Page:The Works of William Harvey (part 2 of 2).djvu/53

 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.

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