130 ANATOMICAL DISSECTIONS. 



in the presence of that prince, who was struck with 

 admiration at his great skill in managing them, 

 especially at his proving that the future butterfly 

 lay, with all its parts neatly folded up, in a cater- 

 pillar, by actually removing the integuments that 

 covered the former, and extricating and distinctly 

 exhibiting all its parts, however minute, with in- 

 credible ingenuity, and by means of instruments 

 of an inconceivable fineness. On this occasion the 

 duke offered the younger Swammerdam 12,000 

 florins for his share of the collection, on condition 

 of his removing them himself into Tuscany, and 

 going to live at the court of Florence ; but Swam- 

 merdam (adds Boerhaave), who hated a court life 

 above all things, rejected his Highness's proposal. 

 Besides, he could not put up with the least re- 

 straint in religious matters, either in point of 

 speech or practice." 



Swammerdam must indeed have acted from purely 

 disinterested motives, for he was not in a situation 

 to prosecute his beloved studies without assistance. 

 " Seeing him entirely bent on the work of collect- 

 ing insects from every part of the world, which he 

 spent his whole time in arranging, our author's 

 father," says Boerhaave, " began to take offence. 

 He had hitherto kept his son at home and supplied 

 all his expenses ; for though he was now thirty 

 years old, and consequently had spent the best 



