59 
MEMOIR OF DE GEER. 
Swammerdam, as has just been seen, was chiefly 
employed in examining the internal anatomy of in- 
sects ; the high reputation of the Baron De Geer, 
of whose life we are now to give a brief sketch, 
rests principally on his admirable description and de- 
lineation of their external structure. Deeply em- 
bued with a love for investigating the forms and 
habits of these animals, and possessing powers of 
observation of the first order, he succeeded in dis- 
covering many important facts in their economy, 
which he has detailed in a remarkably clear and in- 
teresting manner. A pupil of Linnaeus, and an ar- 
dent admirer of the philosophical French naturalist 
Reaumur, he combined the systematic regularity of 
the one, with the experimental skill and patient ob- 
servation of the other. His works accordingly have 
been always looked upon as a store-house of im- 
portant facts, lucid descriptions, and enlightened ob- 
servations, which have tended perhaps as much as 
any other publication that could be mentioned, to in- 
crease our knowledge of the class of animals of 
which they treat. 
Charles de Geer, Baron of Leutsta, Marshal of the 
Court of Sweden, Knight of the Polar Star, and Com- 
