THE UMBILICAL CORD. 571 



arteries, and returns thence by means of the veins to the liver 

 and heart, together with the chyle, so in like manner do the 

 umbilical arteries carry the blood to the secundines ; which 

 blood, together with the nutrient fluid, is brought back by the 

 veins to the foetus. Hence it is that these arteries do not pro- 

 ceed immediately from the heart, as if they were the principal 

 vessels, but take their origin from the arteries of the lower 

 limbs, as being of inferior rank, use, and magnitude. 



Adrian Spigelius lately published a book entitled ' On the 

 Formation of the Foetus ' (de Formato Foetu) ; in which he 

 treats of the uses of the umbilical arteries, and proves, by 

 powerful arguments, that the foetus does not receive vital 

 " spirits" from the mother through the arteries ; he also an- 

 swers fully the arguments on the other side. He could also 

 have shown by the same arguments that neither is the blood 

 transferred to the foetus from the vessels of the mother by 

 means of the branches of the umbilical veins ; this is especially 

 clear from the case of the hen's egg, and also of the Csesarean 

 section. In truth, if heat and life flow to the blood from the 

 mother, should she die the child must straightway be destroyed 

 also, for the same fatality must attach to both ; nay, the child 

 must be the first to perish; for as dissolution approaches, 

 the subordinate parts languish and grow chill before the prin- 

 cipal ones, and so the heart fails last of all. The blood, I 

 mean of the foetus, would be the first to lose its heat and be- 

 come unfit to perform its functions were it derived from the 

 uterus, since the uterus would be deprived of all vital heat 

 before the heart. 



