[MEDICAL]. LAENNEC, René-Théophile-Hyacinthe (1781-1826). De l'Auscultation Mediate. Paris: J.A. Brosson et J.S. Chaude, 1819.

2 volumes, 8vo (216 x 140 mm). Half-titles, 4 folding engraved plates at end of first volume (some very light intermittent spotting.) ORIGINAL PRINTED WRAPPERS (some light rubbing, spotting, minor soiling); folding chemise and slipcase. Provenance: John Talbot Gernon (with a letter from P.J. Bishop, librarian of the Cardiothoracic Institute of London, thanking Dr. John Talbot Gernon for his detailed description of this copy of Laennec's work for use in Bishop's bibliography).

THE INVENTION OF THE STETHOSCOPE.

FIRST EDITION, FIRST STATE, with sig. A*2 uncancelled and with all original typographical errors. Laennec's groundbreaking treatise on the invention of the stethoscope and its medical applications. Laennec would later recall, "In 1816, I was consulted by a young woman laboring under general symptoms of diseased heart, and in whose case percussion and the application of the hand were of little avail.... The other method just mentioned direct auscultation being rendered inadmissible by the age and sex of the patient, I happened to recollect a simple and well-known 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. Immediately, on this suggestion, I rolled a quire of paper into a kind of cylinder and applied one end of it to the region of the heart and the other to my ear..." For nearly thirty years the cylindrical design of the stethoscope was standard; the modern type with two earpieces was invented by Arthur Leared in 1851. Dibner Heralds 129; Garrison-Morton-Norman 2673; Grolier 100 Medicine 57; Norman 1254; PMM 280. AN UNCUT COPY IN THE RARE ORIGINAL WRAPPERS.

Selections from the Library of Dr. John Talbot Gernon

[MEDICAL]. LAENNEC, René-Théophile-Hyacinthe (1781-1826). De l'Auscultation Mediate. Paris: J.A. Brosson et J.S. Chaude, 1819.

[MEDICAL]. LAENNEC, René-Théophile-Hyacinthe (1781-1826). De l'Auscultation Mediate. Paris: J.A. Brosson et J.S. Chaude, 1819.