Laennec, TRC
Laennec, Theophile-Rene-Hyacinthe
ACHIEVEMENTS:
Invented the stethoscope
NICKNAME/ALIAS:
None
DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH:
17 February 1781, Quimper, France
DATE AND PLACE OF DEATH AND AGE AT DEATH:
13 August 1826, Kerlouanec, France. Aged 45
DISCIPLINE:
Physician
FIELD:
Medicine
LANGUAGE:
French
PARENTS:
Father: Theophile-Marie Laennec
Mother: Michelle Guesdon
SIBLINGS:
1 brother: Michaed
1 sister: Anne-Marie
SPOUSE:
Jacqueline Guichard
CHILDREN:
None
EDUCATION:
Tardivel College, Nantes
College de ll’Oratoire, Nantes
Medical school, Paris
MAJOR WORK:
1819: “On Mediate Auscultation”
LIFE AND TIMES:
In 1795 Laennec began his medical studies with a military commission as assistant surgeon in the public hospitals at Nantes. In 1801 he began attending the Paris medical school, taking classes under <taught by> Dupuytren* and <taught by> Corvisart*. Laennec’s first publications, on heart disease and inflammation of the peritoneum, appeared in 1802 in the “Journal de medicine.”
Laennec did not get on with Dupuytren and seriously considered leaving Paris but his anatomist colleague <a colleague was> Bichat* persuaded him to stay, and with Bichat Laennec published several more articles.
In the competitive examinations held by the medical school in1803 Laennec won the surgery prize and shared the medicine prize. Laennec was the first to give a clear explanation of the anatomical significance of the prostrate and he also found that the tubercle lesion, previously thought to appear only in the lungs, could be present in all organs.
In his thesis on the relevance of the Hippocratic doctrine to clinical medicine, he rejected the generally accepted classification of fevers by <rejected theory of> Pinel* in favour of a more detailed analysis .
After his thesis he became an associate of the “Societe de l’ecole de medicine,” where his last article (in 1808) reviewed Corvisart’s book on <work related to> Auenbrugger* and percussion. Laennec then founded a journal called “Athenee Medical”.
When Paris was full of wounded soldiers after Napoleon’s Russian campaign ended in 1812-13, Laennec worked at the Salpetriere hospital.
In 1816 he took up a post at the Necker hospital, on the edge of Paris. At the Necker, Laennec put into the practice the new type of clinical medicine influenced by the work of the Italian anatomist <influenced by> Morgagni* (who was the first to show through morbid pathology that any anatomical alteration corresponded to an alteration in function). Bichat’s anatomical work built on this, and Corvisart taught his students the importance of clinical observation, but generally speaking in practical medicine the observation of physical signs in the patient was still little practised.
About 1800 Corvisart tried a tapping technique described years earlier by Auenbrugger. Laennec also used percussion, but he found that in many cases it was better apply his ear to the chest wall. In many cases this was made awkward by very fat patients or, for reasons of modesty, in women patients.
In 1816 he tried placing a tube made of tightly rolled sheets of paper on the patient’s chest and found that by placing his ear at the other end he could hear the heart much more clearly. He realised that this technique (which he name “auscultation”) would also be useful for diagnosing lung diseases.
In July 1817 he replaced rolled sheets of paper with a tube made of three tightly rolled notebooks held together with gum paper, and continued to experiment with tubes made of various woods, glass and metals. He finally decided on a cylinder of beechwood about a foot long, and called it a “stethoscope.” In February 1818 Laennec presented his “Memoire sur l’auscultation a l’aide d’instruments d’acoustique....” to the Academy, and in 1819 he published his book, “De l’auscultation mediate.”
Although his work was praised by Philipe Pinel and other modernists in medicine, there was a great deal of prejudice against the introduction of new clinical techniques and ascultation was not taken up by many young doctors until later in the century, when physicians such as <influenced> Louis* stressed the importance of accurate clinical observations and records, and others, such as <influenced> Marey* promoted experimental physiology.
In 1821, after a year in Brittany, Laennec returned to the Necker clinic, was appointed doctor to the Duchesse de Berry and in 1822 became professor and royal lecturer at the College de France.
In 1824 he transferred his clinical work to the Charite hospital where as many as fifty doctors from many different countries attended his ward rounds and lectures.
ASSESSMENT: Laennec’s invention of the stethoscope was an important tool in the modernization of clinical medicine.
EXTRA CONNECTION: He was succeeded by <succeeded by> Chomel*
He influenced <influenced> Flint*, <influenced> Richard Bright*
His apparatus was introduced to the UK by <invention promoted by> Benjamin Richardson*
ONELINER: TRH Laennec, inventor of the stethoscope
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Kervran, Roger, trans. Abrahams-Curiel, DC, Laennec, His Life and Times, Pergamon Press, Oxford, 1960.