MEMOIR OF SWAMMERDAM. 
19 
dam, for the more convenient prosecution of his 
business, which was that of a timber merchant, he 
obtained the surname of Swammerdam from his 
native place, according to a practice which was very 
prevalent in Holland about that period. His only 
son, John James Swammerdam, the father of the 
subject of this memoir, was horn at Amsterdam in 
the year 1G0G, and was brought up to the profession 
of an apothecary. This he seems to have exercised 
with sufficient success to enable him to devote a con- 
siderable portion, both of time and money, to the 
study of natural history, for which he had a strong 
partiality. This propensity led him to collect natural 
objects from all quarters, and the extensive commerce 
of the Dutch afforded great facilities, at that time, 
for accomplishing such a purpose. He amassed an 
extensive assortment of different animals, among 
which insects occupied the most prominent place, 
and likewise many plants and fossils, all which he 
arranged with great care, according to the crude 
notions which then prevailed respecting their dif- 
ferences or relations to each other. This collec- 
tion, which likewise contained a great variety of 
miscellaneous curiosities, Chinese porcelain, articles 
of vertii, &c., became so celebrated, that strangers 
visiting the city were accustomed to resort to it, as 
one of the spectacles deserving of their attention. 
Such was the owner's estimate of its value, that he 
considered it worth sixty thousand florins. 
The distinguished physiologist, of whom it is our 
purpose more particularly to speak, was the son of 
