LEEUWARDEN, la!war-den, the Nether lands, Holland, capital city of the province of Friesland, 31 miles west of Groningen, on the canal between Harlingen and Groningen. The town grew around the courts of the Friesian stadtholders and is comparable to The Hague for its general attractiveness; possesses many handsome buildings and is one of the most important cities of second rank in the country. It was originally a walled city, but the old gates have been demolished, and the walls more or less obliterated. There is a town-hall built in 1715; a royal palace built for the Friesian stadtholders; the Kanselarji, dating from 1502; the unfinished church tower, Old hove, built in 1529. Notable is the Friesian Museum, containing relics of several strata of civilizations from the stone to the modern age, gathered from the terpen, or artificial mounds, once very numerous in the province, richly illustrating the evolution of the race, and especially of the Teutonic migrations. The city has an extensive trade in grain, cattle, foodstuffs, wines and brandies, flax, chicory and woolens; and manufactures sewing-ma chines, musical instruments, gold and silver wares, cardboard and tobacco. There are shipbuilding yards and copper, iron and lead works. Its history dates back to 1149 and in 1190 it received its rating as a town. It had free access to the sea until about 1300 when the estuary on which it was built was silted up. It was important in the military history of the 15th and 16th centuries, and be came a bishopric in 1559, but came under the Reformation in 1580. During our Revolu tionary War, this city was the centre of inter est in the American cause. On 26 Feb. 1782, after the pro-American excitement at Franker (q.v.), the first vote to recognize the independence of the United States of America was taken in the legislature; the example of Friesland being quickly followed by the other six states of the Dutch Republic and then by the national body, the States-General, John Adams being received soon after as persona grata by the stadtholder, 19 April 1782. The Burgher's Club of Leeuwarden °in grateful recognition of the Acts of the i Assemblies,* had a silver medal struck showing a man in ancient °Free Friesian* costume, between two female figures, holding back Great Britain welcoming the United States, while a cherub from the skies confers upon the latter the hat of freedom. The States-General medal, com memorating recognition of the American by the Dutch Republic, represents the Dutch maiden, grasping over an altar the hand of the American gibera soror*; the reverse showing a steed free from all trammels, rushing to the mountains of freedom, with Latin mottoes meaning °Tyrants repulsed by valor,* and °under auspices.* Another medal, rich in emblems, dates and Latin mottoes, struck 7 Oct. 1782, commemorates the Treaty of Com merce and Navigation made on that date be tween the two republics, Dutch and American. On 15 July 1909, in the presence of the queen's representative and an audience of notables, a bronze tablet °Memorial of Gratitude* erected by the De Witt Historical Society of Tomp kins County, N. Y., was unveiled. Consult
Griffis, 'The American in Holland' (1899). Pop. 37,897.
LEEUWENHOECK,Ww4bi-hidc or LEU WENHOEX, Antonius van, Dutch anatomist and microscopist: b. Delft, 24 Oct. 1632; d. there, 26 Aug. 1723. He early gained a reputa tion for the high quality of the lenses he manufactured for the use of microscopists, demonstrating the superiority of single lenses of short focus to the double lenses hitherto in use. While not possessed of a scientific edu cation his natural talent for investigation in duced Leeuwenhoeck to make personal observa tions and his discoveries caused him to be termed the °father of scientific microscopy.* He was introduced to the Royal Society of London by De Graef in 1673; and in 1680 was elected a Fellow of the French Academy of Sciences, becoming corresponding member in 1697. His reputation for lenses, which he con tinued to manufacture during his life, was not surpassed in Europe, and a collection of 26 of the lenses bequeathed to the Royal Society, but subsequently lost, are stated to have been of double convex construction ranging from 40' to 160 diameters in magnifying power. His most important discovery was that of the capillary circulation of the blood, announced in 1690, and completing the theory of Harvey. His investigations definitely overthrew the theory of °spontaneous generation* supposed by even the learned at that time to be the origin of many insects and animals. His discovery of the spermatic animalcules, while made a. few months later than that of Ludwig Hamm of Leyden, was nevertheless an independent investigation. He was the first to discover the mischievous effect of the aphides upon plant life, and he made careful observations on the structure of plants. Among his other discov eries were those of the red corpuscles of the, blood, the fibrous structure of the crystalline lens, the nature of the brain, nerves, hair and epidermis. While his physiological specula tions were at times wide of the truth they were not more so than those of the best physi ologists of the day, and in the main display remarkable powers of observation coupled sagacious deductions which anticipated many modern physiological discoveries. His method of scientific research set a high standard among biologists. Of his papers concerning his dis coveries 112 were first published in the Philo sophical Transactions of the Royal Society, and 26 appeared in the Memoirs of the Acad emy of Science. His collected works were pub lished 'Sendbrieven, outledingen en outdekkin gen oudervindigen en beschouwingen) (7 vols., 1685-1718) ; a Latin edition, 'Opera Omnia, sive Arcana Naturm Ope Exactissimorum Mi croscopiorum Selecta) (7 vols., 1715-22. an abridged English edition translated by S. Toole, 2 vols., 1798-1801).