Jan Swammerdam als microscopist

Abstract

Jan Swammerdam as microscopist Contrary to the usual opinion, Jan Swammerdam, after the period of mysticism, resumed his scientific work. He worked very hard during the last period of his life (1676-80), though he was no more fit for field research. He now collected and enlarged his manuscripts and made them ready for press; they were published by Boerhaave as the Biblia Naturae (1737-38). Moreover in these years he applied himself in particular to microscopical examinations. In his earlier days he had used a magnifying glass made by Van Musschenbroek. but now he made his simple microscopes himself after a method he had learnt from Joh. Hudde. They were, in fact, very small glass globules which also later have been shown by P. Harting to have a great magnifying power (800 - 2200 x). They enabled Swammerdam to study the inner structure of insects and, in 1678, the red blood cells (already observed by Leeuwenhoek some years previously) and their oval form. Furthermore he describd the spermatozoa in a dog some months after Leeuwenhoek had studied them first. He recognized Leeuwenhoek's priorities, but the two naturalists had too little appreciation for each other's merits.