130 ANATOMICAL DISSECTIONS.

in the presence of that prince, who was struck with
admiration at his great skill in managing them,
especially at his proving that the future butterfly
lay, with all its parts neatly folded up, in a cater-
pillar, by actually removing the integuments that
covered the former, and extricating and distinctly
exhibiting all its parts, however minute, with in-
credible ingenuity, and by means of instruments
of an inconceivable fineness. On this occasion the
duke offered the younger Swammerdam 12,000
florins for his share of the collection, on condition
of his removing them himself into Tuscany, and
going to live at the court of Florence; but Swam-
merdam (adds Boerhaave), who hated a court life
above all things, rejected his Highness’s proposal.
Besides, he could not put up with the least, re-
straint in religious matters, either in point of
speech or practice.”

Swammerdam must indeed have acted from purely
disinterested motives, for he was not in a situation
to prosecute his beloved studies without assistance.
‘Seeing him entirely bent on the work of collect-
ing insects from every part of the world, which he
spent his whole time in arranging, our author’s
futher,” says Boerhaave, “began to take offence.
Me had hitherto kept his son at home and supplied
all his expenses ; for though he was now thirty
years old, and consequently had spent the best