I therefore return to you, most learned Slegel, and say, that I wish greatly I had been so full and explicit in what I have said on the subject of anastomosis in my disquisition to Riolanus, as would have left you with no doubts or scruples on the matter. I could wish, also, that you had taken into account not only what I have there denied, but likewise what I have asserted on the transference of the blood from the arteries into the veins; especially as I there seem to have pointed out some cause both for my inquiry and for my negation, to hint at a certain cause. I confess, I say, nay, I even pointedly assert, that I have never found any visible anastomoses. But this was particularly said against Riolanus, who limited the circulation of the blood to the larger vessels only, with which, therefore, these anastomoses, if any such there were, must have been made conformable, viz. of ample size, and distinctly visible. Although it be true, therefore, that I totally deny all anastomoses of this description--anastomoses in the way the word is commonly understood, and as the meaning has come down to us from Galen, viz. a direct conjunction between the orifices of the [visible] arteries and veins--I still admit, in the same disquisition, that I have found what is equivalent to this in three places, namely, in the plexus of the brain, in the spermatic or preparing arteries and veins, and in the umbilical arteries and veins. I shall now, therefore, for your sake, my learned friend, enter somewhat more at large into my reasons for rejecting the vulgar notion of the anastomoses, and explain my own conjectures concerning the mode of transition of the blood from the minute arteries into the finest veins.