It was in the early 19th century that a French doctor named Rene Theophile Laennec invented the stethoscope. The initial design of the stethoscope was one foot in length and was a perforated wooden cylinder. Laennec's inspiration for the stethoscope came from the observation of children's activities when they were scratching one end of a wooden beam with a pin and excitedly listening to the scratching sound on the other end.
That led him to use the stethoscope to listen to the sounds of the heart and lungs of his patients. He detected the meaning of those sounds, basing his observation on the nature of each sound and linking it to the disease that the patients had. This series of observations later on took the form of a book that was titled De I'Auscultation Mediate. It was one of the greatest books on medicine and that was the point from where the stethoscope gained popularity and became an object of general use for doctors.
That led him to use the stethoscope to listen to the sounds of the heart and lungs of his patients. He detected the meaning of those sounds, basing his observation on the nature of each sound and linking it to the disease that the patients had. This series of observations later on took the form of a book that was titled De I'Auscultation Mediate. It was one of the greatest books on medicine and that was the point from where the stethoscope gained popularity and became an object of general use for doctors.