JOHN SWAMMERDAM. 129 



her own composition, and rendered her^ notwith- 

 standing the deformity of her person, the object of 

 much hypocritical admiration. Such was her ex- 

 treme parsimony^ and so inconsistent was her con- 

 duct with her professions, that slie declared she 

 would rather throw her wealth into the sea than 

 bestow the smallest sum on the poor, or on " beastly 

 persons who had no souls to be saved/' 



She was at that time in Holstein ; and Swammer- 

 dam wrote to a friend of his who accompanied her, 

 to obtain permission to consult her in writing re- 

 specting his doubts. The result of their correspond- 

 ence was a resolution on his part no longer to addict 

 himself exclusively to pursuits which had reference 

 to this world only, but to endeavour to make his 

 peace with God. He did not, however, entirely re- 

 linquish his anatomical studies, but on the contrary 

 engaged with astonishing ardour in the examination 

 of the structure of bees, which he finished on the 

 last day of September 1674. " He had laboured 

 so assiduously at this work/' says Boerhaave, '' as 

 to destroy his constitution ; nor did he ever recover 

 even a shadow of his former strength. The labour, 

 in fact, was beyond the power of ordinary men : all 

 day he was occupied in examining subjects, and 

 at night described and delineated what he had seen 

 by day. At six in the morning, in summer, he be- 

 gan to receive sufficient light from the sun to enable 

 him to trace the objects of his examination. He 

 continued dissecting till twelve, with his hat removed 

 lest it should impede the light, and in the full 

 blaze of the sun, the heat of which caused his head 

 to be constantly covered with a profuse perspiration. 

 His eyes being continually employed in this strong 



