LAENNEC, RENE-THEOPHILE-HYACINTHE

born Feb. 17, 1781, Quimper, Fr. died Aug. 13, 1826, Kerlouanec French physician who invented the stethoscope and is generally considered the father of chest medicine. Using a foot-long wooden cylinder that he placed on the chests of his patients, he was able to hear the various sounds made by the lungs and heart. For three years he studied patients' chest sounds and correlated them with the diseases found in autopsy. He described his methods and findings in the classic De l'auscultation mdiate (1819; On Mediate Auscultation). Lannec made numerous other contributions to the literature of respiratory and heart disease. A pupil of Jean-Nicolas Corvisart des Marets, whom he succeeded (1823) as physician at the Hpital de la Charit in Paris, he also was appointed professor at the Collge de France (1822).