Scientific Breaktrhough: The Stethoscope

The stethoscope (link) has it's word's roots from the Greek word téthos - chest and skopé - examine. The stethoscope is a medical device used for auscultation, listening to the internal sounds in a human or animal. It is usually used to listen to heart beats and breathing, but can also be used to listen to intestines and the blood flow in our arteries or veins. The less common stethoscope is called the mechanic's stethoscope that is used to listen to the internal sounds made in machines, such as diagnosing a malfunctioning automobile engine by listening to the parts and figuring out which ones didn't sound right.

The first stethoscope that was ever invented, was invented by a French scientist called René-Théophile-Hyacinthe Laennec in 1816. The first design for a was simply made iwth a wooden tube and a monaural, this version of the stethoscope that was similar to the ear trumpet which was a hearing aid used back then. The difference from these two devices were very minuscule. In 1851 Arthur Leared invented a new version of the stethoscope called the binaural stethoscope, and in 1852 George Cammann further improved the stethoscope for commercial production and purpose, which is the one we use today. Along with making the common stethoscope that we use as standard today, Cammann also wrote a book on diagnosis by auscultation, which was made possible by the new stethoscope. In 1873 though there was a newer stethoscope that was said to be able to hear different places of the body, sadly though it was never used for clinical purposes.