30 
MEMOIR OF SWAMMERDAM. 
to the active and profitable duties of his profession. 
The zealous student himself saw the propriety of 
acting on this advice, and it seems to have been his 
design to do so ; but he was so long in prevailing 
upon himself to forsake inquiries which afforded him 
so much gratification and delight, that his father’s 
patience became quite exhausted, and he declared 
that he would afford him no farther supplies of 
money — a resolution which he soon carried into 
effect. 
Thus thrown upon his own resources, Swammer- 
dam had no alternative but to turn his medical skill 
to account ; but the state of his health, which had 
been precarious ever since the illness mentioned 
above, and was still further impaired by unremitting 
study, proved inadequate to support the fatigue of 
such an employment. With a view' to its restoration 
he retired to the country, and he had no sooner set- 
tled there than he relapsed into his former habits 
and studies. His generous friend Thevcnot, upon 
becoming acquainted with his disagreement with his 
father, endeavoured to prevail on him to take up his 
residence in France, where he undertook to provide 
him with every thing requisite for carrying on his 
favourite pursuits; but, owing to the opposition 
made by his father, this invitation was not accepted. 
Still anxious to conciliate his incensed parent, upon 
returning to Amsterdam, Swammerdam employed 
himself for a time in making what w f as supposed to 
be a final survey of their joint collection, and drawing 
up a catalogue of the objects it contained, a laborious 
