xi «The LIFE of JOHN SWAMMERDAM. 
bufinefs, but that of ferving God, which alone he delighted in. But his 
joy was foon.interrupted, when the father’s fortune came to be divided, and 
his mufeum to be difpofed of, the fifter claiming more of the inheritance than 
came to her fhare, and the chief direGion of the fale, while Swammerdam 
for the fake of peace and quietnefs, and in order to get the fooner into his 
long wifhed for retirement, dibmitial to her unjuft pretentions. Neverthe- 
lefs, the vexation attending this family ftrife, joined to the uninterrupted 
fervour of his devotion, brought a tedious diforder upon him. This was a 
double tertian ague, which afterwards continued without intermiflion, and 
then changed in different manners. Whilft this fit of ficknefs continued, 
he got up but feldom in the day time, and for three months together that the 
flow fever continued, he never went out of his houfe ; he was even a whole 
‘twelve month without making a fingle experiment. At laft his diforder, again 
‘changing to a tertian ague, feemed to abate, and then entirely left him for 
dome days. | His friends neverthelefs, and among them doctor Matthew Slade, 
‘a moft learned phyfician, and one whofe advice had the greateft weight with 
our author, could never prevail upon him to ftir from his bed-chamber. 
He would often excufe himfelf by faying that folitude and retirement could 
‘alone extirpate the relicks of his diforder; when Slade, Ruyfh, Schrader, 
Hotton and Guenellon, who all of them frequently vifited him in the 
quality both of friends and phyficians, attempted to perfuade him to the ufe 
of medicines and frefh air for the recovery of his former ftrength and vigour. 
-But he at laft put a ftop to their importunities by an obftinate filence. How- 
‘ever. as the things he formerly took moft delight in, were now become 
odious to him, and he had no further hopes of being able to difpofe of 
them in France, he wrote to his friend Thevenot, who had again invited 
‘him to his houfe, that he would accept of his kind offer, provided he would 
immediately difpofe of his curiofities for him, and permit him to live quite 
unknown and retired. But here too our author was again difappointed, 
fo that at laft he advertifed a fixed day in the month of May following, 
opcuixxx, for the fale of his curiofities, article by article, to the beft bidder ; 
fo great a defire he had of getting rid of them, notwithftanding that he had 
feen that his father’s. mufeum, when fold in fingle lots, had not’ produced 
above a fixth part of what his executors expected it would have fold for. 
But whilft our author was taken up in- this manner, his old diforder broke 
out anew. with worfe fymptoms than had hitherto appeared, an emaciated 
countenance, hollow eyes, a flow continued fever which eating always 
increafed, and a {welling in his feet, legs, thighs and belly, attended with 
conftant and uninterrupted pains. All this time his friends durft not make 
the leaft mention before him of his former ftudies, nor did he himfelf- ever 
{peak a word of them; for he now utterly detefted as vain and infienificant 
the things he formerly. moft delighted in. Thevenot, informed of the 
languifhing condition he was in, offered him. the jefuit’s bark, then greatly 
talked of for its efficacy in curing fevers, and Swammerdam defired he 
might fend him fome of it, and fome {pecific againft the dropfy, if he knew 
of any. But at laft finding himfelf grow worfe and worfe, he made his will 
the twenty-fifth of January mpcuxxx, and left Melchifedeck Thevenot, for- 
merly the French king’s minifter at Genoa, all his original manuicripts belong- 
ing to the natural and anatomical hiftory of Bees and Butterflies, with fifty-two 
plates belonging to them, and ordered all thofe valuable papers then laid up in 
the houfe of Herman Wingendorp at Leyden, to be delivered to the legatee 
within a year after his death ; but earneftly recommended that his treatife on 
, Bees 
