Wombs with a view

ISBN 978-3-319-23567-7

"Illustrations of the Gravid Uterus from the Renaissance through the Nineteenth Century," compiled by Lawrence D. Longo and Lawrence P. Reynolds.

This book contains several iconic images and many that are less well known. Each with a text about the author, artist and engraver as well as an analysis of the influence of the book on contemporary science and midwifery.

Great pains have been taken with reproduction of the images. No doubt many were taken from rare books in Larry Longo's own library. It is a pity he did not live to see the result in print (previous post).

Afterbirth of the sheep with four neat rows of cotyledons
From Girolamo Fabrizio De Formato Foetu 1604

There are plenty of images of the placenta including a few from animals. Anatomists who had dissected the gravid uteri of ruminants and dogs sometimes represented human placenta as cotyledonary or zonary in shape.

I am enjoying this book. It is a pity that the publisher (Springer Nature) did not employ a copy editor. There are many more typos than might be expected in a work of such high quality.

Larry Longo

Lawrence D. Longo M.D. 1926-2016

Larry Longo was among the most important perinatal physiologists of our time. He is perhaps best known for enhancing understanding of placental gas exchange by mathematical modelling. The work was conducted in close collaboration with Gordon G. Power and Esther P. Hill and summarized in a seminal review (here). Much of the input data was derived from experiments in his lab.

Together with Gordon Power and Raymond D. Gilbert, Larry founded the Center for Perinatal Biology at Loma Linda University. The research program was impressive and is still ongoing. It has been responsible for training a great number of good scientists.

Larry was not just interested in the history of science. He actively researched it. Of particular note is his 2013 book The Rise of Fetal and Neonatal Physiology (here). Larry's Collection of rare books is legendary and those priveleged to have entered his library are unlikely to forget the experience. Many images from these tomes will appear in a forthcoming book Wombs with a View co-authored with Lawrence P. Reynolds (here).

Larry will be remembered for his humility, courteousness and encouragement of all who came his way. He passed 5 January 2016.

A fuller account of Larry Longo's career can be found here and here.