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 
macle 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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