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Article: The Legacy of Laennec.
- Article from:
- Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine
- Article date:
- October 1, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 College of American Pathologists. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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In 1816, the forerunner of the modern stethoscope came to be discovered in France. Before that time, physicians listened to the mysterious sounds of the heart by placing their ears directly on a patient's chest. The stethoscope of Rene Theophile Hyacinthe Laennec revolutionized the diagnosis of cardiopulmonary diseases and opened new horizons to a hitherto undiscovered world. The inventor of the stethoscope was also an ardent pathologist; his classic masterpiece, "De l'auscultation mediate," included an excellent correlation of the sounds of the chest with anatomical lesions, documented by careful postmortem observations. His name is also immortalized in the micronodular ...