How the stethoscope was invented Moments of Vision 7 Jessica Oreck
In a Moment of Vision…
It’s 1816.
A 35-year-old doctor by the name
of René Laennec
is walking through Paris.
He pauses to watch as two children
signal to each other
across a long piece of wooden board.
One child holds the board to her ear.
The other scratches the opposite end
sending the amplified sound
down the length of wood.
Later, Laennec is called to assess
a young woman with a heart condition.
The patient is purportedly quite
well developed
and Laennec expresses some hesitation
in pressing his ear directly
against her chest.
Remembering the children with the board,
Laennec, in a moment of vision
and dignity,
tightly rolls a sheet of paper
and places one end to his ear
and one end over the young
woman’s heaving bosom.
He is delighted by
the clarity of the sound.
Laennec spends the next three years
developing and testing various materials
and mechanisms
before settling on a hollow wooden tube
with detachable plug.
His device becomes the forerunner
to the metal, plastic, and rubber
stethoscope we still use today.