'That ’Twas Wonderful to See'

Here’s a book I haven’t read in some sixty years: Antony van Leeuwenhoek and His ‘Little Animals’ by Clifford Dobell, published in 1932 by Harcourt, Brace and Co. Reading it was the product of childhood obsessions colliding: biographies and microscopes. In some volume of potted lives I learned of Van Leeuwenhoek’s pioneering contributions to microscopy and microbiology. I remember reading that he was likely to have been the first person in history to have examined his own blood using a microscope. I was given a microscope for my twelfth birthday and looked at almost anything under its lenses: a butterfly wing, dirt from under my fingernails, creek water, cottage cheese and, yes, my own blood. I remember Dobell’s book being the kind I like, filled with interesting tidbits of information, the sort of thing some will describe as “trivia.” For instance, Van Leeuwenhoek was the first to suggest that motility – OED: “the power of active movement” -- is indicative of life. The microscopic…