Windows on the Womb and Guiding Trains of Light: Figuring the Real in Plate XXVI of William Hunter's Anatomy of the Human Gravid Uterus

Bruce, Susan

Abstract

Eschewing the symbolic in favour of commitment to the unmediated replication of exactly that which is actually observed, Hunter’s attitude to the images in his Anatomy of the Human Gravid Uterus embraces a juridical ideal of scientific representation: images should tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Contemporary scholars have questioned this appeal to objectivity, maintaining representation always exists inside culture and arguing gender frequently inflects purportedly neutral scientific vision. I extend that debate via a reading of Plate XXVI, which is frequently misunderstood as representing something completely different to what it actually depicts. Its sequence of images, I argue, chart a narrative of enlightenment wherein folk mythologies of the uterus are subdued by the controlling scientific gaze. I also suggest a previously unrecognised correspondence between Plate XXVI and one of the plaster casts of the dissected bodies preserved in the University of Glasgow’s Anatomy Museum.

Citation

Bruce, S. (2024). Windows on the Womb and Guiding Trains of Light: Figuring the Real in Plate XXVI of William Hunter's Anatomy of the Human Gravid Uterus. Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies, https://doi.org/10.1111/1754-0208.12923

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 14, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Mar 12, 2024
• Publication Date: Mar 12, 2024
• Deposit Date: Jan 15, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 20, 2024
• Journal: Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies
• Print ISSN: 1754-0194
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1754-0208.12923
• Keywords: anatomy, dissection, wandering womb, foetus, gravid, Jan van Rymsdyk, uterus, pregnancy, William Hunter