In existographies, Nicolaas Hartsoeker (1656-1715) (IQ:170|#340) was a Dutch mathematician and physicist, noted for his 1678 description of sperm, in a letter to Christiaan Huygens, which he postulated was a little human, therein originating the homunculus theory, and for his c.1694 invention of a screw-barrel simple microscope.
Overview
In 1678, Hartsoeker, in a letter to Christiaan Huygens, stated that he had seen worm-like things (aka sperm) in human semen, after which he devised the “homunculus” theory, according to which each sperm was said to contain a little human, conceptualized as follows:
that would grow and hatch inside of the woman’s egg. [1]
Hartsoeker, of note, quarreled with, among others, Huygens, Newton, Leibniz, and Leeuwenhoek (his mentor). (Ѻ)
Quotes | On
The following are quotes on Hartsoeker:
“Let them say whether it is untrue that man is originally nothing more than a worm, which becomes a man just as a caterpillar becomes a butterfly. The most curious authors, e.g. Boerhaave, have told us how to go about seeing this animalcule. All curious observers, like Hartsoeker, have seen it in the man’s semen and not in the woman’s; only fools have been hesitant.”
— Julien la Mettrie (1747), Man: a Machine (pgs. 35-36) [1]
References
1. La Mettrie, Julien. (1751). Machine Man and Other Writings: Treatise on the Soul, Man as Plant, The System of Epicurus, Anti-Seneca or the Sovereign Good, Preliminary Discourse (translator and editor: Ann Thomson) (pgs. 25-36). Cambridge University Press, 1996.
External links
● Nicolaas Hartsoeker – Wikipedia.
