Swammerdam was the most critical observer of the three, if we may judge by his labors in the same field as Malpighi's on the silkworm. His descriptions are models of accuracy and completeness, and his anatomical work shows a higher grade of finish and completeness than Malpighi's. Malpighi, it seems to me, did more in the sum total than either of the others to advance the sciences of anatomy and physiology, and through them the interests of mankind. Leeuwenhoek had larger opportunity; he devoted himself to microscopic observations, but he wandered over the whole field. While his observations lose all monographic character, nevertheless they were important in opening new fields and advancing the sciences of anatomy, physiology, botany, and zoölogy.
The combined force of their labors marks an epoch characterized by the acceptance of the scientific method and the establishment of a new grade of intellectual life. Through their efforts and that of their contemporaries of lesser note the new intellectual movement was now well under way.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Leeuwenhoek and the Rise of Histology. The Asclepiad, Vol. II, 1885.
THE PROGRESS OF MINUTE ANATOMY.
The work of Malpighi, Swammerdam, and Leeuwenhoek stimulated investigations into the structure of minute animals, and researches in that field became a feature of the advance in the next century. Considerable progress was made in the province of minute anatomy before comparative anatomy grew into an independent subject.
The attractiveness of observations upon the life-histories and the structure of insects, as shown particularly in the publications of Malpighi and Swammerdam, made those animals the favorite objects of study. The observers were not long in recognizing that some of the greatest beauties of organic architecture are displayed in the internal structure of insects. The delicate tracery of the organs, their minuteness and perfection are well calculated to awaken surprise. Well might those early anatomists be moved to enthusiasm over their researches. Every excursion into this domain gave only beautiful pictures of a mechanism of exquisite delicacy, and their wonder grew into amazement. Here began a new train of ideas, in the unexpected revelation that within the small compass of the body of an insect was embraced such a complex set of organs; a complete nervous system, fine breathing-tubes, organs of circulation, of digestion, etc., etc.