Laennec was an outstanding student, receiving several prizes, and had a gift for pathological anatomy. His teacher Corvisart introduced him to the diagnostic technique of percussion, which Corvisart had learned about from a publication by Austrian physician Auenbrugger. Laennec’s political conservatism long prevented his appointment to a prestigious academic post. It took until the French monarchy was restored in 1815 for him to receive a position at the Necker Hospital, and later at the Paris Medical School.

Laennec made an observation around 1816 which changed diagnosis history. He was consulted by a young female patient with heart problems. Laennec considered it improper to listen to her heart by putting his head on her chest. Instead he rolled a piece of paper into an elongated tube. He placed one end on the patient’s chest and the other at his own ear. The tube communicated the sounds of the heart, and so helped him diagnose his patient without jeopardising her modesty. He subsequently developed a robust wooden tube to replace the paper tube, calling it the stethoscope. The instrument helped doctors diagnose by supporting their natural sense of hearing. It also supported Laennec’s belief that diseases are caused by pathological alterations, so-called ‘lesions’, located in specific parts of the body.

Key dates:

1795 - commissioned a third surgeon at the Hôpital de la Paix and Hospice de la Fraternité

1799 - returned to medical studies after a short break, surgeon Hôtel-Dieu in Nantes, entered École Pratique in Paris and studied dissection under Dupuytren

1802 - published first paper; 1803 awarded prize for surgery and medicine

July 1804 - associate of the Société de l'École de Médicine

1808 - founded Athénée Médical

1812-1813 - France at war and took charge at the wards in the Salpêtrière

1830 - physician Necker Hospital; studied bronchial diseases

1819 - returned to his estates at Kerbouarnec; returned to Necker Hospital

1822 appointed chair and lectureship at Collège de France

1823 - full member Académie de Médicine

1824 - Legion of Honour chevalier

1824 - married his housekeeper

1826 - left Paris