the invention of the stethoscope

First edition of the announcement of the stethoscope's invention, 'the greatest advance in physical diagnosis between Auenbrugger [inventor of the percussive technique] and the discovery of X-rays' (Printing and the Mind of Man 280). With the original leaf a*2 rather than the cancel (matches the points given in Norman save for 'constat;' on the verso which has been corrected to 'constat,').

Réné Théophile Hyacinthe Laennec (1781-1826) studied under Napoleon's physician, Corvisart, and was particularly interested in finding new methods of diagnosis. He was aware of Auenbrugger's discovery that percussing the thorax could indicate whether organs were diseased, and was further inspired when he saw children tapping a hollow log and listening at the other end. His first model was a simple tube of stiff paper, but he soon constructed a device of cedar wood which is illustrated in plate 1.

'Remarkable as his invention was, what he did with it was even more important. While listening to the movements of the heart and lungs, he learned to understand the significance of the various sounds for which he created a terminology... He virtually created the modern science of the respiratory organs and their diseases' (PMM 280).

First edition; 2 volumes, 8vo (20 x 12 cm); 4 folding plates in vol. I, small ink stain affecting the early leaves of volume 1, page 351/352 torn with loss of the edge of the text, a little light spotting and toning throughout, particularly to plates; contemporary marbled boards, sheep backstrips, spines gilt in compartments, green morocco labels, ink stain to the edge of the upper board of vol. I, bindings rubbed with some wear at the ends of the spines, good condition; 456 & 472pp.

PMM 28; Garrison-Morton Medical Bibliography 2673; Norman Library of Science & Medicine 1253.