to the active and profitable duties of his profession. The zealous student himself saw the propriety of acting on this advice, and it seems to have been his design to do so; but he was so long in prevailing upon himself to forsake inquiries which afforded him so much gratification and delight, that his father's patience became quite exhausted, and he declared that he would afford him no farther supplies of money—a resolution which he soon carried into effect.
Thus thrown upon his own resources, Swammerdam had no alternative but to turn his medical skill to account; but the state of his health, which had been precarious ever since the illness mentioned above, and was still further impaired by unremitting study, proved inadequate to support the fatigue of such an employment. With a view to its restoration he retired to the country, and he had no sooner settled there than he relapsed into his former habits and studies. His generous friend Thevenot, upon becoming acquainted with his disagreement with his father, endeavoured to prevail on him to take up his residence in France, where he undertook to provide him with every thing requisite for carrying on his favourite pursuits; but, owing to the opposition made by his father, this invitation was not accepted. Still anxious to conciliate his incensed parent, upon returning to Amsterdam, Swammerdam employed himself for a time in making what was supposed to be a final survey of their joint collection, and drawing up a catalogue of the objects it contained, a laborious
