Leuwenhoeck, the father of microscopical discovery, communicated to the
Royal Society, in 1673, a description of the structure of a bee and a
louse, seen by aid of his improved microscopes; and from this period
until his decease in 1723, he regularly transmitted to the society his
microscopical observations and discoveries, so that 375 of his papers
and letters are preserved in the society’s archives, extending over
fifty years. He further bequeathed to the Royal Society a cabinet of
twenty-six microscopes, which he had ground himself and set in silver,
mostly extracted by him from minerals; these microscopes were exhibited
to Peter the Great when he was at Delft in 1698. In acknowledging
the bequest, the council of the Royal Society, in 1724, presented
Leuwenhoeck’s daughter with a handsome silver bowl, bearing the arms of
the society.--_Weld’s History of the Royal Society_, vol. i.