lister’s TRAVELS IN FRANCE. 23

of its breadth ; and a membrane drawn over the reft, which membrane was faftened tothe Tides quite round. Then he opened in the fame manner the left ventricle andauricle, and there it was evident, that that membrane which clofed the hole, had twonarrow (traps or mufcles by which it was faftened to the oppofite fides, after the man-ner of fome of the valves of the heart.

I told him that it muft follow from this, that the' foramen ovale was (hut and openedmore or lefs, at the pleafure of the embryo, according to the neceflities ot nature,and the quantity of blood that was to pafs : that it was probable, that all infetts had acommand of their hearts (of which I had given large inftances * elfewhere), by fomefuch paflage, which they could (hut altogether, or in great part, as they had a mind,in winter, in fear, or fading for want of food : that the (hutting up of the paflage inadult animals was therefore done in an inftant, by drawing the curtain fully, whichcould never be again drawn back and opened, becaufe of the great torrent of blood,which now entered the right auricle, and (topped it in that pofture, which in timewould altogether ftiffen and lofe its motion of relaxation. As a hen, when (he deeps,draws over the membrana nidtans; and likewife when (he dies, the fame membranecovers all the eye.

Mr. Bennis procured me the heart of a human foetus, which had but juft breathed 5the which I examined with Monfieur Litre of Caftres in Languedoc, another very un-derftanding and dextrous anatomift, and who teaches fcholars of all nations the practiceof anatomy. The experiments here were repeated as formerly defcribed; both windand water pafled the foramen ovale, both from the vena pulmonum,. and from theaorta. That which I obferved in this heart more particularly, was, that the mem-brane or valve on the left fide of the foramen ovale was flat, and extended almoftover the hole, without any limbus round its edges, becaufe it was nothing but thevery fubftance of the auricula finiftra continued, or a procefs thereof;, but on theright fide the vena cava being joined to the auricle, it had a rifing edge round thatpart of it, whence it proceeded; that is, that the two faces had contrary openings,and being drawn as it were one over the other, they fhut the hole; but not fofirmly, but the hole might be more or lefs open all a man’s life. For thofe twooval procefles flicking clofe together in a blown and dried heart, that is not to bemuch heeded; for I have feen them dry with the hole open; but it has beenlike as betwixt unglued paper, or as the urethers defeend betwixt the (kins ofthe bladder, or as the fame happens to the duftus bilaris in its infertion into theguts.

The fame perfon brought me the heart of a man forty years old, in which theforamen ovale was as much open as in a feetus new born; and the ligaments very con-fpicuous, which tack the fides of the valve to the auricle, and go over to the other fideof the border.

I was not better pleafed with any vifit I made, than with that of F. Plumier, whomI found in his cell in the convent of the Minimes. He came home in the fieur Ponti’sfquadron, and brought with him feveral books in folio, of defigns and paintings ofplants, birds, fifties, and infects of the Weft Indies; all dpne by himfelfvery accurate-ly. He is a very underftanding man in feveral parts of natural hiftory, but efpeciallyin Botanique. He had been formerly in America , at his return printed at the king’scharge a book of American plants in folio. This book was fo well approved of, that hewas fent again thither at the king’s charge, and returned after feveral years wandering

Exercilat. Anatomical 1.

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