224 DESCRIPTION of 



a 



began on the fore-part of the belly above the navel, at the place 

 where the fmall portion of the umbilical vein terminated in 

 the cavity of the cutaneous button, from which various 

 branches were fent into the kidney at its convex part, and from 

 its concave part, different arteries, he fays, came out in an ex- 

 traordinary manner *. 



Upon the whole, as the umbilical cord is not faid to have 

 been uncommon in fize or ftructure ; as there were two forts 

 of veffels connected with the kidney ; as it is fo improbable, as 

 to be incredible, that the foetus received arteries without corre- 

 fponding veins, or that there was merely a protrufion of the 

 humours, and exudation of them, without circulation, I have 

 no doubt that Winslow, efpecially as he did not inject the 

 veffels of the umbilical cord, had miftaken the continuation of 

 the umbilical veins, and the branches of the veffels he calls 

 aorta, for branches of the fame veffel j and as the monfter he 

 examined agreed very nearly, in all other refpects, with that I 

 have defcribed, I apprehend it muft have agreed like wife in 

 having two kinds of blood-veffels or arterious and venous ca- 

 nals. 



The learned Dr Roederer rejects the opinion of Mery, 

 that the blood of the foetus is circulated by the heart of the 

 mother, and fuppofes, that capillary attraction, heat, and fome 

 activity of the veffels, may contribute to its motion. But as 

 he applies the term aorta, not to the continuation of the umbi- 

 lical vein, but to the other principal veffel of the monfter, and 



defcribes 



* P. 602. " Ce tronc arteriel qui etoit comme la portion inferieure de 1'aorte de- 

 fcendante, au lieu de tenir la route naturelle en arriere le long des vertebres, il en etoit 

 ici tres eloigne. II commencoit fur le devant du ventre au deffus du nombril, a I'en- 

 droit ou fe terminoit la petite portion de la veine ombilicale — : — II jettoit des branches 



dans la maffe du rein par fa convexite. 11 fortoit de la concavite plufieurs 



arteres. 



