24 MEMOIR OF SWAMMERDAM. 



latter operation, having the effect of urging the W-* 

 forward. Notwithstanding these circumstances, most 

 of his observations, and nearly all his figures, are 

 extremely accurate, and were of great value at a 

 period when many knew no more about the subject 

 than Mouffet, who affirms that Dragon-flies are pro- 

 duced from rotten bulrushes ! In contrasting the 

 splendour, and what he calls the noble life of the 

 Dragon-fly, with the larva from which it is produced, 

 he says, that the latter, creeping and swimming 

 slowly, is obliged to live a life of misery; an expres- 

 sion probably used in a different sense from that 

 which would most obviously attach to it. 



After leaving the abode of his hospitable friend 

 at Saumur, Swammerdam visited Paris, where he 

 took up his residence with Nicholas Steno. It was 

 here that he first became acquainted with Melche- 

 sedec Thevenot, with whom he formed an intimate 

 friendship, and whose patronage and encouragement, 

 owing both to his attachment to physical pursuits, and 

 the influence attached to his rank, afterwards proved 

 of the highest advantage and comfort to him. In 

 company with Steno, he paid a visit to this gentle- 

 man's country seat at Yssi, a few miles distant from 

 the French capital, where he not only had an oppor- 

 tunity of prosecuting his researches into the history 

 of natural objects, but of being introduced to the 

 society of all the individuals of any eminence, whose 

 habits and inclinations were at all congenial with his 

 own. During the discussions which they u ere ac- 

 customed to hold on various subjects in art and 



