MEMOIR OF SWAMMERDAM. 
31 
task, which he afterwards regretted that he had . 
undertaken. 
During the years J671 and 1672, his principal 
studies seem to have been more directly connected 
with his profession, for we find that he transmitted 
in that period to the Royal Society of London, a 
variety of plates representing the womb of a human 
subject, together with drawings of the spermatic 
vessels, tube of the womb, and ovaries. These were 
partly intended to illustrate his manner of making 
anatomical preparations, and filling both arteries and 
veins, even to their minutest ramifications, with a 
substance which preserved their primitive form and 
position. These were accompanied with a uterus pre- 
pared in the manner recommended. It was likewise 
his wish, by this communication, to vindicate his 
right, which had been disputed, to the discovery of 
certain facts regarding the spermatic vessels and the 
organs of generation. He was much engaged, also, 
at the period of which we now speak, in dissecting 
fishes, and making observations on their internal 
organs and their functions. The nature and properties 
of the pancreatic fluid, a subject which then excited 
much interest among physiologists, obtained a large 
share of his attention ; and he made some important 
discoveries regarding the nature and cause of hernia. 
In 1673, he subjected to his powerful microscopes a 
variety of ferns in order to examine the fructification, 
which was then little understood. Two congenial 
spirits. Grew* and Malpiglii,+ entered upon this 
* Anatomy of Plants, p. 200. 
■f Anatomia Plantarura, PI. 51, Fig. 299. 
