Three Centuries of Protozoology: A Brief Tribute to its Founding Father,A. van Leeuwenhoek of Delft*

SYNOPSIS. It was exactly 300 years ago this month (August 1974) that the 17th century modest draper from Delft, Holland—Antony van Leeuwenhoek—discovered protozoa. Describing them, often with amazing accuracy considering the optical equipment he was using (simply a home-made “glorified”hand lens), in letters to the Royal Society of London, he established himself, certainly, as the founding father of protozoology. It is particularly appropriate for an assemblage of protozoologists to pay homage to this intrepid “philosopher in little things,”a man with an insatiable curiosity about his wee animalcules, on the tricentenary of his discovery of them, since it was an event of such long-lasting significance.