Anton Takes The Small View
1683 AD
1683 1683
04.55E52.23N
SCI

AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS
	While Galileo used the lens to study the sky, shopkeeper Anton van Leeuwenhoek of Amsterdam focused his attention on little things, a bit of skin, an ox eye, or an animal hair.
	During the daytime, van Leeuwenhoek sold his drygoods, but at night he made the finest lenses in all Europe.
	Using a single-lens microscope he invented, van Leeuwenhoek observed what he called "little animals," or "animalcules," that he found in a drop of water from a rain puddle.
	Van Leeuwenhoek kept detailed records of what he saw and wrote about his findings to the Royal Society of London and the Paris Academy of Science. He made the first drawing of a bacteria in 1683.
	Though van Leeuwenhoek may not have realized it, his invention and discoveries would lead to great advances in medicine.