Wrote Letter L-246 of 1694-11-30 to Pieter Rabus about about dragon-fly eyes and eggs, crab eyes, vertebrate corneas, another rejection of spontaneous generation, and the impregnation of women

Date: 
November 30, 1694
Standard reference information
L-number: 
L-246
Leeuwenhoek's number: 
85
Collected Letters number: 
140
Collected Letters volume: 
10

Text of the letter in the original Dutch and in English translation from Alle de Brieven. The Collected Letters at the DBNL - De Digitale Bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse Letteren

Leeuwenhoek wrote this letter about …

Eyes of a dragon-fly, and a study of the cornea. Comparison with the eye of a crab. Blood-vessels (tracheae) in the intestines of the dragon-fly. The number of eggs of the dragon-fly. Comparison with the cornea of vertebrates. Rejection of generatio spontanea. About the impregnation of women.

Rabus published it in Boekzaal van Europe.

This letter is the only one of his letters to Rabus that Leeuwenhoek published in his own works, in Dutch in Vijfde Vervolg der Brieven in 1696 and in Latin translation in Arcana Naturae Detecta in 1695, reprinted in Opera Omnia in 1722.