This lady, who was a native of Lisle in Flanders, had become at an early age impressed with the idea that pure Christianity was in a state of decay, and that she was called to revive it. She became governess of the hospital of her native city, and took the order and habit of St Augustin; but owing to the disturbances caused by her violent temper and pretensions to inspiration, the magistrates were obliged to expel her from her office, when she retired to Ghent. The fortune which she inherited from her parents, and that bequeathed to her by her convert De Cordt, enabled her to publish several works of her own composition, and rendered her, notwithstanding the deformity of her person, the object of much hypocritical admiration. Such was her extreme parsimony, and so inconsistent was her conduct with her professions, that she declared she would rather throw her wealth into the sea than bestow the smallest sum on the poor, or on "beastly persons who had no souls to be saved." She was at that time in Holstein; and Swammerdam wrote to a friend of his who accompanied her, to obtain permission to consult her in writing respecting his doubts. The result of their correspondence was a resolution on his part no longer to addict himself exclusively to pursuits which had reference to this world only, but to endeavour to make his peace with God. He did not, however, entirely relinquish his anatomical studies, but on the contrary engaged with astonishing ardour in the examination of the structure of bees, which he finished on the last day of September 1674. "He had laboured so assiduously at this work," says Boerhaave, "as to destroy his constitution; nor did he ever recover even a shadow of his former strength. The labour, in fact, was beyond the power of ordinary men: all day he was occupied in examining subjects, and at night described and delineated what he had seen by day. At six in the morning, in summer, he began to receive sufficient light from the sun to enable him to trace the objects of his examination. He continued dissecting till twelve, with his hat removed lest it should impede the light, and in the full blaze of the sun, the heat of which caused his head to be constantly covered with a profuse perspiration. His eyes being continually employed in this strong light, the effect of which was increased by the use of the microscope, they were so affected by it, that after mid-day he could no longer trace the minute bodies which he examined, although he had then as bright a light as in the forenoon." A month of this excessive labour was necessary to examine and depict the intestines of bees alone; and the investigation of their entire structure cost him much additional labour; and all this was done, with a body debilitated by disease, and a mind agitated by conflicting passions, amid sighs and tears. At one time the bent of his disposition impelled him to investigate the wonderful works of Omnipotence; at