Leonardo's depiction of the fetus in the womb is one of many portions of his planned Treatise on Anatomy. The Treatise on Anatomy a work proposed by Da Vinci that would compile various anatomical sketches and medical ideas, it was never finished. The sketch of a human fetus in the womb was completed around 1511. As this was before preservatives and organ donation Da Vinci was forced to spend many nights with corpses to extract as much information as he could before they decayed. In terms of ebryonic devolopment Da Vinci was very curious. He wondered how a baby could fit in the human uterus even though a newborn was more than four times the size of the uterus. Da Vinci's sketch of the uterus is considered to be one of the first accurate depictions of the uterus as it shows the uterus with one chamber as opposed to previous researchers who believed there were four.

Works Cited

Gilson, Hilary. "Leonardo da Vinci's Embryological Drawings of the Fetus". Embryo Project Encyclopedia (2008-08-19). ISSN: 1940-5030, Retreived from http://embryo.asu.edu/handle/10776/1929.

Pickover, Clifford.  The Medical Book: from witch doctors to robot surgeons: 250 milestones in the history of medicine. New York, Sterling Publishin, 2012.

"Recto: Fetus in the Womb. Verso: Notes on reproduction, with sketches of fetus in utero, etc." Royal Collection Trusts, Retreived from https://www.rct.uk/collection/919102/recto-the-fetus-in-the-womb-verso-notes-on-reproduction-with-sketches-of-a-fetus.