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A contemporary of Leeuwenhoek’s, Jan Swammerdam, showed that butterflies, which had been regarded as new creatures born out of the pupa, were already present within the caterpillar: their organs could be identified by dissection.

“In nature there is no generation,” the Dutch scientist Jan Swammerdam wrote in 1669, “but only propagation.”

The Dutch physician Jan Swammerdam dissected countless insect specimens to help dispel the notion that each phase of an insect was a completely different species of animal.

Pascal gave up science after a religious experience; so did the Protestant Jan Swammerdam, one of the first great microscopists.

It all started when Jan Swammerdam used a scalpel to peel away the outer layers of a certain insect.