"
(11) E. Boinet: Les doctrines medicules, leur evolution, Paris,
1907, pp. 85-86.
It was a pupil of Corvisart, Rene Theophile Laennec, who laid the
foundation of modern clinical medicine. The story of his life is well
known. A Breton by birth, he had a hard, up-hill struggle as a young
man--a struggle of which we have only recently been made aware by the
publication of a charming book by Professor Rouxeau of Nantes--"Laennec
avant 1806." Influenced by Corvisart, he began to combine the accurate
study of cases in the wards with anatomical investigations in the
dead-house. Before Laennec, the examination of a patient had been
largely by sense of sight, supplemented by that of touch, as in
estimating the degree of fever, or the character of the pulse.
Auenbrugger's "Inventum novum" of percussion, recognized by Corvisart,
extended the field; but the discovery of auscultation by Laennec, and
the publication of his work--"De l'Auscultation Mediate," 1819,--marked
an era in the study of medicine. The clinical recognition of individual
diseases had made really very little progress; with the stethoscope
begins the day of physical diagnosis. The clinical pathology of the
heart, lungs and abdomen was revolutionized.
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