73 THE EEPOET OF THE No. 3G 



In the 17th century two insect anatomists, Marcello Malpighi (1628-1694) of 

 Italy, and John Swammerdam (1637-1680) of Holland, made large contributions 

 to science. Malpighi's treatise on the Silkworm, published in 1669, has become 

 a classic. It was a pioneer work in a new field. The author had the advantage 

 to the new aid to vision, the microscope, which came into use at this time through 

 the ingenuity of Hooke, Malpighi, Swammerdam and Leeuwenhoek. Miall says, 

 " For the first time the dorsal vessel, the tracheal system, the tubular appendages of 

 the stomach, the reproductive organs and the structural changes which accompany 

 transformation were observed." Moreover, he observed and described the nervous 

 System, the urinary tubules (Malpighian) and the silk-forming apparatus. 



" This research," says Malpighi, " was extremely laborious and tedious on 

 account of its novelty, as well as the minuteness, fragility and intricacy of the 

 parts which required special manipulation; so that when I had toiled for many 

 months at this incessant and fatiguing task-, I was plagued next autumn with 

 fevers and inflammation of the eyes. Nevertheless such was my delight in the 

 work, so many unsuspected wonders of nature revealing themselves to me, that 

 I cannot tell it in words." 



Miall says : The last distinct glimpse we got of him is interesting. Dr. Tancred 

 Robinson, writing to John Eay, from Geneva, April 18th, 1684 tells how he met 

 Malpighi at Bologna. They talked of the origin of fossils, and Malpighi could not 

 contain himself about Martin Lister's foolish hypothesis that fossils were sports of 

 nature. " Just as I left Bononia," he continues, " I had a lamentable spectacle of 

 Malpighi's house all in flames, occasioned by the negligence of his old wife. All his 

 pictures, furniture, books, and manuscripts were burnt. I saw him in the very heat 

 of the calamity, and methought I never beheld so much Christian patience and 

 philosophy in any man before ; for he comforted his wife, and condoled nothing but 

 the loss of his papers, which are more lamented than the Alexandrian Library, or 

 . Bartholine's Bibliothese at Copenhagen." 



Swammerdam's researches on the May-Fly and the Honey Bee entitle him 

 to a high place among insect anatomists. He found by dissection that " the queen 

 is the mother of the colony, the drones the males, and the working bees the neuters ; 

 but he did not find out that the neuters were only imperfect females" (Miall). 

 Swammerdam's contributions were collected and published after his deatl; by 

 Boerhaave under the title of " Biblia Naturae." The folio edition is a volume 

 of 410 pages of text and 53 plates of excellent drawings. Swammerdam was a more 

 critical observer than Malpighi, as evidenced by his accurate and complete descrip- 

 tions and anatomical M^ork. 



Boerhaave gives us a picture of Swammerdam at work which the reader does 

 not soon forget. " His labors were superhuman. Through the day he observed 

 incessantly, and at night he described and drew what he had seen. By six o'clock 

 in the morning in summer he began to find enough light to enable him to trace 

 the minutiae of natural objects. He was hard at work until noon, in full sunlight, 

 and bareheaded, so as not to obstruct the light; and his head streamed with 

 profuse sweat. His eyes, by reason of the blaze of light and microscopic toil, 

 became so weakened that he could not observe minute objects in the afternoon, 

 though the light was not less bright than in the morning, for his eyes- were weary, 

 and could no longer perceive readily" (Miall). 



