Leeuwenhoek, Anton van, an early microscopist, born at Delft; the instrument he used was of his own construction, but it was the means of his arriving at important discoveries, one of the most so that of capillary circulation; stoutly opposed the theory of spontaneous generation (1632‒1673).
Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)
Leeds, Thomas Osborne, Duke of * Lefort, François Jacob