13:^ iie:roes of science. 



and Greek, and when he became old enough, 

 he began to feel that there were responsibilities 

 about his future office as a clergyman, which he 

 did not think he could fulfil. Holland at that 

 time was in a religious ferment, and sects of all 

 kinds existed, religion being more talked about 

 than practised. The lad, as he grew up, desired to 

 follow in his father's footsteps, and to learn the 

 healing art ; but his genius led him to the study of 

 nature. Before he was fifteen years of age, he 

 began to make collections of natural history 

 objects, and whenever he could get away from 

 home, and spare time from his medical studies, 

 he pursued his favourite employment, searching 

 the woods and fields, the sand-hills and muddy 

 shores, the lakes, rivers, and canals, for insects, 

 worms, and molluscs, until he acquired, even as a 

 youth, a more extensive knowledge of the lower 

 animals than all the naturalists who had preceded 

 him. In 1661 he went to Leyden and studied 

 surgery and anatomy. In this last he excelled, 

 and became celebrated for his methods of pre- 

 serving dissections. Then he went to Saumur, in 

 France, and to Paris, where he gained the friend- 

 ship of Thevenot the traveller, who was his patron 

 subsequently, and assisted him when in Am- 

 sterdam in after years, by obtaining permission for 

 him to dissect human bodies. His fellow-pupil 

 was Nicholas Steno, of whom more will be said 

 under the title of " Heroes of Geology." On his 

 return to Leyden, Swammerdam discovered the 



