Rene Theophile Hyacinthe Laënnec (1781–1826): The Man Behind the Stethoscope

Rene Theophile Hyacinthe Laennec (1781–1826) was a French physician who, in 1816, invented the stethoscope. Using this new instrument, he investigated the sounds made by the heart and lungs and determined that his diagnoses were supported by the observations made during autopsies. Laennec later published the first seminal work on the use of listening to body sounds, De L’auscultation Mediate (On Mediate Auscultation). Laennec is considered the father of clinical auscultation and wrote the first descriptions of bronchiectasis and cirrhosis and also classified pulmonary conditions such as pneumonia, bronchiectasis, pleurisy, emphysema, pneumothorax, phthisis and other lung diseases from the sounds he heard with his invention. Laennec perfected the art of physical examination of the chest and introduced many clinical terms still used today.