16. PERCEPTION – The Perception of Antoni van Leeuwenhoek
Four years after his first letters arrived, the Society’s microscope expert finally reproduced Leeuwenhoek’s observations of micro- scopic animals. With this came the recognition he deserved. His reputation changed from madman to genius. But his most astonishing discovery was yet to come, one that would both amaze and startle. As exciting as it was for the world to learn that unseeable wriggling animals lived in our water, imagine the shock when Leeuwenhoek announced, countless animals were living inside our bodies. The discovery was certainly unexpected. It began when he noticed a layer of film on his teeth and decided to do as he always did, examine it with his microscope. Wide-eyed, he stared in dis- belief. He knew what he saw would not be believed, “...what if one should tell such people in future that there are more animals living in the scum on the teeth in a man’s mouth, than there are men in the whole kingdom?” We now know the film as plaque and the ani- mals as the bacteria that cause tooth decay.
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