<P> In 1687, van Leeuwenhoek reported his research on the coffee bean . He roasted the bean, cut it into slices and saw a spongeous interior . The bean was pressed, and an oil appeared . He boiled the coffee with rain water twice and set it aside . </P> <P> Like Robert Boyle and Nicolaas Hartsoeker, van Leeuwenhoek was interested in dried cochineal, trying to find out if the dye came from a berry or an insect . </P> <P> Antonie van Leeuwenhoek's religion was "Dutch Reformed" Calvinist . He often referred with reverence to the wonders God designed in making creatures great and small . He believed that his amazing discoveries were merely further proof of the great wonder of God's creation . </P> <P> By the end of his life, van Leeuwenhoek had written approximately 560 letters to the Royal Society and other scientific institutions concerning his observations and discoveries . Even during the last weeks of his life, van Leeuwenhoek continued to send letters full of observations to London . The last few contained a precise description of his own illness . He suffered from a rare disease, an uncontrolled movement of the midriff, which now is named van Leeuwenhoek's disease . He died at the age of 90, on 26 August 1723, and was buried four days later in the Oude Kerk in Delft . </P>

Who is the father of bacteriology and protozoology