37 



n 



On the Anatomy of Insects. 



Address of the President, B. Thompson Lowne, F.R.C.S., 



r .L.S. 



Delivered at the Annual General Meeting, February 22nd, 18S9. 



As the Quekett Microscopical Club consists of workers in all 

 the various branches of microscopical science, and my own line, 

 the anatomy and development of insects, is a very special one, I 

 felt that on the present occasion it would be well if I could address 

 you on some subject which would have a more general interest 

 than the detailed account of some one or more of my recent re- 

 searches could possess for many of you. 



As I do not feel myself competent to deviate too far from my 

 own special work, it occurred to me that I could best fulfil my 

 object by giving you a historical resume of the progress which 

 has been made in my own department since Swammerdam in- 

 augurated the work more than two hundred years ago. 



The Dutch anatomist may well be called the father of the sub- 

 ject, as little or nothing was known before he undertook the 

 investigation. 



Jan Swammerdam was born in Amsterdam, in 1637. His 

 father was a well-known naturalist at the time, and had what was 

 then a wonderful museum. Jan was first intended for the Church, 

 but as from his earliest years he exhibited a great love for natural 

 history, he eventually went to the University of Leyden to study 

 medical science ; and there he made friends of Stenson and Graaf, 

 and devoted himself to anatomy. He had written and published 

 his great work on the "Anatomy of Insects" before he received 

 his degree of Doctor of Medicine; it appeared at Utrecht in 1669. 

 This work became, as it deserved to be, the standard work on the 

 subject, and stood alone for over one hundred years. It was pub- 

 lished in German, Dutch, and Latin, and went through several 

 editions. The best is perhaps the Leipzig edition of 1752. 



Swammerdam continued to work until he was about fifty-five 



