Also called "Dr Péan Teaching His Discovery of the Compression of Blood Vessels at St Louis Hospital," the scene takes place in a room in which the walls are interrupted by tall windows. Daylight shines through the windows, illuminating an attractive naked young woman in the right foreground who lies seemingly anesthetized -- her eyes are closed although there is no sign of anesthesia -- on a bed of some kind that is draped loosely with sheets. Her body is pointing away from the viewer, her head facing away from us, her long hair falling casually over the near edge of the bed. Her breasts are fully visible, especially her right breast, while her lower body is covered. A seated man grasps the wrist of her bent right arm, perhaps taking her pulse. His hand and arm rest directly on the woman's body -- on her abdomen and groin area. He appears to be reading from a paper.
In the left foreground is the edge of a table that holds some surgical instruments and a glass jar containing what may be anatomic specimens. An imposing sideburned man stands to the left, above the head of the bed and the woman. Holding a surgical instrument in his right hand, he gesticulates with his left-hand, his mouth partly open: he is lecturing to the people in the room, some of whom are looking directly at him while others talk to each other. Two in the audience are women -- a nun barely visible in the far background, and a nurse standing behind two men who are near the bed. The men are all dressed in street clothes.
