File:McMurrich1930 fig85.jpg

Fig. 85. Representations of human fetus at term and of ungulate placenta

(QIII, 8.)

So too it is the chorion of the fetal calf that is described, and it was upon this that Leonardo, following the example of his predecessors, based his ideas of human placentation, assuming that it also was of the cotyledonary type. In the wonderful drawing (fig. 85) of the fetus still within the womb (QIII, 8) it is curious to note cotyledons of the ungulate type on the wall of the uterus, while the discoidal placenta is entirely overlooked, even although there is a memorandum to “Note well the umbilical vein where it ends in the uterus” (QIII, 7v). It is evident that Leonardo had examined a pregnant human uterus at term— he gives a number of drawings of the fetus as it lies curled up within the womb (QIII, 7, 7v, 8, 9v) — but in none of them is a placenta shown. Where the uterus is also shown there is usually no indication of how the fetus is connected with it; only in QIII, 8 are the cotyledons represented, on the assumption that what he had seen in the cow occurred also in the human pregnant uterus.

Reference

McMurrich JP. Leonardo da Vinci - the anatomist. (1930) Carnegie institution of Washington, Williams & Wilkins Company, Baltimore.

Cite this page: Hill, M.A. (2024, April 18) Embryology McMurrich1930 fig85.jpg. Retrieved from https://embryology.med.unsw.edu.au/embryology/index.php/File:McMurrich1930_fig85.jpg

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