Background
Jan Swammerdam was born on Feb. 12, 1637, in Amsterdam. His father was an apothecary, and an amateur collector of minerals, coins, fossils, and insects from around the world. His mother Baertje Jans Corvers died in 1661.
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( This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923....)
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ++++ The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to ensure edition identification: ++++ Dissertationes Anatomico-physiologicae: Annexa Est Epistola De Genitalibus D. Vanhorne : Cum Notis Swammerdamii Johann Moritz Hoffmann, Jan Swammerdam
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biologist microscopist scientist
Jan Swammerdam was born on Feb. 12, 1637, in Amsterdam. His father was an apothecary, and an amateur collector of minerals, coins, fossils, and insects from around the world. His mother Baertje Jans Corvers died in 1661.
Swammerdam entered the University of Leiden to study medicine. After qualifying as a candidate in medicine in 1663, he left for France, spending time in Issy, Saumur and Paris with Melchisédech Thévenot. He returned to Leiden in September 1665, and earned his M. D. on February 22, 1667. His graduation thesis included the observation that the lung of a newborn mammal sinks in water but floats once the animal has breathed.
Much to his father's displeasure, Swammerdam did not practice medicine but continued his microdissections of insects. Swammerdam designed a simple dissecting microscope that had two arms: one for holding the object and the other for the lens; the arms had coarse and fine adjustments. He used very fine scissors for dissection and capillary tubes of glass for inflating or injecting blood vessels. He was one of the first to dissect under water and to remove fat by organic solvents.
In 1669 he published his "General account of bloodless animalculae, " a history of insects which dealt with their modes of transformation and development. At this time he was engaged in a study of the life history of the mayfly which was, to Antoinette Bourignon, a "little beast which lives for only a single day, and throughout that time endures many miseries. " She reluctantly allowed Swammerdam to publish his studies in 1675 (Emphemerae vita) on condition that he would study religion in the future. The book contains many remarkable pieces of minute anatomy, but these were diluted by allusions to the Bible and the development of an ethical system.
Swammerdam left many manuscripts which Hermann Boerhaave published in 1737 in two volumes called Biblia naturae (Bible of Nature). This book, which contained work done mainly between 1668 and 1675, is the finest collection of microscopical observations ever produced by one worker, and some of the figures have never been excelled. The book is the foundation of our modern knowledge of the structure, metamorphosis, and classification of insects. It also includes detailed observations on the Crustacea and Mollusca and on the life history of the frog.
Perhaps the most complete study is that on the honeybee, which is illustrated by beautiful drawings. In his studies on the frog, Swammerdam used a nerve-muscle preparation and invented a form of plethysmograph. He established that when the nerve was mechanically stimulated the muscle contracted, and he contradicted the idea, accepted in his time, that when a muscle contracted it increased in volume due to the passage of liquid from nerve to muscle.
During the remainder of his life he sufferred from periods of depression, during which he destroyed much of his work. He died on Feb. 17, 1680.
He was a founder of comparative anatomy and entomology and was very skillful in the art of microdissection. He was one of the first people to use the microscope in dissections. He developed new techniques for examining, preserving, and dissecting specimens, including wax injection to make viewing blood vessels easier. A method he invented for the preparation of hollow human organs was later much employed in anatomy. He was the first to observe and describe red blood cellsand experimentally studied muscle contraction.
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His interest in religion led Swammerdam to meet the Flemish mystic Antoinette Bourignon in 1673, who had a profound influence on his life.
Swammerdam's scientific work was deeply influenced by his religious views. For him, studying the Earth's creatures revealed the greatness of God; scientific pursuits were pious activities. His spiritual views not only motivated his work, but also affected his ideas about the natural world.
His collection of insects, begun in his youth, eventually included some 3, 000 species.
