Miscellanea Curiosa.

if at all perceivable, as has been experienced in the Dissection of Puppies before Respiration had. To |Boyle of the Elasticity of Air. Pechlinus de Aeris & Alimenti defectu.| produce such a feeble Palpitation, and creeping Motion, no greater force seems to be required, than may be deriv'd from the Communication between the Vessels of the Mother and Fœtus in the Placenta. I am not ignorant, that divers very Learned Anatomists (whom the Crowd have implicitly follow'd) have absolutely rejected all Communication between these Vessels. But, with submission to Great Authorities, I think they have acted arbitrarily, and without sufficient Warrant from Reason or Experiment: For neither are the Arguments which they bring against it conclusive, nor the Office which they assign to the Umbilical Vessels in lieu of it, proper, or natural to those Vessels, or the reality of the Fact made out by any substantial Reasons. Those that reject this Communication usually do it in favour of one or both of these Opinions, that the Arteries of the Uterus do deposite a Nutritive Juice, or a Juice impregnate with Air in the Placenta, which is suck'd in by the Umbilical Vein, and convey'd to the Fœtus, for the necessary Uses of Nutrition and Life. Now those that patronize either of these Opinions, lead Nature an unnecessary Dance. For if the Maternal Blood does really contain any such Nutritious, or any such necessary Aerial Particles, why shou'd they be separated and extravasated, to be with difficulty receiv'd into the Umbilical Vein, and again mixt with the Blood, when they might more easily have been imparted by the plain simple way of Transfusion from the Arteries of the Mother to the Veins of the Fœtus. And, that this is the course which Nature takes in this Case, I am perswaded from the easiness and simplicity of the Method, which readily performs what might be perhaps in vain expected from the other, and wou'd over and above find them, what they seem to grope so blindly about for, a first Mover of