Page:Jardine Naturalist's library Entomology.djvu/63

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MEMOIR OF SWAMMERDAM.
57

especially, which he could separate from all the other parts, and exhibit in a manner that excited the surprise and admiration of all who had an opportunity of observing them. For the purpose of cleansing thoroughly the internal parts, he was accustomed to inject water into them by means of a small syringe, after which they were filled with air and dried; in this way they could be preserved for examination at any future time. Not only was he thus successful in investigating the internal organs of recently killed insects, but he could examine them in specimens which had been preserved for years in balsam and spirits of various kinds. This afforded him the advantage of dissecting foreign species, many of which being of much greater size than such as occur in Europe, present all the parts in a more conspicuous manner. He could preserve the nerves in such a perfect state, that they retained their flexibility for a long time, and looked as if newly extracted from the living subject. Insects of a soft and fleshy consistency, he preserved in a variety of ways. Sometimes he punctured them in various places with a needle, and expressed all the fluids and moisture in their bodies through the pores thus made; he then filled them with air by means of slender glass tubes, dried them in the shade, and lastly anointed them with oil of spike, in which a little resin had been dissolved, by which means they retained their proper forms for a long while. With caterpillars he devised the plan which has often been followed since, namely, making an incision near the tail, and gently squeezing out all the