Rene Laennec, born this day in 1781, was a French physician who invented the stethoscope- one of the most indispensable medical instruments that fundamentally changed the way lung and heart problems are detected and diagnosed.
The idea behind the stethoscope came from Laennec's memory in 1816 when he observed children playing with a long stick-one scraped it with a pin while the other listened giddily to the amplified sound on the other end.
From this Laennec rolled up a piece of paper and pressed it to his patient's chest and was able to listen to the beating of the heart all loud and clear.
The early prototype of a stethoscope consisted of a hollow tube of wood that was 3.5 cm (1.4 inches) in diameter and 25 cm (10 inches) long and was monoaural, transmitting sound to one ear.
The instrument replaced the practice of immediate auscultation in which a physician laid his ear on the chest of the patient to listen to the sounds.
In 1826, Laennec died from cavitating tuberculosis—the same disease that he helped elucidate using his stethoscope. He used his own invention to diagnose himself and understand that he was dying.
Celebrating the 235th birthday of the pioneer, doodlers Helene Leroux an Olivia Huynh created today's doodle showing both the original stethoscope from way back in the 1800s to the modern version that use rubber tubing and are binaural.
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