RISE AND PROGRESS OF ZOOLOGY. rf 
head in these coffins, as they were called by our 
ancestors; and if this relation is looked upon not 
as a resemblance, but as an analogy, it is in 
perfect accordance with truth. The experiments of 
Goedartius obviously led the way to those of Redi, 
on the generation of insects*, published also in 
three small volumes in different years. On the 
value of their contents we know but little; for the 
work is not now before us. Nor is this to be 
regretted, for both these names were eclipsed by 
one who was then labouring in the same field of 
analysis; but gifted, in every respect, with far 
greater talents. This was the celebrated Swammer- 
dam, who died, at the early age of forty-three, a 
worn-out martyr to laborious study. The limits of 
this sketch will not permit us to expatiate on the 
life and discoveries of this extraordinary man. Suf- 
fice it to say, that the lapse of nearly one hundred 
and fifty years has in no degree weakened the value 
of his anatomical discoveries ; and that so far as his 
researches were prosecuted, he has not been ex- 
celled by the greatest comparative anatomists of 
modern times. All the great truths on the meta- 
morphosis of insects originated from this laborious 
and indefatigable observer, who was unquestionably 
the master and the guide of Lyonnet, Roemer, 
Bonnet, and all those who subsequently pursued the 
same path. Swammerdam, in short, was the great 
father of analysis, as Aristotle was of philosophic 
generalisation; and although their excellencies are 

* Francesco Redi. Experimenta circa Generationem In. 
sectorum. Amstelodami, 1671, 1686, 1712. 
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