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MEMOIR OF DE GEER.
Swammerdam, as has just been seen, was chiefly
employed in examining the internal anatomy of insects; the high reputation of the Baron De Geer, of whose life we are now to give a brief sketch, rests principally on his admirable description and delineation of their external structure. Deeply embued with a love for investigating the forms and
habits of these animals, and possessing powers of
observation of the first order, he succeeded in discovering many important facts in their economy,
which he has detailed in a remarkably clear and interesting manner. A pupil of Linnæus, and an ardent admirer of the philosophical French naturalist
Reaumur, he combined the systematic regularity of the one, with the experimental skill and patient observation of the other. His works accordingly have
been always looked upon as a store-house of important facts, lucid descriptions, and enlightened observations, which have tended perhaps as much as
any other publication that could be mentioned, to increase our knowledge of the class of animals of
which they treat.
Charles de Geer, Baron of Leutsta, Marshal of the Court of Sweden, Knight of the Polar Star, and Com-
