This very early exemplar (c. 1819) of the monaural stethoscope devised by René Laennec can be seen in the Warren Anatomical Museum of Boston. This stethoscope, curiously displayed inside a top hat, “is a solid wooden cylinder with a drilled center that could be unscrewed for carrying in the pocket, At one end, a chest piece auscultated the heart and when removed, the large opening was for listening to the lungs. By the 1850s, the monaural stethoscope was a mainstay of the physical examination”1.
- Photos by Luca Ambrosio (August 2017)
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