. It was therfore orderd against the
next Day that pepper water should be prouided . and some better microscope than tht
made vse of. that the Truth of mr. Lewenhooks assertions might if possible be
experimentally examind . of wch. he had producd soe many testimon testimonys from
such as affirmd themselues Eye witnesses. After this mr. Lewenhooks papers wer.
read wch. were produced here the Day before 4 of wch were testimonialls from ^/2/ witnesse
publique notary & other persons of good credit ^/to the number of 8./ of the truth of his /former/ assertions. concer
ning the almost incredible number of small animalls wrigling in pepperwater. some of
wch. estimated that they had seen 10000&/20000/others /30000/.. . .others 45000 little animalls &c
in a single drop of water as big as a millet seed. The ^/two/ other was /conteind/ an account
of some further obseruations made by him wth. his microscope first/one/ writt in Dutch
& the ^/other the same/ translated into Latine by him. the particulars of wch. were that the cause
of the blackness of ethiopians is from the Constitutions of the particles tht will not admitt light-
2ly. of young eels found in eeles &c of other Lesser wthin those young ones. 3ly. that the blood of eels consists
of small long sharp pipes whence he conceiues to proceed the noxious qualitys of eels blood to the Eyes -
4. of the the eggs & manner of the Generation of fleas: their shapes in the eggs & their manner of exclusion
how he differs from Swammerdam &c 5 thly that he had sent ouer the attestation of 8 seurall
credible persons who had attested the truth of his assertions -
after the reading of these papers R.H. was orderd to Returne the Societys thanks to the
communicator and to indeauour to procure further discouerys from him by holding
correspondence wth. him. And vpon this occasion much Discourse arose concerning
Insects bred in water. mr. Henshaw affirmed that he in may had often taken vp wth. a
china comb out of standing water great numbers of small insects not visible but by the help
of a microscope wch. were thereby found to be like a pearch -
Sr. Christopher wren affirmed that he had often times seen &.taken out of standing water
a certain small insect consisting of about 12 rings wth. hornes before & behind after the man
ner of Earwiggs. Sr. Chr. Wren also affirmd that as to the generation of Eeles he had for neer 20
[In margin]yeers since vpon the Dissecting of eels found them to be viuiparous hauing seuerall times taken the young ones out aliue  
Sr. Iohn Hoskins produced a bottle of stinking Sulphurious water wch. he Rd from
Dr. Carter who had a vessell of it brought from a very strong smelling sul=
phureous well at Queens Camhill neer Bath, in order to the further exami
nation thereof. for this purpose this together wth. a bottle of Willow bridge
water formerly brought in by the said Sr. Iohn Hoskins.werewas recommeded to
the care of Dr. mapletoft who was desired to put the same in wide vessells well
couerd to keep off the Dust, and in a warm air to be sufferd to .. corrupt & putrify
and then to be euaporated gently; to see wt sediments would be left, this putre
faction was desired in regard that ^/as mr Henshaw affirmed/ many liquors wth.out putrefaction will wholy eua
porate, which vpon p. after putrefaction will leaue a very great sediment behinde
putrefaction as it were loosning or vnlocking the parts from one another

Ref: CELL/RS/HF_107  © Centre for Editing Lives and Letters