THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR.

...not only designed in concise propositions, but in the following March, it was published completely expanded by Gaasbeeck, and now, being a little book, it was dedicated to the distinguished Mr. Thevenot. On the title page is depicted exactly the mutual mating of the snail, which is both male and female. Jan Baptift van Lamsweerde wrote, with great fanfare, against this work, under the name of The Expiration of Swammerdam's Respiration; but it was without a happy result. If anything in our author's little work was not quite right, that was easily forgiven by fair readers because of the beauty of all the good things that shone through it everywhere. He further diligently practiced a special trick, by which he cleaned the parts of the bodies of everything that was in them; after this, he blew them up so that they were full of air, then dried them; through which, having become firm, they retained their shape, and by that art could be accurately examined, yes, and also neatly described. A discovery truly of the utmost utility, which caused those parts to stand out so distinctly, which otherwise would accidentally rot or melt together if filled with wax. While he now busied himself so hard in anatomy, he faithfully maintained a correspondence with the famous Van Horne. But, in that same year, attacked by a tertian fever, he weakened to the utmost and became completely emaciated; for that reason, he was forced to stop his anatomical works. After he had recovered from that malignant illness, for the two following years he fell so entirely into the investigation of small animals that he touched nothing in the world that resembled anatomy. But in the year 1668, it happened that the GRAND DUKE OF TUSCANY came to Holland to see our Fatherland. He came to visit, guided by Mr. Thevenot, at the house of SWAMMERDAM, and examined the cabinets of father and son there with all accuracy, and with eyes well trained to see these things at their true value. Mr. SWAMMERDAM performed some dissections of small animals for the DUKE OF FLORENCE, who was the most discerning judge of such things. And truly, this most knowledgeable critic and supreme lover of this subject was amazed at what he saw. But when our author, in the presence of Mr. Magalotti and Thevenot, openly showed that great Prince how a butterfly, with all its rolled-up and folded parts, lies hidden within a caterpillar, and as he, with incredible skill and with his instruments, which one could scarcely conceive, cut away the outer covering and took out the enclosed butterfly itself from its hiding place, and unfolded its intricate little parts most distinctly and clearly, so that the hidden became public; then the astonishment of His Royal Highness was at its highest. He offered him twelve thousand guilders for his private cabinet alone; but on the condition that he must bring it to Florence himself and stay to live at the court. This was prudent of the Prince, who thought that it would soon come to naught if that artist and alert keeper did not stay with it to preserve it; he foresaw that he would not be happy for long with this possession if the great master were away, the only one indeed, who could point out and explain to his hobby...