30 MEMOIR OF SWAMMERDAM. 



to the active and profitable duties of his profession. 

 The zealous student himself saw the propriety of 

 acting on this advice, and it seems to have been his 

 design to do so ; but he was so long in prevailing 

 upon himself to forsake inquiries which afforded him 

 so much gratification and delight, that his father's 

 patience became quite exhausted, and he declared 

 that he would afford him no farther supplies of 

 money a resolution which he soon carried into 

 effect. 



Thus thrown upon his own resources, Swammer- 

 dam had no alternative but to turn his medical skill 

 to account ; but the state of his health, which had 

 been precarious ever since the illness mentioned 

 above, and was still further impaired by unremitting 

 study, proved inadequate to support the fatigue of 

 such an employment. With a view to its restoration 

 he retired to the country, and he had no sooner set- 

 tled there than he relapsed into his former habits 

 and studies. His generous friend Thevenot, upon 

 becoming acquainted with his disagreement with his 

 father, endeavoured to prevail on him to take up his 

 residence in France, where he undertook to provide 

 him with every thing requisite for carrying on his 

 /avourite pursuits; but, owing to the opposition 

 made by his father, this invitation was not accepted. 

 Still anxious to conciliate his incensed parent, upon 

 returning to Amsterdam, Swammerdam employed 

 himself for a time in making what was supposed to 

 be a final survey of their joint collection, and drawing 

 up a catalogue of the objects it contained, a laborious 



