24 
MEMOIR OF SWAMMERDAM. 
latter operation, having the effect of urging the bodv 
forward. Notwithstanding these circumstances, most 
of his observations, and nearly all his figures, arc 
extremely accurate, and were of great value at a 
period when many knew no more about the subject 
than Mouffet, who affirms that Dragon-flies are pro- 
duced from rotten bulrushes ! In contrasting the 
splendour, and what he calls the noble life of the 
Dragon-fly, with the larva from which it is produced, 
he says, that the latter, creeping and swimming 
slowly, is obliged to live a life of misery; an expres- 
sion probably used in a different sense from that 
which would most obviously attach to it. 
After leaving the abode of his hospitable friend 
at Sauraur, Swammerdam visited Paris, where he 
took up his residence with Nicholas Steno. It was 
here that he first became acquainted with Melche- 
sedec Thcvenot, with whom he formed an intimate 
friendship, and whose patronage and encouragement, 
owing both to his attachment to physical pursuits, and 
the influence attached to his rank, afterwards proved 
of the highest advantage and comfort to him. In 
company with Steno, he paid a visit to this gentle- 
man's country seat at Yssi, a few miles distant from 
the French capital, where he not only had an oppor- 
tunity of prosecuting his researches into the history 
of natural objects, but of being introduced to the 
society of all the individuals of any eminence, whose 
habits and inclinations were at all congenial with his 
own. During the discussions which they were ac- 
customed to hold on various subjects in art and 
