intended publication, Boerhaave sent to Paris to ascertain more precisely its nature, and learning that it was to contain Swammerdam's researches, he conceived the laudable desire of asserting his countryman's right to the honour of the discoveries about to be made known to the public. By means of two friends residing in Paris, this eminent man succeeded in obtaining possession of the entire manuscripts, together with the drawings necessary for their elucidation, at the price of 1500 French florins. This was in the year 1727. "As soon as I had got them," he says, "I read them, and, having diligently examined them more than once, I carefully digested them, and had the satisfaction of seeing that nothing was wanting except a few pages of the text in the treatise on bees, which a note on the margin observed was not to be repaired; however, on looking narrowly for them, I had the good fortune of finding them elsewhere. Upon this I would have published them directly, but for the insatiable avarice and unbounded audaciousness of the printers, who make nothing of reprinting things as soon as they appear, to the great loss of the first publishers; however, I have at last succeeded in guarding against such foul treatment, and return my hearty thanks to all those who so generously contributed their assistance on this occasion. And now I must own, that it is with the greatest pleasure I find myself enabled, by this valuable work, to challenge all those nations who so liberally reproach us Dutchmen with a dulness that requires the inventions of others to sharpen it, to produce, before able judges,
