**Listening to the rythmic sound of the heart**

Howdy steemians!

It was a heartbeat problem...

It was the year 1816, a 35 year old physician was burdened by an overaching challenge of listening to the heart beat of an overweight woman with a heart disease condition. At this time, the usual way of listening to a patient's heart beat was for the physician to place his ears on the patient's chest which was particularly embarrassing and inconvenient
when the patient was of the opposite sex.

Rene Laennec who at the time worked at Necker Hospital, France recollected a simple and profound fact in acoustics "the great distinctness with which we hear the scratch of a pin at one end of a piece of wood on applying our ear to the other". He immediately rolled up a piece of paper and put it to the chest of the patient, it was the most clear and distinct heart beat he had heard.

In this way, Rene had invented a novel diagnostic tool which was thereafter called stethoscope. The first stethoscope were made of wood and brass, Rene called them "the greatest legacy of his life". The modern day stethoschope work on the same acoustic principles, however there are many variations including the fethoscope used to listen to the fetus in a pregnant woman, electronic stethoscope and some stethoschopes have recording devices!

Now anyone can listen to the heartbeat and more without stress. Sadly Rene died only 10 years after his witty invention.

Photo credit: Wikepedia