sthethoscope

Term: stethoscope

Origin: Anc Greek

στήθος/stethos(=brest)

+ σκοπός/scopos(=aim, look at)

by Thebald Chartan (1816)

Coined

The stethoscope was invented in 1816 by French phycisian  Rene Laennec at the Necker-Enfants malades Hospital in Paris.  One day, when he needed to examine an obese young woman, Laennec hesitated to put his head to her chest. Laennec remembered that could use urchins to hear to the scratching of a pin transmitted through the length of a wooden beam. He is thereby inspired to fashion a paper tube to listen to the chests of his patient. “I was surprised and pleased to hear the beating of the heart much more clearly than if I had applied my ear directly to the chest," Laennec said in 1816”. The first sthethoscope consisted of a wooden tube and was monaural. His device was similar to the common ear trumpet, a historical form of hearing aid. In 1840,  Golding Bird described a stethoscope he had been using with a flexible tube.

Definition

The stethoscope is an acoustic medical device for ausculation consisting of two earpieces connected by means of flexible tubing.  This  instrument used to hear and amplify the sounds produced by the heart, lungs, and other internal organs