An Extract
I cannot forbear longer to inform you of the Experiments, which M. Perrault, M. Gayant, and I, made last Night upon the Corps of a Woman, that died some few dayes after she was brought to bed.
Our Design was to continue the Discovery of the Vessels, that carry the Chyle to the Breasts, of which I have indicated the Way, pag. 134. of the Second Edition of my Anatom. Experiments, printed 1654. But the Body being not fit for that, we referred the search thereof to another time; and we have had the good fortune to make another Discovery, which may prove not less useful to Physick; it is the Communication af the Milky Channel, now call'd the Ductus Thoracicus, with the Emulgent Vein. The Experiments were these:
1. M. Gayant having discovered the Ductus Thoracicus upon the 7th and 8th of the Vertebra's descending from the Back, inserted a Quill into the said Ductus, and having tied it upon the Quill, he did blow into it: whereupon the Ductus was fill'd with wind from the Quill unto the Subclavial Vein. This wind issued at the Ascending Cava, which had been cut, when he, whose the Corps was, had lifted up the heart to make the demonstration of it, M. Gayant would tie this Cava, but it was cut so short, that the Ligature could not hinder the wind to issue out of it; which was the cause, that it could not be thrust as far as the Breasts. I would supply this defect, by compressing with my finger that place of the Vein, at which the wind came out (which was at about the third Vertebra, descending from the Back) and M. Gayant having
