(4^0 
a continued Circulation from the Mother to the Child, 
and from the Child to the Mother ; fo that a Partus 
Teems not to refpire but by the Mother. As Monficur 
l^ery in the Memoires dt tAcaJemie dc Science has con- 
firmed by feveral Experiments. Thefii ft was uport Two 
Tortoifes, by tying their Jaws ftrongly together, and 
fealing their Nofe and Throat with Spanifh Wax, to 
try how long they could live without breathing; The 
firft lived One and thirty days, the other Thirty. tv\ o. 
Another Experiment was by laying open the Stcr- 
' num of a Dog, who died a little after but having lift- 
ed that of a Tortoife, it lived yet Seven days. 
Altho* their Reafons (eem to be ftrong, that a Tor- 
toife can live fo long without breathing, having the Ca- 
nal of Communication and Foramen ovale always open, 
yet Monfieur Mery pretends they are not concluding, 
but by other reafons quite different ; and that is by the 
continued circulation, as we have faid above, as he has 
feveral times obferved in Accouchemens : That the Cor- 
don by which the Txtus is tied to the Placenta, was Co 
prefled, that the Blood could not pafs from the Mother 
to the Fastus and that the head of the Faetus is enga- 
ged in the paflage, the Fastus is choaked in a very little 
time ; but if the head is come forth, the Faetus dies not, 
,altho' the Cordon be ftrongly comprefled by the reft of 
the Body. 
To conclude this Difcourfe, I ftall mention a few 
Obfervations of the like cafes. 
The firft is by Monfieur Mauriceau in the 4th Edit, 
of his Book, Des Maladies des Eemms^ p. 115. where 
he gives an account of one extraordinary Birth that 
happened in the Year 1665", it had neither Cranium 
Cerebrum nor Cerebellum^ but in place of thole, a lump 
of!fleftiy fubftancevery red, about the thicknefs and 
largnefe of a Placenta covered with a fingle Membrane 
very 
