EXHAUSTED HEALTH. 131

years of life, he had not engaged in any busi-
ness that could serve to render him easy and inde-
pendent.” M. Swammerdam, senior, now seriously
remonstrated with him, and insisted on his apply-
ing with diligence to the duties of his profession as
a physician. It was, however, but too evident that
his health had become exhausted by his inces-
sant devotion to studies requiring the most intense
application, and it was judged expedient that he
should retire into the country for a time in order
to recruit his powers. Scarcely, however, was he
settled in his place of retirement than he resumed
his former pursuits, “ the torrent of his genius
that way being so much favoured by the solitari-
ness of the place, and the favourable opportunity of
examining insects in their very haunts and scenes
of propagation.”

In the years 1671 and 1672, Swammerdam’s
studies related principally to fishes and insects ;
and in the autumn of 1678, he completed his
examination of the structure of bees, and published
his treatise on those insects.

This work proved, we are told, “so fatiguing that
he never after recovered even the appearance of his
former health and vigour.” We shall not be sur-
prised at this melancholy result, when we learn
that he was “continually employed in making obser-

vations, and almost as constantly engaged by night
(252) 9 :