He bequeathed to them a black lacquered cabinet containing 26 of his amazing microscopes, complete with mounted specimens. Bizarrely, the cabinet disappeared and was never recovered; an especially tragic loss, since Leeuwenhoek never told anyone exactly how he made his instruments. In one letter, he complained that students were more interested in money or reputation than in “discovering things hidden from our sight”. “Not one man in a thousand is capable of such study, because it needs much time, and spending much money,” he lamented. “And over and above all, most men are not curious to know:
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