Volume 22, Issue 1 p. 3-7

Three Centuries of Protozoology: A Brief Tribute to its Founding Father, A. van Leeuwenhoek of Delft*

JOHN O. CORLISS†

JOHN O. CORLISS†

Department of Zoology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742 U.S.A.

I am deeply indebted to Miss Lois Reid for her excellent and artistic production of all of the figures, and to Mr. Fred Dickson for his indispensable photographic assistance. I wish to acknowledge with gratitude the assistance of National Science Foundation grant GB-41172.

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First published: February 1975
Citations: 16

This commemorative note represents the substance of a short address delivered, on special invitation of President William C. Marquardt, before the Society of Protozoologists at the 27th Annual Meeting, Middletown, Connecticut, 13–16 August 1974. An abstract (15) had been submitted “By Title.”

Abstract

SYNOPSIS. It was exactly 300 years ago this month (August 1974) that the 17th century modest draper from Delft, Holland—Antony van Leeuwenhoek—discovered protozoa. Describing them, often with amazing accuracy considering the optical equipment he was using (simply a home-made “glorified”hand lens), in letters to the Royal Society of London, he established himself, certainly, as the founding father of protozoology. It is particularly appropriate for an assemblage of protozoologists to pay homage to this intrepid “philosopher in little things,”a man with an insatiable curiosity about his wee animalcules, on the tricentenary of his discovery of them, since it was an event of such long-lasting significance.

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