Imagine going to the doctor and being asked if he or she could listen to your heart, only for them to proceed to place their ear against your chest. Awkward, right? In the days before stethoscopes, this was how it was done. Physician Rene Laennec found it incredibly undignified, especially when a lady was involved, so resigned himself to inventing a solution. Upon watching children sending signals using long, hollow sticks, he came with a device that would enable him to listen to a patient’s heartbeat at a polite distance. He named his instrument the ‘stethoscope’, from the Greek word echos, meaning chest, and skopos meaning examination.
