SWAMMERDAM, John, a celebrated natural philosopher, was the son of John James Swammerdam, an apothecary and naturalist of Amsterdam, and was born in 1637. His father intended him for the church, and with this view had him instructed in Latin and Greek; but thinking himself unequal to so serious a vocation, he prevailed with his father to consent to his applying himself to physic. As he was kept at home till he should be properly qualified to engage in that study, he was frequently employed in cleaning his father’s curiosities, and putting every thing in its proper place. This inspired him with an early taste for natural history; so that, not content with the survey of the curiosities which his father had purchased, he soon began to make a collection of his own, which he compared with the accounts given of them by the best writers. When grown up, he seriously attended to his anatomical and medical studies; yet spent part of the day and the night in discovering, catching, and examining the flying insects proper to those times, not only in the province of Holland, but in those of Guelderland and Utrecht. Thus initiated in natural history, he went to the university of Leyden in 1651; and in 1653 was admitted a candidate of physic in that university. His attention being now engaged by anatomy, he began to consider how the parts of the body, prepared by dissection, could be preserved, and kept in constant order for anatomical demonstration; and here he succeeded as he had done before in his nice contrivances for dissecting and managing the minutest insects. He afterwards made a journey into France, where he spent some time at Saumur, and where he became acquainted with several learned men. In 1667 he returned to Leyden, and took the degree of M. D. The next year the grand duke of Tuscany being in Holland in order to see the curiosities of the country, came to view those of the father and the son; and on this occasion Swammerdam made some anatomical dissections of insects 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 caterpillar, by actually removing the integuments that covered the former, and extricating and exhibiting all its parts, however minute, with incredible ingenuity, by means of instruments of inconceivable fineness. On this occasion the duke offered him 12,000 florins for his share of the collection, on condition of his removing them himself into Tuscany, and coming to live at the court of Florence; but Swammerdam, who hated a court life, declined his highness’s proposal. In 1663, he published a General History of Insects. About this time, his father began to take offence at his inconsiderately neglecting the practice of physic, which might have supported him in affluence; and would neither supply him with money nor clothes. This reduced him to some difficulties. In 1675 he published his History of the Ephemeras; and his father dying the same year, left him a fortune sufficient for his support; but he did not long survive him, for he died in 1682. Gaubius gave a translation of all his works from the orginal Dutch into Latin, from which they were translated into English, and published in folio, in 1758. Boerhaave wrote his life.