“There is no sensible [i.e., detectable] thing: Trounson and Gosden, eds., Oocyte, 5.
“but to confess myself: Gasking, Investigations, 35.
CHAPTER EIGHT: SHARKS’ TEETH AND COWS’ EGGS
“the testicle of a dormouse: Cobb, Generation, 122.
“you will behold a delightful: De Graaf, Reproductive Organs, 25.
“Whatever is procreated of the semen: Harvey, Works, 171. Online at http://tinyurl.com/zq2wb4e.
“the part that enters: De Graaf, Reproductive Organs, 10.
“The pleasure of copulation: Ibid., 47.
“a citizen of Delft: Ibid., 13.
they “could not possibly act: Ibid., 28.
“I am certainly surprised: Ibid., 34.
“Your book came out: Cobb, Generation, 183.
the fact that milk is white: De Graaf, Reproductive Organs, 32.
“twisted like a waxen nose”: Cobb, Generation, 120.
“I pray thee, O God: Cutler, Seashell, 27.
if fleas have bones: Ibid., 33.
“Having seen that the testicles: Cobb, Generation, 99–100.
as if a warring host: Ruestow, Microscope, 118.
CHAPTER NINE: THE EGG, AT LAST
“made bold to strip: De Graaf, Reproductive Organs, 79.
“The notion of some people: Ibid., 106.
“certain females… with lascivious thoughts: Ibid., 107.
“In libidinous women”: Ibid., 141.
“The woman’s vagina is so cleverly: Ibid., 107.
a benign fluid: Ibid., 132.
The size of the nose: Ibid., 46.
both “claimed the glory”: Ibid., 89.
“a most unfortunate topography: Gonzalez-Crussi, Carrying the Heart, 151.
“set between the bladder: De Graaf, Reproductive Organs, 110.
a pear which has been slightly squashed,”: Ibid.
“Writers of the sharpest wits: Ibid.
all of them “have ovaries full of eggs: Ibid., 81.
“Since all this can be observed: Ibid., 82.
“frivolous and stupid”: Ibid., 81.
“like the peacock’s tail”: Ibid., 9.
“Nature had her mind on the job: Ibid.
Bias against females [FN]: Merchant, The Death of Nature, 157, and Pinto-Correia, The Ovary of Eve, 41.
“I am confident that thousands: Elizabeth Potter, Gender and Boyle’s Law of Gases (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001), 6.
“The common function of the female ‘testicles’: De Graaf, Reproductive Organs, 135.
(Vesalius, anatomy’s founding father: Gasking, Investigations, 37.
“had been disrupted or expelled”: De Graaf, Reproductive Organs, 166.
To his delight: Ibid., 82.
“come to a sinister end.”: Ibid., 167.
“seminal vapor” and “irradiation”: Ibid., 149, 81.
lamenting “the disaster: Cobb, Generation, 179.
“I am writing to tell you: The letter is online at http://tinyurl.com/j4puk45.
CHAPTER TEN: A WORLD IN A DROP OF WATER
“very many little animalcules”: Dobell, Leeuwenhoek, 110.
“The motion of most of the animalcules: Ibid., 111.
“flies which looked as big as a lamb”: James Newman, ed., “Commentary on Galileo Galilei,” The World of Mathematics (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1956), 2:732n.
“like an Iron bar: Hooke, Micrographia. Online (in a beautifully produced version) at http://tinyurl.com/zdqxtwl.
“little animals more than a thousand times less: Dobell, Leeuwenhoek, 121.
“saliva, chyle, sweat, etc.”: Wilson, Invisible World, 131.
“I felt averse: Ibid.
He nagged her for blood: Ruestow, Microscope, 156.
He pestered shopkeepers: Ibid.
“so small that I judged: Dobell, Leeuwenhoek, 133.
“We had such stories written: Wilson, Invisible World, 237.
Magnifying glasses had been known: Vincent Ilardi, Renaissance Vision from Spectacles to Telescopes (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 2007), 4, 42.
In hindsight the path: Steven Johnson, How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World (New York: Riverhead, 2014), 22–24.
Leeuwenhoek’s first encounter: Snyder, Eye of the Beholder, 55.
Eight prominent citizens: Lens on Leeuwenhoek. Online at http://tinyurl.com/hhxmvkw.
“No discovery made”: For this quotation and those in the following two paragraphs, see http://tinyurl.com/zdvpznb.
zaad-ballen, “seed-balls.”: Lens on Leeuwenhoek. Online at http://tinyurl.com/hcvofbt.
“as thick upon his Carcass”: Letter written on June 21, 1701. Online at http://tinyurl.com/jra6gtx.
He nearly blinded himself: Dobell, Leeuwenhoek, 6.
“did not smell at all good: Letter written on July 22, 1704. Online at http://tinyurl.com/jgnv4dy.
“an hungry Lowse” perched: Letter written on August 15, 1673. Online at http://tinyurl.com/h6f3fa9.
“carried in her Bosom: Letter written on July 11, 1687. Online at http://tinyurl.com/hrn8oua.
“a little white matter”: Letter written on Sept. 17, 1683. Online at http://tinyurl.com/gon2p4d.
“Some of them were so disgusted: Ibid.
“there are not living in our United Netherlands: Ibid.
“divisions [on a brass ruler]: Letter written on Nov. 12, 1680. Online at http://tinyurl.com/jq9akz5.
“I also with much trouble: Letter written on Jan. 22, 1683. Online at http://tinyurl.com/gvjt4jl.
he stared entranced: Ruestow, Microscope, 176.
less and less enticing: Dobell, Leeuwenhoek, 222, and Snyder, Eye of the Beholder, 289.
“animalcules a-moving very prettily”: Dobell, Leeuwenhoek, 224.
“partly with his Nails: Letter written on July 7, 1722. Online at http://tinyurl.com/hgbw8tq.
CHAPTER ELEVEN: “ANIMALS OF THE SEMEN”
“immediately after ejaculation: Letter written in November 1677. Online at http://tinyurl.com/zp4eycy.
“They cause no inconvenience: “Clinical Lecture by Dr. Elliotson, Delivered at St. Thomas’s Hospital, February 1, on Intestinal Worms,” Lancet, March 3, 1830.
“animals of the semen.”: Farley, Gametes and Spores, 43.
animated swizzle sticks: Ibid., 46, 56.
“all manner of great and small: Letter written in Nov. 1677. Online at http://tinyurl.com/zp4eycy.
“it is exclusively the male semen: Letter written on March 18, 1678. Online at http://tinyurl.com/zmgz9ea.
“Our Harvey and your de Graaf”: Wilson, Invisible World, 133.
“seventy times seventy more”: Letter written on March 30, 1685. Online at http://tinyurl.com/zpxmy45.
“I discovered to my great satisfaction: Ibid.
“obstinately opinionated”: Ibid.
“A human being originates: Letter written on Jan. 22, 1683. Online at http://tinyurl.com/jalkevo.
nobody understood where those seeds: Gasking, Investigations, 65.
“egg was sucked from the egg-nest”: Letter written on March 30, 1685. Online at http://tinyurl.com/z2sx35j.
“Had there been one particle: Ibid.
“addle-pated,” “fantastic”: Ibid.
“I have sometimes imagined: Letter written on July 13, 1685. Online at http://tinyurl.com/hy4e44v.
“The parts lying in such an animalcule: Letter written on Dec. 25, 1700. Online at http://tinyurl.com/hyu29lr.
CHAPTER TWELVE: DOLLS WITHIN DOLLS
“The Unreasonable Effectiveness: The essay is online at http://tinyurl.com/z8gtksk.
“Were men and beast made by fortuitous: Michael White, Isaac Newton: The Last Sorcerer (New York: Basic 1999), 149, quoting a notebook entry of Newton’s headed “Of God.”
the clergyman and naturalist William Paley: Paley was a brilliant thinker who nearly anticipated Darwin, but could not believe in a God who worked in so unlikely a way. See George Johnson,
“A Creationist’s Influence on Darwin,” New York Times, May 23, 2014. Paley’s essay on God as the divine watchmaker, “The Watchmaker Argument,” from his book Natural Theology, is online at http://tinyurl.com/jgp3e5p.
Then he’d set the clockwork running: Physicists all believed in a clockwork universe, but they fought bitterly over whether God needed to fine-tune his creation (this was Newton’s view) or whether it ran smoothly and eternally on its own. See Edward Dolnick, The Clockwork Universe: Isaac Newton, the Royal Society, and the Birth of the Modern World (New York: Harper, 2011), 310–313.
Jan Swammerdam cited [FN]: Ruestow, “Piety,” 218.
“In one single spermatic worm: Smith, Divine Machines, 183, quoting Nicolas Andry, De la génération des vers dans le corps de l’homme (On the Generation of Worms in the Human Body).
“The majesty of string theory”: Edward Witten in an interview with the journalist John Horgan. Online at http://tinyurl.com/nsbcl46.
“holy awe”: Ruestow, Microscope, 228.
It did not reveal: Gasking, Investigations, 102.
We must believe / What Reason tells: Ruestow, Microscope, 228, quoting Henry Baker.
Malpighi had examined chicken eggs: Roger, Buffon, 120.
So, Nat’ralists observe, a Flea: Swift’s poem is online at http://tinyurl.com/ooj6bmz.
Antony van Leeuwenhoek, far too impatient: Ruestow, “Images and Ideas,” 213–214.
“God, Lord and Omniscient Maker: Letter written on Aug. 24, 1688. Online at http://tinyurl.com/zg47hdw.
almost unimaginable that “in an Animalcule: Letter written on June 23, 1699. Online at http://tinyurl.com/zooga87.
“an animalcule from the male seed: Letter written on March 30, 1685. Online at http://tinyurl.com/joxvx9o.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: THE MESSAGE IN GOD’S FINE PRINT
“The Deity is as conspicuous: Harrison, “Reading Vital Signs,” 201, quoting Abbé Pluche, the French priest and author of Spectacle de la Nature (Nature Delineated).
“Solomon in all his glory: Noel-Antoine Pluche, Nature Delineated (London: 1740), 8.
God is greatest in ye Least: Ruestow, Microscope, 59, quoting Henry Power.
“I offer you the Omnipotent: Jorink, “Between Emblematics,” 161.
“I have striven: Ruestow, Microscope, 119.
“All God’s works: Sleigh, “Swammerdam’s Frogs,” 378.
“crushed, and otherwise disturbed: Cobb, Generation, 149.
“The male Frog leaps: Pinto-Correia, The Ovary of Eve, 107.
“After all is finished: The passage is from Chapter 9 of Swammerdam’s Book of Nature, which is called “Of the Manner in Which Snails Mutually Perform the Business of Coition.”
“an almost uncontrollable passion”: James Duncan, Introduction to Entomology (Edinburgh, 1840), 18.
“What atheist who considered: Jorink, “Between Emblematics,” 236.
Swammerdam delighted in: All these examples come from Ruestow, Microscope, 135.
“Artist of all artists”: Ruestow, Microscope, 137.
“clearly evident,”: Jorink, “Between Emblematics,” 157, quoting Johannes Godaert.
“The analogy between the silkworm: Wilson, Invisible World, 124.
“Legs, wings, and the rest: Pinto-Correia, The Ovary of Eve, 27, and Ruestow, “Piety,” 227.
“by a miracle which would surpass: Gasking, Investigations, 37, quoting Claude Perrault.
“the least reason why: Ruestow, Microscope, 247.
“How could hair come: Needham, Embryology, 48.
“see, touch, and feel God: Ruestow, Microscope, 119.
“heavenly reflections”: Jorink, “Between Emblematics,” 153.
“melancholic madness”: Ruestow, Microscope, 125.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: SEA OF TROUBLES
Leeuwenhoek was nearsighted: Snyder, Eye of the Beholder, 281.
“the patience of an angel”: Ruestow, Microscope, 152 fn.
“on the close inspection: Lens on Leeuwenhoek. Online at http://tinyurl.com/zsq2vbn.
“These Worms are not found: Pinto-Correia, The Ovary of Eve, 75.
“to throw away one’s books: The rival was Denis Diderot, quoted in Matthew Stewart, The Courtier and the Heretic: Leibniz, Spinoza, and the Fate of God in the Modern World (New York: Norton, 2007), 12.
a collection of his own sayings: Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1945), 582.
a “Patient almost dead with Pain”: Nicholas Andry, An Account of the Breeding of Worms in Human Bodies, 10. Online in part at http://tinyurl.com/jn6k79n.
“You shall discover in it: Wilson, Invisible World, 137.
“food for worms”: Shakespeare goes on at great length about worms devouring bodies in Hamlet, Act 4, Scene 3, after Hamlet kills Polonius, and more briefly in Henry IV, Part One, Act 5, scene 4, and in Sonnet 6.
“Each little animal actually encloses: Pinto-Correia, The Ovary of Eve, 78–79.
“little men and little ladies: Syson, Doctor of Love, 203.
“the spermatic liquid of dogs: Roger, Life Sciences, 253.
an infinite number of murders: Ibid., 251.
“The womb being so large: Letter written on Jan. 22, 1683. Online at http://tinyurl.com/gvjt4jl.
James Cooke suggested that perhaps: Moore, Science, 398.
It was well-known [FN]: Jean-Charles Seigneuret, Dictionary of Literary Themes and Motifs (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1988), 1:670.
“medicines of great efficiency”: Laqueur, Solitary Sex, 15.
“Every seminal emission out of nature’s road: Syson, Doctor of Love, 207.
Rousseau warned against: Emile, Book 4 (1762).
Kant proclaimed masturbation more sinful: See Immanuel Kant, The Metaphysics of Morals, translated and edited by Mary Gregor (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 179. Kant’s argument was that “murdering oneself requires courage” and therefore demonstrates some “respect for the humanity in one’s own person.” But the masturbator, by the “complete abandonment of oneself to animal inclination,” makes a person “a thing that is contrary to nature, that is, a loathsome object, and so deprives him of all respect for himself.”
“more like a corpse: Tissot, Treatise, 19.
“A pale bloody discharge: Ibid.
“the secretion which they lose: Ibid., 45.
the loss of a single ounce: Ibid., v.
the historian Jacques Roger pointed out: Roger, “Two Scientific Discoveries,” 232.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: THE RABBIT WOMAN OF GODLIMAN
Mary Toft was twenty-four years old: This account is drawn from Todd, Imagining Monsters, Chapters 1–3.
Soon he grew so certain: Cody, Birthing the Nation, 125.
“much terrified with an old lion’s noise.”: Fletcher, Gender, 72.
“the deformity which I am now exhibiting: The Autobiography of Joseph Carey Merrick. Online at http://tinyurl.com/jbfppdv.
twins joined at the head: Pinto-Correia, The Ovary of Eve, 158.
Historians have never found: Park, Secrets of Women, 145.
staring at paintings of their husband: Ibid.
In one particularly desperate case: Valeria Finucci, The Manly Masquerade: Masculinity, Paternity, and Castration in the Italian Renaissance (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003), 52. Finucci notes that the verdict was soon overturned, although some scientists continued to defend it.
“I have been assured by three: Moore, Science, 241.
“the son of that daughter: Aristotle, On Generation, Book I, part 18. Online at http://tinyurl.com/jsjqwmp. Aristotle’s remark about the father and son with matching marks on their arms comes a few lines earlier in the same work.
“a scoundrel who coupled: Roger, Life Sciences, 19. The anecdote appeared not in an out-of-the-way account but in a work first published in 1616, then reissued in 1634, 1665, and 1668, and translated into French in 1708.
Locke pondered a variety: John Locke, An Essay Concerning
Human Understanding, vol. 2, Book 3, Chap. 6, Section 27. Online at http://tinyurl.com/jv2ptlc.
“If the woman had been: Müller-Sievers, Self-Generation, 29.
perhaps a tiny push: Roger, Life Sciences, 306, quoting Claude Perrault.
“This is so poor,”: Cobb, Generation, 233.
Leeuwenhoek pursued the matter: Letter written on July 16, 1683. Online at http://tinyurl.com/zth6yr9.
he would have been the first: Cobb, Generation, 225, and Roger, Life Sciences, 307.
“there is no part: Cobb, Generation, 131.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: “ALL IN PIECES, ALL COHERENCE GONE”
All in Pieces: The phrase is from John Donne’s poem “An Anatomy of the World.”
“From each portion: Vartanian, “Trembley’s Polyp,” 259. For a full and lively account of Trembley’s work, see Stott, Darwin’s Ghosts, Chap. 5.
“These are Truths”: Ruestow, Microscope, 273, quoting Henry Baker.
nothing but a stomach: Ruestow, Microscope, 273, paraphrasing Charles Bonnet.
“If ’tis cut in two: Stott, Darwin’s Ghosts, 101, quoting Charles Hanbury Williams.
If life could shape itself: Dawson, “Regeneration.”
Bonnet kept watch “day by day: Dawson, Nature’s Enigma, 6.
scientist named Steven Blanckaert: Ruestow, Microscope, 206n.
he looked closely at aphids: Letter written on Oct. 26, 1700. Online at http://tinyurl.com/jov6erz.
some mysterious “essential stuff”: Ruestow, “Images and Ideas,” 221. Ruestow cites a letter Leeuwenhoek wrote to the Royal Society on July 13, 1685. Online at http://tinyurl.com/hy4e44v.
to his astonishment he found: Letter written on July 10, 1695. Online at http://tinyurl.com/j4lsztk.
micro-miniature aphids: Ruestow, Microscope, 206.
“I was at my wits’ end: Letter written on July 10, 1695.
Even the staunchest believers: Roger, Buffon, 122.
“He who causes himself: Terrall, The Man Who Flattened the Earth, 5.
he found a family in Germany: Gregory, Evolutionism, 108–109. See also Gasking, Investigations, 80–81.
“the best proven things: Gregory, Evolutionism, 109.
The Seeds of Life Page 28