with the same accuracy and distinctness that others do those of large animals.
"He was particularly dexterous in the management of small tubes of glass no thicker than a bristle, drawn to a very fine point at one end, but thicker at the other."These were used for inflating hollow structures and also for making fine injections. He dissolved the fat of insects in turpentine and carried on dissections under water.
An unbiased examination of his work will show that it is of a higher quality than Malpighi's in regard to critical observation and richness in detail. He also worked with minuter objects and displayed a greater skill. As one writer says:
United with these exceptional talents as an observer was a mystical quality of mind that made his interpretations less happy, and often led him to strange ideas. It is an interesting psychological combination. His observations are accurate, but his interpretations fanciful. For instance, in observing the transformations of insects, he came to a stage in which he could see the parts of the adult insect encased, as it were, in the pupa. This led him to see, in fancy, an evidence of encasement of one generation within another in all animals and to adhere to that curious idea of emboitement, which had so many believers in his time. He even saw in this the proof, to his mind, that the germs of all forthcoming generations of mankind were originally located in the common mother Eve, all closely encased one within the other, like the boxes of a Japanese juggler. The end of the world was by him conceived of as a necessity when the last germ of this wonderful series had become unfolded.
The last part of his life was dimmed by fanaticism. He read the works of Antoinette Bourignon and fell under her influence; he began to subdue his warm and stubborn temper, and to give himself up to religious contemplation. She taught him to regard scientific research as worldly, and, following her advice, he gave up his passionate fondness for studying the works of the Creator, to devote himself to loving and adoring that same Being. Always extreme and intense in everything lie undertook, he likewise overdid this, and yielded himself to a sort of fanatical worship until the end of his life, in 1680. Had he possessed a more vigorous constitution, he would have been greater as a man. He lived, in all, but forty-three years; the last six or seven years were unproductive from his mental distractions, and before that much of his time had been lost by sickness.
