MALPIGHI, SWAMMERDAM, LEEUWENHOEK. 573 



on, and brought the controversy to a close soon after the son had con- 

 sented to yield to his wishes. 



Boerhaave, his fellow-countryman, gathered his complete writings 

 after his death and published them in 1737 under the title 'Biblia 

 Naturae.' This is preceded by a life of Swammcrdam, in which a 

 graphic account is given of his phenomenal industry, his intense ap- 

 plication, his methods and instruments. Most of the following passages 

 are selected from that work. 



He was a very intemperate worker, and in finishing his treatise on 

 bees (1673) he broke himself down. 



"It was an undertaking too great for the strongest constitution to 

 be continually employed by day in making observations and almost as 

 constantly engaged by night in recording them by drawings and suit- 

 able explanations. This being summer work, his daily labors began 

 at 6 in the morning, when the sun afforded him light enough to enable 

 him to survey such minute objects; and from that time till 12 he con- 

 tinued without interruption, all the while exposed in the open air to 

 the scorching heat of the sun, bareheaded, for fear of interrupting the 

 light, and his head in a manner dissolving into sweat under the irre- 

 sistible ardors of that powerful luminary. And if he desisted at noon 

 it was only because the strength of his eyes was too much weakened by 

 the extraordinary efflux of light and the use of microscopes to continue 

 any longer upon such small objects. 



''This fatigue our author submitted to for a whole month together, 

 without any interruption, merely to examine, describe and represent the 

 intestines of bees, besides many months more bestowed upon the other 

 parts; during which time he spent whole days in making observations, 

 as long as there was sufficient light to make any, and whole nights in 

 registering his observations, till at last he brought his treatise on bees 

 to the wished-for perfection. 



"For dissecting very minute objects, he had a brass table made on 

 purpose by that ingenious artist, Samuel Musschenbroek. To this table 

 were fastened two brass arms, movable at pleasure to any part of it, and 

 the upper portion of these arms was likewise so contrived as to be 

 susceptible of a very slow vertical motion, by which means the operator 

 could readily alter their height as he saw most convenient to his pur- 

 pose. The office of one of these arms was to hold the little corpuscles, 

 and that of the other to apply the microscope. His microscopes were 

 of various sizes and curvatures, his microscopical glasses being of vari- 

 ous diameters and focuses, and from the least to the greatest, the best 

 that could be procured, in regard to the exactness of the workmanship 

 and the transparency of the substance. 



"But the constructing of very fine scissors, and giving them an ex- 

 treme sharpness, seems to have been his chief secret. These he made 

 use of to cut very minute objects, because they dissected them equably, 

 whereas knives and lancets, let them be ever so fine and sharp, are apt 

 to disorder delicate substances. His knives, lancets and styles were so 

 fine that he could not see to sharpen them without the assistance of 

 the microscope; but with them he could dissect the intestines of bees 



