HSD-3044-R: A History Of The Human Body Fall 2017

Reading Summary: History of the Human Body
Name
Institution Affiliation
Reading Summary: History of the Human Body
Snyder Laura. Eye of the Beholder: Johannes Vermeer, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, and the Reinvention of Seeing. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2015.
1 What can you learn about Van Leeuwenhoek's microscopes and methods of observing?
Leeuwenhoek had devised microscopes that no one had ever seen at that time. He had been making them for so long, but finally, De Graaf encouraged him to write to the Royal Society about his microscopes and he recorded most of his discoveries in letters as compared to books as they appeared to use up the time he would have used to make observations. From the kind of writing exhibited, he appeared to rush through the writing so as to get time to invent and discover more things. He started off by discovering tiny cheese mites and grains of chalk. He was encouraged by the Royal Society secretary to research more on blood and body fluids. Leeuwenhoek’s methods of observation were gruesome, for instance, when he left lice on his calf for days in order to determine the reproductive rate of lice and draw his conclusions. Additionally, he was quite reluctant to share most of his methods he used to conclude the various discoveries he made over the course of his time. Therefore, the Royal society detected some form of ingenuity in his discoveries.
The scientist examined everything, even things one cannot imagine and he endured all the bad things that came with his observation; the smells and unclean sights and he ensured that he explored each one of them clearly stating that no scientific observation was in vain. Most of his discoveries were gross to imagine and the lengths he went to for science are unfathomable. One particular incident is when he discovered the animalcules living in human teeth and he had to test the spittle of his wife and daughter in his discovery process. He finally concluded that these organisms were largely responsible for bad breaths and the only way to deal with them as if the personal drank hot liquids and cleaned regularly with both salt and vinegar. His discoveries created much fame for him and at some point, people had to make appointments in order to visit him. He presented most of his discoveries to royal families and his discoveries created awe in the world. He was respected, despite having gruesome discoveries and his scientific observations grew every year. He got to a point where he would place the specimens on a microscope ready for viewing by the people who had come to visit him. He never cared what people thought of his discoveries and at some point, he openly showed the Duke the semen of a dog and went further to insist on the presence of a tail.
2 What difficulties did he face in getting others to accept his findings?
Most of his discoveries appeared exaggerated and people could not figure out how he was able to identify the tiny organisms he mentioned in his observations. This created some sort of doubt especially among the royal society who had a difficulty in understanding how he would make such tiny discoveries. The only way the truth about his discoveries would be identified is if other scientists were allowed to analyze his ...