Laennec’s Monaural Stethoscope

This very early exemplar (c. 1819) of the monaural stethoscope devised by René Laennec can be seen in the Warren Anatomical Museum of Boston. This stethoscope, curiously displayed inside a top hat, “is a solid wooden cylinder with a drilled center that could be unscrewed for carrying in the pocket, At one end, a chest piece auscultated the heart and when removed, the large opening was for listening to the lungs. By the 1850s, the monaural stethoscope was a mainstay of the physical examination”1.

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  • Photos by Luca Ambrosio moc.liamg|sorbma.cul#| (August 2017)
Footnotes
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