The Importance Of The Stethoscope In The 21st Century

France, one of the most well-known European countries, was a booming success in the 1800’s. With multiple great inventors creating beautiful and innovative designs, France kept climbing up the ladder of success. France went through numerous hardships in the early 1800’s leaving them in a substantial amount of debt. However, despite its hefty deficit France made a vast assortment of inventions during that time such as the stethoscope, sewing machine, and braille. All of these inventions have proven to be very significant to our lives today and have impacted our growth as a civilization. Because of this, France is one of the most innovative and marvelous countries to live in. The stethoscope is a very useful tool for doctors now in the 21st century. Even with the colossal improvements
In 1816 a French physician Rene Laennec, created the first stethoscope. Laennec used it in his work at the Hôpital Necker so he could examine and diagnose a variety of chest conditions. However, the main reason for this invention was because of Laennec’s discomfort in placing his ear on a woman’s chest to listen to her heartbeat. The stethoscope was originally made of a wooden tube and only worked for one ear. He found that this worked because he initially observed that using a rolled up notebook could amplify the sounds of the heart. Laennec named the device the stethoscope because stetho means chest so in unvarnished terms, the stethoscope is a chest scope. In current times, the tool is used for various tasks from listening to arterial sounds in the neck all the way to listening to the