178 PfiiLdS6PHlCAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO I667. 



by Everhafd alorie, as immediately carrying the chyle out of its receptacle to 

 the womb and breasts ; he imputes the cause of this mistake to the trunk of 

 the lymphatics running over the vena cava into the receptacle near the emul- 

 gents, which duct he affirms to have often found filled with chyle from the in- 

 testinum rectum, or the ileum, or cascum (a dog having no colon ;) but main- 

 tains withal, that by ligatures it is manifest that that duct goes to the recepta- 

 cle, and there deposits its liquor ; which he proves to be alike true of all the 

 milky vessels, so that they carry nothing back, and consequently are unfit to 

 convey any thing to the womb. This he illustrates by a noble experiment of 

 that learned and expert anatomist Dr. Lower, using to open sometimes the 

 right side of the thorax, and with his fingers to break the receptacle ; and 

 sometimes on the left side, the ductus thoracicus a little under the subclavian ; 

 whereby it has come to pass that dogs, well fed all the while, have thrown out 

 all the chyle into the opened part of the thorax, and though plentifully fed, 

 were starved' within three days : there appearing mean time in the veins 

 opened a crass blood, destitute of serum, but not any mixture of transmitted 

 chyle. 



Having rejected the lacteal and lymphatic vessels from this office, he de- 

 clares, that we must rest in the ancient doctrine, which lays the task of con- 

 veying the succus nutritius to the breasts and womb upon the arteries ; unless 

 the nerves be called in for aid, for conveying some of the spirituous juice, to 

 be mixed with the nutritious to give life and vigour ; and having proved this, 

 he takes notice of the multitude of anastomoses, remarkable in the womb of 

 pregnant creatures ; and subjoins a discussion of the way how the alimentary 

 juice is in the womb severed from the mass of the blood : whether by mere 

 percolation, or by some ferment working upon the blood, and thence precipi- 

 tating what is proper for the use of that part. 



In the second chapter he treats of the placentas and glandules, and shows 

 how many ways the juice is derived from the womb to the foetus : First, sim- 

 ply from the membrane of the uterus to the membrane of the foetus ; as in all 

 oviparous creatures ; and among viviparous, in a sow all the time of her bear- 

 ing ; in a mare for half the time; and in a woman the first month only. Se- 

 condly, By a mass of flesh filtering the juice ; as in all cake-bearing (called in 

 Latin placentifera) and in all kernel-bearing (called glandulifera) or ruminating 

 animals. Where he gives a particular account of the double placenta or cake 

 to be found in rabbits, hares, mice, moles, &c. and examines the learned Dr. 

 Wharton's doctrine, assigning a double placenta to at least all viviparous ani- 

 mals, so as one half of it belongs to the uterus, the other to the chorion ; 

 showing how far this is true, and declaring the variety of these phaenomena. 



