Announcing the invention of the stethoscope

LAENNEC, Rene Theophile Hyacinthe.

De l'auscultation médiate ou traité du diagnostic des maladies du poumon et du coeur, fondé principalement sur ce nouveau moyen d'exploration.

Paris: Brosson & Chaudé, 1819.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Fine. Item #001763

8vo. xlviii, 456, [8] pp; xvi, 472 pp., 4 engraved plates. Contemporary half calf with spine gilt, decor. and red and green label (vol. 2 with small defect at top spine). Some occasional light foxing; very fine copies in beautiful binding. ----

PMM 280; Dibner 129; Norman 1253; Heirs of Hippocrates 1364; Garrison-Morton 2673; Osler 1318; Wellcome III, p. 429 - FIRST EDITION, first state, with the second leaf of the dedication (a*2) uncancelled. A LANDMARK WORK IN THE DIAGNOSIS OF DISEASES OF THE LUNGS AND HEART, ANNOUNCING THE INVENTION OF THE STETHOSCOPE. As head physican at the Necker Hospital in Paris, Laennec's investigations of emphysema, tuberculosis, and other chest diseases inspired him to improvise a technological innovation that would revolutionize physical diagnosis. Although auscultation had been known since the days of Hippocrates, and diagnostic percussion of the chest had most recently been advocated by Auenbruegger, these methods were often inconvenient and were subject to frequent misinterpretation. Experimentation with a rolled paper cylinder led Laennec to invent a more reliable diagnostic instrument, a foot-long tube of cedar wood, which amplified the sounds of his patients' hearts and lungs. Even more impressive than his invention of this brilliantly simple instrument, however, were the uses Laennec made of it: through methodical observation he taught himself the significance of the various sounds produced by the movements of the heart and lungs and drew up a clear and detailed classification system correlating.

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