Stethoscope: An invention out of a child’s play
The mention of a doctor probably reminds you of someone wearing a stethoscope around the neck. This device is used by medical professionals to listen to the heart and lung sounds of the patient. It usually consists of a small disc-shaped resonator that rests on the skin. The resonator is connected to one or two tubes which are in turn attached to two earpieces. A stethoscope can amplify the heart, lung and intestine sounds. This word is derived from the Greek words, 'stethos' meaning ‘chest’ and 'skopein' meaning ‘to investigate’.
Over 200 years old, stethoscope was invented by a French physician, Dr. René Theophile Hyacinthe Laennec, in 1816. Up until that time, doctors used to resort to a traditional method known as immediate auscultation which involved pressing of the ear on the patient’s chest. The invention of stethoscope has an interesting backstory. Let’s find out more about this discovery and the man behind this revolutionary medical device.
The invention story
One fine morning in 1816, Laennec was strolling in the courtyard of the Le Louvre Palace in Paris. During the morning walk, he noticed two kids sending signals to each other using a long piece of wood and a pin. They were scratching on the wood using the pin to send signals. This had perhaps left a long-lasting impression on the 35-year-old physician.
Later that year, Laennec was summoned to treat a young woman suffering from heart disease. However, he was hesitant to apply the traditional methods of immediate auscultation and percussion (tapping the chest with fingers) on the patient, considering her age and gender. It was then that he remembered those kids sending signals through a log of wood.
“I recalled a well-known acoustic phenomenon: if you place your ear against one end of a wood beam. the scratch of a pin at the other end is distinctly audible. It occurred to me that this physical property might serve a useful purpose,” he memorised.
The first stethoscope
Who knew, a simple, unceremonious moment of unbridled fun between two kids could lead to one of the most revolutionary inventions in the history of medical science! Enlightened by his observation, Laennec started studying various methods of amplifying the internal sounds of the body. In fact, he devoted three years experimenting with different materials to construct a tube-like device. to finally come up with
After much testing, he settled on a hollow wooden tube with a diameter of 3.5 cm and a length of 25 cm, which was the predecessor of the current stethoscope. His device had a plug for listening to the heart and was made in parts that could be disassembled.