An Interactive Annotated World Bibliography of Printed and Digital Works in the History of Medicine and the Life Sciences from Circa 2000 BCE to 2022 by Fielding H. Garrison (1870-1935), Leslie T. Morton (1907-2004), and Jeremy M. Norman (1945- ) Traditionally Known as “Garrison-Morton”

15961 entries, 13944 authors and 1935 subjects. Updated: March 22, 2024

LAENNEC, René Théophile Hyacinthe

4 entries
  • 2673
  • 3219
  • 3614

De l’auscultation médiate, ou traité du diagnostic des maladies des poumons et du coeur. 2 vols.

Paris: J A. Brosson & J. S. Claudé, 1819.

This book revolutionized the study of diseases of the chest. Auscultation in the instrumental sense dates from Laennec’s invention of the stethoscope (at first merely a roll of stiff paper) with a view to amplifying the sound of the heart’s action. The work illustrates Laennec's wooden stethoscope, which could be purchased from the publishers, and which was advertised for sale on the original printed wrappers of the first edition. Laennec's first wooden stethoscope was in two parts; later he invented a three-part stethoscope.

Laennec was considered the greatest teacher of his time on tuberculosis. Indeed, it was in elaboration of his investigation of the disease that he invented the stethoscope. He established the fact that all phthisis is tuberculous, described pneumothorax and distinguished pneumonia from the various kinds of bronchitis and from pleuritis. “Laennec’s cirrhosis” – chronic interstitial hepatitis – is described on p. 368 of Vol. 1. The second edition, 1826, is even more important, since it gives not only the various physical signs elicited in the chest, but adds the pathological anatomy, diagnosis, and treatment of each disease encountered. Laennec died of tuberculosis at the early age of 45. English translation of the first edition by J. Forbes, London, 1821. 



Subjects: HEPATOLOGY › Diseases of the Liver, INFECTIOUS DISEASE › Pneumonia, INSTRUMENTS & TECHNOLOGIES › Medical Instruments › Stethoscope, PHYSICAL DIAGNOSIS › Auscultation, PULMONOLOGY › Lung Diseases › Pulmonary Tuberculosis
  • 11648

Traité inédit sur l'anatomie pathologique, ou Exposition des altérations visibles qu'éprouve le corps humain dans l'état de maladie par R.-T.-H. Laënnec. Introduction et premier chapitre, précédés d'une préface par V. Cornil.

Paris: Félix Alcan & Germer Baillière, 1884.

Digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this link.



Subjects: PATHOLOGY
  • 11055

Laennec: Catalogue des manuscrits scientifiques. By Lydie Boulle, Mirko D. Grmek, Catherine Lupovici et Janine Samion-Contet.

Paris: Masson, 1982.

Documents manuscripts by Laennec preserved in the Archives de l'Académie des Sciences, and Musée Laennec de la Bibliothèque Universitaire de Nantes, Section médecine-pharmacie.



Subjects: BIBLIOGRAPHY › Bibliographies of Individual Authors, BIBLIOGRAPHY › Manuscripts & Philology, INSTRUMENTS & TECHNOLOGIES, PULMONOLOGY › Lung Diseases › Pulmonary Tuberculosis, WOMEN, Publications by › Years 1900 - 1999
  • 13599

The see with a better eye: A life of R. T. H. Laennec. By Jacalyn Duffin.

Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998.

"....relies on a vastly expanded foundation of primary source material, including thousands of pages of handwritten patient records, lecture notes, unpublished essays, and letters....

"Laennec’s famous Treatise on Mediate Auscultation was his only published book, but two lesser known works were left in manuscript: an early treatise on pathological anatomy and a later set of lectures on disease. The three parts of Duffin’s biography correspond to these books. First, she examines Laennec’s student research on the emerging science of pathological anatomy, the background for his major achievement. Second, she uses his clinical records to trace the discovery and development of “mediate auscultation” (listening through an instrument, or mediator, to sounds within the human body). The stethoscope allowed clinicians to “see” the organic alterations inside their living patients’ bodies. Finally, she explores the impact of auscultation on diagnostic practice and on concepts of disease. Analyzed here for the first time in their entirety, Laennec’s Collége de France lectures reveal his criticism of over-enthusiastic extrapolations of his own method at the expense of the patient’s story" (publisher).



Subjects: BIOGRAPHY (Reference Works) › Biographies of Individuals, CARDIOLOGY › Tests for Heart & Circulatory Function › Auscultation and Physical Diagnosis, INSTRUMENTS & TECHNOLOGIES › Medical Instruments › Stethoscope