Swammerdam,

Swammerdam, JAN, entomologist and anatomist, born at Amsterdam, 12th February 1637, showed almost from his boyhood the greatest zeal in the study of natural history. Choosing medicine for his profession, he was trained at Leyden, and settled down to practise in Amsterdam. But he gave far more time and attention to investigating the life-history and anatomical structures of insects than to his calling, became straitened for means, and finally was carried away by the religious mysticism of Antoinette Bourignon (q.v.). He died at Amsterdam on 17th February 1680. His chief services in the advancement of science were the application of a method of studying the circulatory system by injections of hot wax, demonstrations in the anatomy of bees and other insects, and investigations into the metamorphoses of insects, the results of which afforded sure groundwork for subsequent classification. His most important books were General Treatise on Bloodless Animals (in Dutch, Utrecht, 1669) and Biblia Naturæ (ed. Boerhaave, 1737-38), giving the results of his researches in insect anatomy.