18 MEMOIR OF SWAMMERDAM. 



knowledge on these subjects ; and, in particular, he 

 is entitled to be regarded as the founder of the science 

 of entomological anatomy. With a few bright ex- 

 ceptions such as Goedart, Malpighi, and Redi the 

 cultivators of this department of natural history, be- 

 fore his time, contented themselves with repeating 

 what had been said by the ancients, without being 

 at all solicitous either to prove its accuracy, or extend 

 it by the addition of new facts. With him observa- 

 tion began to supersede erudition ; and the truth, 

 which appears to have been so long almost unsus- 

 pected, that there were other and better sources of 

 information, on natural objects, than the pages of 

 Aristotle, or the ponderous compilations of the six- 

 teenth century, was at length fully recognised and 

 acted upon. The desire of prosecuting researches 

 into insect organisation, became, with Swammerdam, 

 an almost incontrollable passion. Professional views . 

 were sacrificed to it; his father's displeasure, ex- 

 pressed in no gentle terms, was incurred on account 

 of it ; and even when his health had completely given 

 way, in consequence of incessant study and unremit- 

 ting anxiety, we find him expressing his desire that he 

 had but a year of uninterrupted light, that he might be 

 enabled to complete his inquiries ! Such assiduity, 

 skilfully directed, could not fail to insure important 

 results ; and that such was their character, will ap- 

 pear when they come to be specially indicated. 



His grandfather, James Theodore, was born at 

 Swammerdam, a village on the Rhine, between Ley 

 den and Woerden. Removing thence to Amster 



