the stethoscope and Laennec’s first trial

In 1816, René Laennec described how, while examining a young patient suspected of heart disease, he rolled a sheet of paper into a tube and heard the heart sounds more clearly than by placing his ear directly on her chest. In his account, he mentioned both practical and propriety-related reasons for avoiding direct contact. The paper tube was later replaced by a wooden instrument, a predecessor of the stethoscope. So the story about embarrassment has a basis in his own account, but it was not the only reason for the invention. The illustration is AI-generated.