CHAPTER V 



THE PROGRESS OF MINUTE ANATOMY. 



The work of Malpighi, Swammerdam, and Leeuwenhoek 

 stimulated investigations into the structure of minute an- 

 imals, and researches in that field became a feature of the 

 advance in the next century. Considerable progress was 

 made in the province of minute anatomy before comparative 

 anatomy grew into an independent subject. 



The attractiveness of observations upon the life-histories 

 and the structure of insects, as shown particularly in the pub- 

 lications of Malpighi and Swammerdam, made those animals 

 the favorite objects of study. The observers were not long 

 in recognizing that some of the greatest beauties of organic 

 architecture are displayed in the internal structure of 

 insects. The delicate tracery of the organs, their minuteness 

 and perfection are well calculated to awaken surprise. Well 

 might those early anatomists be moved to enthusiasm over 

 their researches. Every excursion into this domain gave 

 only beautiful pictures of a mechanism of exquisite delicacy, 

 and their wonder grew into amazement. Here began a new 

 train of ideas, in the unexpected revelation that within the 

 small compass of the body of an insect was embraced such 

 a complex set of organs; a complete nervous system, fine 

 breathing-tubes, organs of circulation, of digestion, etc., etc. 



Lyonet. — The first piece of structural work after Swam- 

 merdam's to which we must give attention is that of Lyonet, 

 who produced in the middle of the eighteenth century one of 



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