Alle de brieven. Deel 9: 1692-1694

[p. 182]

Letter from Richard Waller
28th April, 1693 O.S.

Addressed to: Antoni van Leeuwenhoek.

Manuscript: The original letter and drawing have been lost. A copy of this letter at London, Royal Society, Letter Book Original, Vol. XI, Pt. I, pp. 140-141.

Published in:

A. van Leeuwenhoek 1694: Vierde Vervolg Der Brieven..., pp. 534-535, 536-537, 541 (Delft: H. van Kroonevelt). - Dutch translation of parts of the letter.

A. van Leeuwenhoek 1695: Arcana Naturae Detecta, pp. 351, 352-353, 356 (Delphis Batavorum: H. a Krooneveld). - Latin translation of parts of the letter.

A. à Leeuwenhoek 1722: Opera Omnia, Seu Arcana Naturae... Editio Novissima, pp. 322, 323-324, 326 (Lugduni Batavorum: J.A. Langerak). - Latin translation of parts of the letter.

Summary:

The microscopical structure of the feather. A view of univocal generation.

Remark:

L. inserted a contemporary Dutch translation of parts of the letter in Letter 126 [76], of 15 October 1693, pp. 206-218 in this volume.

[p. 183]

A Letter From Ric: Waller R.S. Secr.
To M^r Anth: Leuwenhoeck about Univocal & Equivocal Generation sent Apr. 28^th. 1693¹⁾.

S^r y^rs of y^e 12 of Aug. & 16^th of Sept. last²⁾ were read in a meeting of y^e R. Soc: to y^e satisfaction of y^e Persons present y^r observations on y^e wings of⁺ Butterflys³⁾ and y^e delicate structure thereof are curious and y^e figures as at all other times accurate of y^e structure of ffeathers in general you will find a very exact account in D^r Hookes Micrographia Observ: 36 p. 168 with a conjecture at y^e cause of their various colours, the beauty and brightness wherof he says proceeds from y^e exceeding smalness and fineness of y^e Reflecting parts, so that it may be worth y^e tryal of y^r excellent microscopes whether you can discover any difference in y^e Textures of the several parts of y^e single thred if J may so call it of a feather, whence it appears of different colours, as whether for instance that w^ch shews red be of a different texture from that part w^ch is black or white⁴⁾.

⁺As to what you affirme in y^r other letter touching univocal Generation Jam wholely of y^r opinion, that there is and can be none without a Parent animal, the truth of which assertion is more and more evinced dayly by y^e discoverys w^ch y^e industry of y^r selfe and other curious Observers of Nature presents us with, when we still find all those Creatures are generated in a

1) Waller read the text of this letter in the meeting of the Royal Society of 12 May 1693 O.S.: M^r. Wallers Letter to M^r. Leewenhoek was read in answer to two formerly sent by him, the one about the structure of Feathers, desiring him to consider their Texture, where they are of differing colours: The other about the impossibility of aequivocall Generation (Royal Society, Journal Book Original, Vol. IX, p. 122).
L. reacted to Waller's letter of 28 April 1693 O.S. with the letter of thanks 125, of 1 July 1693, and with Letter 126 [76], of 15 October 1693, on colours and on the procreation of fleas as an example of univocal generation, p. 188 and pp. 205-259 in the present volume.

2) These are the Letters 122 [74], of 12 August 1692, on a bird's feather amongst other things, and 123 [75], of 16 September 1692, on the procreation of eels amongst other things, pp. 69-129 and pp. 131-169 respectively in the present volume.
The Journal Book Original does not contain notes on the reading of the two letters in the meetings of the Royal Society. Robert Hooke did make an English excerpt of Letter 122, viz. of the passages on a bird's feather and the crystalline humour of the eye, and of part of the passage on the anatomy of wood (see also p. 69 in the present volume).

+ Structure of the feather.

3) Neither in Letter 122, of 12 August 1692, nor in Letter 123, of 16 September 1692, does L. write about Butterflys. Waller probably confuses these letters with Letter 121 [73], of 24 June 1692, pp. 37-67 in the present volume, where L. describes the wing of an owlet-moth and gives a picture of it.

4) Waller here refers to Robert Hooke's Micrographia (1665), pp. 167-169: Observ. XXXVI. Of Peacocks, Ducks, and other Feathers of changeable colours, and the corresponding engraving, Scheme XXII (in the text of that work called erroneously 23rd Scheme). In this passage Hooke paid attention to the flattened, overlapping plates or tiles (reflecting parts) of the barbules and thus found the correct explanation for the structural colours (compare W. Biedermann 1928: Vergleichende Physiologie des Integuments der Wirbeltiere, pp. 446-473).
Waller, who as an accomplished artist and draughtsman was interested in colours, was not quite satisfied with this explanation, perhaps because Hooke himself had written that the form and shape of the reflecting parts were hard to establish. In his address on the anatomy of the parakeet, which he had read on 5 December 1688 O.S. (15 December 1688 N.S.) in the meeting of the Royal Society, Waller stated as a very pertinent Querie, to consider how the severall Colours of the same feather, upon the same stem, can be conceived to become so exactly distinguished at just intervalls, in all the Feathers of the Tayle, as they are found to be (Royal Society, Journal Book Original, Vol. VIII, p. 234, meeting of 5 December 1688 O.S.). This address was not published until 1694 in the Philosophical Transactions, Vol. XVIII, No. 211, pp. 153-157, under the title Observations in the Dissection of a Paroquet. Here the question is formulated less clearly (p. 154): It were not an unworthy Curiosity to examine the colours of the Feathers of Birds, and how the same individual branch of the stem of a Feather, as here, comes to be tinged with such diversity of Colours; but thaby the by. Apparently L.'s discussion of the structure of a bird's feather in Letter 122 [74], of 12 August 1692 (see also pp. 71-79 in the present volume), induced Waller to ask him to repeat Hooke's examination of the barbules with his highly superior microscopes. In Letter 126 [76], of 15 October 1693, pp. 205-259 in the present volume, L. actually goes into Waller's question by making a few remarks on the flight feathers of a parrot and on red-coloured wool.
It is to be noted that Waller does not go into the core of Letter 122 [74], of 12 August 1692, in which L. sets forth at length his newly gained insight into the anatomy of wood. This is probably due to the complexity of that part and the resultant incomplete English excerpt of Robert Hooke (see p. 69 in the present volume).

+ Univocal generation.

[p. 184]

regular & univocal manner w^ch y^e Jgnorance and lazyness of former Ages thought y^e Products of corruption to y^e great affront of Nature for if chance & Corruption can produce so curious a Machine as a fly or Mite why all that apparatus of generative parts to bring forth an Horse or sheep indeed a larger but therfor a less nicely contrived animal: and when ever y^e Vanity of men has put them upon Experiments of Equivocal Generation if any Jnsect has perhaps bin found by them it has bin by not taking sufficient precaution to keep out y^e chance Eggs of Jnsects that are sometimes so small as to be carryed in y^e Air. for when ever by stopping y^e vessel or y^e like this has bin sufficiently provided for they have wearyed their Eyes and Patience in a fruitless search of non entitys; as is attested by several Experiments upon our Registers⁵⁾. Our Endeavours will certainly be more successfull when we proceed in examineing y^e formation of all y^e parts and in experiments of Generation univocal, and tho y^e task be great y^et were right methods taken not insuperable and Jmay venture to say more of truth has bin discovered in this searching Age than in y^e disputeing numbers of Ages preceeding; this Quest of Nature was doubtless y^e worke designed for new created man and possibly when we shall have bin so

5) The secretary of the Royal Society used to record the incoming communications very briefly in the Journal Book Original and in greater detail, sometimes even completely, in the Letter Book Original and the Register Book Original.

[p. 185]

happy and successfull to have discovered all y^e workes of our great Creator in this world, when there is no more worke for mankind here to do, this shall be changed into a new systeme of beings for y^e entertainment of y^e restless inquisitive Mind⁶⁾. but J ramble too far therfor end with desireing y^e permission of inserting some of y^r observations in y^e Philosoph: Transactions⁷⁾.

y^r very humble serv^t
[Richard Waller]⁸⁾

P:S. Jhave spent some time in examineing and figureing several of our grasses. and here send you y^e draught of one of y^e Oate grasses as it appeared in my microscope⁹⁾

6) This train of thought of Waller's goes back to Francis Bacon (1561-1626), who considered it the exclusive task of science to improve the living conditions of man, which would result almost automatically in a new and naturally better human being. For this purpose one ought not to consult books, but nature itself, by an inductive method, via a particular form of organization. After his death Bacon's ideas were actually realized by the foundation of the Royal Society; it is therefore not for nothing that the latter is called ‘Royal Society for the Improving of Natural Knowledge’. [Smi.]

7) Waller's request for permission to publish the observations was not answered by L. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why the letters of 12 August 1692 and 16 September 1692 are not to be found in the Philosophical Transactions.

8) The copy of the letter is not signed.

9) Waller's drawing of oat grass has been lost.
Waller made many drawings of zoological and botanical objects. The original drawing of the engraving of the tapeworm (see ill. 27) in Tyson's article Lumbricus latus (1683) was made by him; see also Letter 131 [78], of 24 January 1694, p. 327, note 4 in the present volume. In 1691 Waller presented to the Royal Society forty folio sheets of coloured drawings of plants, made by himself, including twenty grasses (Royal Society, Journal Book Original, Vol. IX, pp. 62-63, meeting of 18 November 1691 O.S.). These drawings are preserved by the Royal Society in General Manuscripts 131, Nos 5-51. On some sheets there are also drawings of oat grasses.
Already in his letter to L. of 2 February 1692, Collected Letters, Vol. 8, pp. 337-339, Waller gave a description of the structure of a grass spikelet, adding a drawing of a spikelet of oat grass.