“I will bequeath all my scientific research and books to my nephew, as well as my watch and my ring. Above all, I will bequeath to him the most precious and greatest thing in my estate, which is my stethoscope”; This was recommended by Dr. Rene Laennec, inventor of the stethoscope. In this article, we will present to you his success story and the most important stations of his life. So follow us in the next few lines.
Birth, upbringing, and educational attainment of Rene Laennec:
René Laennec was born in Paris, the French capital, on February 17, 1781 AD. When he was five years old, his mother died of pulmonary tuberculosis, and his father could not take care of him. This is because he was an officer in the French army at the time. So his uncle, the doctor, took care of him.
Linnek had been diagnosed with asthma since childhood, and he often had severe attacks that accompanied him throughout his life. Rene’s dream was to become a doctor because he was affected by his uncle who took care of him, and because of the death of his mother from tuberculosis, for which doctors at that time were unable to find useful medicine for him.
Rene graduated from the Faculty of Medicine in 1804 AD, and he was proficient in the art of audiological examination of the chest cavity, and his studies and research on tuberculosis, menopause, peritonitis and prostate glands were famous. Rene continued his research after graduation as a faculty member at the Society of the Faculty of Medicine in Paris, wrote several articles on pathological anatomy, and was appointed in 1816 AD at the Necker Hospital in Paris.
What is the history of the invention of the stethoscope?
There were conflicting accounts about the true story of the invention of the stethoscope, and among these accounts, we mention to you:
1. The first novel:
One day, while Rene was strolling near the Louvre Palace in Paris, a game that two children were playing caught his attention, and this game consisted of a pin and a wooden beam; Where one of them pierced one of the beams of the piece of wood, while the second child exploited the properties of wood in transmitting and amplifying the sound, to hear the pin strikes and count them.
After some time, the doctor wanted to see a young woman suffering from a disease, and he could not diagnose the disease well. Where he had to hear the heartbeat and the movement of the breath, and the primitive method at that time depended on placing the ear on the bare chest to hear the heartbeat well; This made Linick embarrassed and ashamed, and he considered it an attack on her privacy.
Then Linick remembered the two children’s game, and he rolled a piece of paper in a cylindrical shape and placed one side of it on his ear, and the other side on the patient’s chest, and indeed he was able to hear her heartbeat and the movement of herself.
2. The second novel:
While Rene was strolling through a garden, he lay down on a tree stump, and it came to his attention that he could hear a bird clicking at the other end of the tree; Which emphasized the role of wood in transmitting sounds. This is what inspired him to make a medical stethoscope to measure the number of heartbeats, and indeed to make a medical stethoscope out of wood.
3. The third novel:
This is what doctor, Rene Laennec, said in one of the famous magazines published at the beginning of the nineteenth century: “While I was ashamed of revealing the case of a woman who was sick with the heart, an idea came to my mind; I used my knowledge of acoustics, and that sound travels through solid bodies, so I I folded a sheet of paper in the shape of a cylinder, then placed one end of it on the patient’s heart, and the other end on my ear, and the impressive result was; I was able to hear the patient’s heartbeat clearly, which helped me get rid of the problem of placing my ear on the patient’s chest.”
In the year 1819 AD, Rene submitted his invention to the competent authorities, but unfortunately, they did not notice this invention until many years later, specifically in the year 1885 AD. That is, by the end of the nineteenth century. Also, his research was not published in any journal until two years later, i.e. in 1821 AD.
The death of Doctor Rene Laennec and other facts in his life:
René was a very religious Catholic Christian, and he dedicated his life to Roman Catholicism; Which led to his appointment as a personal physician to the French ambassador to the Vatican, Joseph Cardinal Fish, who is Napoleon’s half-brother.
Rene was kind, loving, and helping the poor.
Doctor Rene Laennec died in 1826 AD at the age of 45, after he was emaciated and short of breath as a result of his illness with pulmonary tuberculosis.
Thus, we have presented to you the success story of Dr. Rene Laennec, the inventor of the stethoscope.
