Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 58.djvu/579

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MALPIGHI, SWAMMERDAM, LEEUWENHOEK.
571

portrait by Rembrandt. Although its authenticity has been questioned, it is the only portrait[1] known of Swammerdam.

He was born in 1637, nine years after Malpighi. His father, an apothecary of Amsterdam, had a taste for collecting, which was shared

Fig. 4. Jan Swammerdam.

by many of his fellow-townsmen. "The vast commerce and extended colonial empire of the Holland of that day fostered the formation of private museums." The elder Swammerdam had the finest and most


  1. I am indebted to Professor Dr. Hoffman, of Leyden, for this copy.