Stethoscope

What it is

A wooden tube that amplified chest sounds, invented out of modesty in front of a female patient. With it, Laennec founded mediate auscultation and correlated sounds with lesions found at autopsy.

Described in 'De l'auscultation médiate' (1819).

What it led to

• Clinical medicine based on objective signs rather than the patient's account
• Diagnosis of tuberculosis and heart disease
• The Paris clinical school and the anatomoclinical method
• The stethoscope as a symbol of the physician

Built on

• Auenbrugger's percussion (1761)
• Hippocratic immediate auscultation

Made possible

• Pinard hornc. 1895
• Korotkoff auscultatory method for blood pressure1905
• Binaural stethoscope (Cammann, 1852)
• Sphygmomanometer
• Systematic physical examination

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