MEMOIR OF SVVAMMERDAM. 45 



and proceedings of this enthusiast, were devising 

 measures to have her expelled from the province, and 

 on becoming aware of their intention, she wished to 

 take shelter in the king of Denmark's dominions. 

 Swammerdam, and another disciple, were appointed 

 to visit the Danish court, to ask permission to make 

 this change of residence a commission which he 

 readily undertook. He accordingly set out for Copen- 

 hagen, on the 25th March 1676; but was wholly 

 unsuccessful in his object. He returned to Sleswick 

 to give a report of his reception, and after a short 

 residence there, went back to Amsterdam. 



His prospects in that city had not improved in his 

 absence ; his father, whose resentment had been 

 somewhat mitigated of late, was irrecoverably alien- 

 ated from him by his recent imprudence. His sister 

 Joanna, too,, who had resided with his father since 

 his wife's death, and often interceded with him on 

 her brother's behalf, had just been married ; and his 

 father having resolved to live henceforth with his 

 son-in-law, Swammerdam found himself at last de- 

 prived of a home. In this exigency, two hundred 

 florins a-year allowed him by his father, was all that 

 he had to depend upon, and this being inadequate to 

 defray his necessary expenses, he was obliged to 

 think of some plan for relieving his necessities. A 

 gentleman of rank, John Ort of Nieuwenrode, 

 Breukele., &c., who had been long on terms of intimate 

 friendship with Swammerdam, had often entertained 

 him at his country-seat, and even proposed that he 

 should take up his residence there altogether, that 



