First edition of an important work on the anatomy of the gravid uterus with four fine plates after Jan Wandelaar. 
 
A student of anatomist Bernhard Siegfried Albinus (1697-1770), renowned for his impressive preparations, Wilhelmus Noortwyk (ca. 1713-1777) graduated M.D. at Leiden University in 1735.
 
In the present work he presents "his investigations on the corpse of a young woman who died at 6 months gestation. Noortwyk obtained permission of the husband to excise the pregnant uterus from the corpse, and took it home for dissection. [...] In this description, Noortwyk asserted correctly that the maternal and fetal circulations were separate. [...] [Noortwyk] apparently was the first to inject the uterine vessels of a young woman who had died near term" (Longo & Reynolds).