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ing a Species of wild Buffaloes, and many other "Sorts of Animals of feveral Colours in the Plains. "All the Length of it is peopled by barbarous Na❝tions: The moft noted are fet down in this "Map, especially on the Rivers that fall into it, "fome of which are reported to carry much Gold. "The Portuguefe have fome Towns about the Mouth "of it, and a Fort on Rio Negro, or the black "River

It appears from the fame Map, that the Jefuits have a very extenfive Miffion along the River of the Amazons, whither they began to fend Miffionaries in the Year 1638. Their chief Settlement is in the City of St. Francis of Borja, in the Province of the Mainos, Three Hundred Leagues from Quito. The Barbarians have killed feveral Jefuits, whole Names are inferted in the Map. The Society have, (befides the Parish of Borja, and its Dependencies) 39 Towns founded by their Labour in Four feveral Diftricts. We are told, That the Jefuits have converted and baptized 26000 People, and that they have contracted Friendship with feveral numerous Nations, which they hope to convert,

2

The Account of this curious Voyage is continued, in the Fifth Volume, Art. IX,

ARTICLE LXVIII.

I.

PROBLEMES DE PHYSIQUE. Sçavoir, fi la generation du Foetus depend ou non de fa nourriture. II. S'il y a ou non entre luy & la femme une reciproque circulation. III. Si le Fœtus fe nourrit d'un pretendų lait de la matrice, ou du fang de fa mere. IV. Si devenu fort il fuce ou non ce lait fuppofe. V. Si fa vie dépend ou non de celle de fa mere. VI. Si l'enfant fort de la matrice, parcequ'il eft privé d'aliment, ou parcequ'il en est chaffé par la contraction de cette partie refolus par M. MER Y, l'un des Anatomistes de l'Academie Royale des Sciences, & Maitre Chirurgien de l'

Hotel-Dieu de Paris. A Paris, chez Jean Boudot, Imprimeur ordinaire du Roy & de l'Academie Royale des Sciences, rue S. Jacques, au Soleil d'Or M DCC XII,

That

That is,

PHYSICAL PROBLEMS. I, Whe ther the Generation of the Foetus depends upon its Nourishment. II. Whether there is a mutual Circulation between the Fo tus and the Mother, III. Whether the Foetus is nourished with the pretended Milk of the Womb, or with the Blood of the Mother. IV, Whether, when it grows Strong, it fucks that pretended Milk. V. Whether its Life depends upon that of its Mother. VI. Whether the Child comes out of the Womb, because it wants Nourishment, or because it is thrust out by the Contraction of that Part. Refolved by Mr. MERY one of the Anatomifts of the Royal Academy of Sciences, and Chiat Paris. rurgeon of the Hotel-Dieu Paris 1712. in 4to. Pagg. 31:

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HIS Pamphlet will not come into England; "and therefore I fhall present the Rea ders with the following Extract taken from the Journal des Sçavans."

THESE Differtations, which are newly come out, have been occafioned by a Thefis maintained laft Year in the Schools of Phyfick at Paris. Dr. Falconet

the

I have published an Extract of that Thesis.

the Son, who was the Author of that Thefis, explained his Opinion about the Formation and Nourishment of the Fatus. He undertook particularly to confute those, who believe that the Child lives upon the Mother's Blood. That Opinion, which moft of the Ancients followed, appeared to him contrary to the new Discoveries of the Philofophers, who perceiving in the Place wherein the Child is nourished, a milky Liquor feparated from the Mother's Blood, inferred from it, that fuch a Liquor was only defigned for the Nourishment of the Child. But among those who are of this Opinion, fome believe ftill that there is fome Communication between the Mother's Blood, and that of the Child t:

Mr. Mery, whom Dr. Falconet did not name in his Thefis, being contented to call him a Learned Anatomift, to express his Efteem for him, thought himfelf obliged to attack an Opinion contrary to his Doctrine. He could not well bear, that what he had advanced as a Demonftration in the Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sciences, fhould be called an Error, in the publick Schools of Phyfick, by a Doctor whofe Capacity and Experience he himself acknowledges in feveral Places. Wherefore he undertakes to fhew that it is not true, that the Generation of the Fatus does not lefs depend upon its Nourishment, than its Growth and Perfection. Any one (fays he) who maintains fuch a Propofition, must believe, that the Mouth was firft opened by the Food conveyed into the Stomach of the Child; the Anus, by the coming out of the Maconium; the Arteria Trachea, by the Air going into the Lungs; and all the Veffels, by the Liquors. But fince the Reception and Diftribution of the Food require that the

I omit here a short Account of Dr. Falconet's Syftem, not to repeat what has been already faid upon that Subject in one of my former Papers.

the Conduits fhould be ready made, that it may be received and diftributed to all the Parts; it follows that the Formation of the Embryo does not depend upon its Nourishment. Mr. Mery adds, That a Child in the Mother's Womb, does not receive its Nou rifhment through the Mouth, because Sucking dépends upon Refpiration; but fince the Fatus does not breathe in the Womb, 'tis plain it cannot fuck. To be convinced that a Child cannot fuck without Breathing, one needs only ftop his Nofe whit he draws the Milk of his Nurfe, and it will appear that he can fuck no longer, unless he opens his Mouth to breath. Many Fatus's have been feen, fome whereof had their Mouth and Nofe topt, and others had no Head; and yet they ap peared as well fed as thofe that had not the fame Imperfections: But because thofe monftrous Fatus's could receive no Nourishment but through the Navel-ftring; 'tis plain, that a Fatus does not fuck in the Womb at any time. 'Tis therefore a chimerical Thing to affirm, that a Milky Juice is conveyed from the Womb into the Amnios through invifible conduits to be taken into the Mouth of the Fatus, as foon as it can fuck.

Befides, the Author maintains againft Dr. Falconet, That a Child from the time of its Conception is faften'd to the Womb by the Membranes of the Placenta form'd at the fame time. If it be true, as Dr. Falconet pretends, That when a Woman begins to be with Child, the Fatus does not stick to the Womb by the Placenta, nor by the Membranes, and therefore that the Mother's Blood cannot ferve for its Nourishment, because that Blood would fall into the Womb, and could not be conveyed into the Mouths of the Receptacles of the Placenta; it must be confefs'd that in the fame Cafe the milky Juice could not get into them neither, becaufe the fame Reafon ought to make us believe that the Lacteal Conduits are not lefs ftopt at that time, than the other Veffels. And therefore, according to Mr. Mery, Dr. Falconet's Argument comes to

nothing