Selected quad for the lemma: woman_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
woman_n	blood_n	child_n	womb_n	2,043	5	9.7787	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77179	A disquisition about the final causes of natural things wherein it is inquir'd, whether, and (if at all) with what cautions, a naturalist should admit them? By T.H. R.B. Fellow of the Royal Society. To which are subjoyn'd, by way of appendix some uncommon observations about vitiated sight. By the same author.	Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691.	1688 (1688)	Wing B3945A; ESTC R231094	85,440	301

to the Casual Concourse of Atoms For this Reason I say I thought it a part of my Duty as well to the most Wise Author of Things as to Their Excellent Contrivance and Mutual Subserviency to say Something tho' but briefly yet distinctly and expresly to shew That at least in the Structure and Nature of Animals there are Things that argue a far Higher and Nobler Principle than is Blind Chance But that I may do what I here intend with as much brevity as I can I will do little more than name some Particulars that I have not observed to be so usually reflected on to the Purpose for which I mention them And I shall Confirm these Considerations but with One Instance and That too taken from a Sort of Parts that are as little Elaborate and therefore seem to be as little Fit for my Purpose as almost any in the Humane Body I will not now inculcate what has been delivered and may be farther said of that Exquisite Structure of the Bodies of Dead Animals that is discoverable by the Knives of Anatomists tho' I shall not Scrupulously forbear to touch lightly on a few things of that kind that are requisite to my Purpose My present Design being to set down very briefly a few Arguments to Strengthen the Proposition lately delivered First then I observe That there seems to have been Care taken that the Body of an Animal should be furnished not only with all things that are Ordinarily Necessary and Convenient but with some Superabundant Provision for Casualties Thus tho' a Man may Live very well and Propagate his Kind as many do tho' he have but One Eye yet Nature is wont to furnish Men with Two Eyes that if One be Destroyed or Diseased the Other may suffice for Vision And so if One Ear grow Deaf a Man may be Conversed with by the help of the Other that remains Sound In short Nature has furnished Men with Double Parts of the same Kind where that Duplicity may be highly Useful and can be permitted without Incongruity to the rest of the Body And this is the more Considerable because in Other Parts Nature appears to Husband things so as to Shun doing things Superfluous As within the Skull some Vessels that would in other Parts of the Body have Double Coats like other Arteries are much Thinner almost like Veins the Thickness of the Skull being ordinarily a sufficient Fence to them from External Injuries Another Argument That divers Things that Nature does about Animals are done with Design may be taken from what Anatomists Observe of Those Parts of the Womb or the Foetus that are to be found but at Certain Times at which there is Need of them and not at Others when they would be Useless Thus when a Woman is with Child the Vasa Vmbilicalia are produc'd to be Channels either for the Blood or Alimental Juice and Spirits that then ought to pass between the Womb and the Foetus which is to be Nourished either only or chiefly by the Liquors derived to It through those Vessels assisted by the Placenta that Supply to it the want of Eating with the Mouth which the Unborn Infant either does not at all or does but very imperfectly employ to Feed himself And though as long as he continues Imprison'd in the Womb-state these Temporary Parts if I may so call them continue with him yet as soon as he comes abroad into the World these Umbilical Vessels particularly the Two Arteries and the Vein together with the Membranes they are wrapt up in and Those commonly call'd the Chorion and the Amnios that Involve the Foetus are Thrown off as Unnecessary to the Born Infant 's New State and when It has quitted the Womb are Expell'd after it whence they are call'd the After-birth there remaining only that Part of the Umbilical Vessels that lies within the Child's Abdomen between the Navel and the Liver where its Use is Considerable tho' New it Serving no more to convey Blood or an Alimental Liquor to and fro but Degenerating into a Ligament To the same Purpose with this Contrivance we may mention that other wherein Nature employs the Foramen Ovale that gives Passage to the Blood from the Right Ventricle of the Heart to the Left that the Circulation of It may be maintain'd tho' It cannot in the Embryo as it does in a Born Child pass through the Vessels of the Lungs from One of the Ventricles to the Other For this Formen Ovale being but if I may so call it an Expedient that Nature Employs as long as that which is Intended to be an Infant remains an Embryo this Temporary Conformation is Obliterated when the Child Breathing the free Air is in a Condition to make the Blood Circulate through the Pulmonick Vessels according to the Primary Intention of Nature From which and the like Instances we may infer That these Temporary Parts were Fram'd by a Forecasting as well as a Designing Agent who Intended they should Serve for such a Turn and then be laid Aside it being utterly Improbable that an Undesigning Agent should so Appositely and Exquisitely Frame Scaffolds for the future Buildings if he did not before-hand Destinate both the One and the Other to concur to the same ultimate Effect Another Argument for our present purpose may be drawn from the Consideration of those things that in Animals are commonly call'd Instincts whereof Some more directly regard the Welfare of the Individuals they belong to Others the Propagation of their Species and Some again respect both The Writers of Voyages and those that professedly deliver Natural History recount strange and scarce credible Instances of the Instincts observable in certain Animals But we need not lay the stress of our Argument upon dubious or suspected Relations since what I have met with in Authors of good Authority or receiv'd from the mouths of Travellers of good Credit may serve my present turn especially if it be allow'd as I see not why it may not be to take the word Instinct in a latitude so as to comprise those Untaught Shifts and Methods that are made use of by some Animals to shun or escape Dangers or to provide for their future Necessities or to catch their Preys Divers Strange Things are deliver'd not only by Poets but by more Credible Writers about the wonderful Sagacity and Government of Bees in point not only of Oeconomy but of Politicks too But tho' I shall not build any thing upon the Authorities that I my self Suspect yet having had the Curiosity to keep for a good while in my Closet a Transparent Hive whence there was a free passage into a neighbouring Garden and having thereby had the opporunity to make frequent Observations of the Actions of these little Animals and particularly to see them at work about making their Combs and filling them with Honey I confess I discover'd some things that I did not believe before and was induc'd to look upon them as very fit