On the foetus in utero : as inoculating the maternal with the peculiarities of the paternal organism in a series of essays now first collected / by Alexander Harvey.

  • Harvey, Alexander, 1811-1889.
Date:
1886
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the foetus in utero : as inoculating the maternal with the peculiarities of the paternal organism in a series of essays now first collected / by Alexander Harvey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    67/168 (page 47)
    Ao-ain, Dr. Kirkes, referring to Professor Goodsir's observations as to the intervention of two distinct layers of nucleated cells between tbe fcetal and maternal portions of the placenta, speaks of the one being probably designed to separate from the blood of the parent the materials destined for the blood of the foetus, while the other probably serves for the absorption of the material secreted by the other set of cells, and for its conveyance into the blood-vessels of the foetus, *—no idea, seem- ingly, being entertained of a converse process. Moreover, the view taken by most physiologists of the destination of that portion of the fcetal blood which is transmitted to the placenta appears to be exclusively that of renovation or aeration, by coming into relation with the oxygenated blood of the mother ;t—nothing being said as to re-absorption into the maternal system. J Medicine, Dr. Alison expresses himself even more strongly on the subject:— The experiments of Magendie and others have proved that any substance which may be circulating in the blood of the mother finds ready access to that of the foetus, but that there is little or no transference of fluids in the opposite direction.—Cyc. of Pract. Med., Vol. i. p. Ixxxiii. * Handbook of Physiology, p. 643. t Carpenter, Principles of Human Physiology, 2nd edit., p. 718. Manual of Physiology, p. 474. t It may be asked, whether the idea expressed by the terms renovation and aeration docs not necessarily include that of the transference of some Iclnd of matter from the foetus to the mother ? Supposing that the umbilical arteries terminate in the umljilical veins, and not in the vessels of the uterus, and that the [whole] blood in the umbilical arteries ' passes from the arteries into the veins, as in other parts of the body, and so back again into the child' —(Dr. J. Reid, Researches, p. 318)—still this blood