244 



No. 4. 



Observations on Swammerdam's method of Dissecting and 

 Preparing Objects for the Microscope*. 



Referred to at page 121. 



IN the preparation of objects, no man was more success- 

 ful or more indefatigable than Swamrnerdam : in minutely 

 anatomizing, in patient investigation, and in curiously 

 exhibiting the minute wonders of creation, he stands 

 unrivalled, far exceeding all those that preceded, as 

 well as those that succeeded him. Deeply impressed 

 and warmly animated by the amazing scenes that he 

 continually discovered, his zeal in pursuit of truth was 

 not to be abated by disappointment or alarmed by diffi- 

 culty, and he was never contented till he had attained a 

 rational and clear idea of the organization of the object 

 whose structure he wished to explore. 



We have only to regret that we are ignorant of the 

 methods he employed. To discover these, the great 

 Boerhaave examined with a scrupulous attention all the 

 letters and manuscripts of Swammerdam, and has com- 

 municated the result of his researches, which, though but 



* Adams's Essays on the Microscope, p. 134, from the Life of Svvammer- 

 dain, by Boerhaave, ed. 1758. 



