(1) The lowest plant, or animalcule , feeds, grows, and reproduces its kind.(2) It is in this context that the idea of an evaluative classification came into its own, a progressive scale of nature leading from the lowest animalcules to the glory of mankind.(3) Looking at these samples with his microscope, Leeuwenhoek reported how in his own mouth: u2018I then most always saw, with great wonder, that in the said matter there were many very little living animalcules , very prettily a-moving.u2019(4) Leeuwenhoek tried ingenious ways to estimate the size of his animalcules .(5) Since animalcules were visible only under a microscope, most of the city's residents had neither seen nor heard of them.(6) Three weeks later, on April 24, 1676, he discovered an incredible number of very little animalcules , marking the first sighting of bacteria.
