MEMOIR OF SWAMMERDAM. 31 



task, which he afterwards regretted that he had 

 undertaken. 



During the years J671 and 1672, his principal 

 studies seem to have heen more directly connected 

 with his profession, for we find that he transmitted 

 in that period to the Royal Society of London, a 

 variety of plates representing the womh of a human 

 subject, together with drawings of the spermatic 

 vessels, tube of the womb, and ovaries. These were 

 partly intended to illustrate his manner of making 

 anatomical preparations, and filling both arteries and 

 veins, even to their minutest ramifications, with a 

 substance which preserved their primitive form and 

 position. These were accompanied with a uterus pre- 

 pared in the manner recommended. It was likewise 

 his wish, by this communication, to vindicate his 

 right, which had been disputed, to the discovery of 

 certain facts regarding the spermatic vessels and the 

 organs of generation. He was much engaged, also, 

 at the period of which we now speak, in dissecting 

 fishes, and making observations on their internal 

 organs and their functions. The nature and properties 

 of the pancreatic fluid, a subject which then excited 

 much interest among physiologists, obtained a large 

 share of his attention ; and he made some important 

 discoveries regarding the nature and cause of hernia. 

 In 1673, he subjected to his powerful microscopes a 

 variety of ferns in order to examine the fructification, 

 which was then little understood. Two congenial 

 spirits, Grew* and Malpighi,t entered upon this 



* Anatomy of Plants, p. 200. 



t Anatomia Plantarum, PI. 51, Fig. 299. 



