Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Auscultation

  • Mandarin doctor examines the patient’s pulse

    This nineteenth century Mandarin doctor is flouting the traditionally accepted rules of medical examination of inspection, palpation, percussion, and auscultation. He is intently focusing on the patient’s pulse but seems to have omitted the preliminary step of inspection in that he is looking away from his patient instead of looking at her. Spring 2020 |…

  • Portrait of Sir John Forbes as a young man

    Robin AgnewLiverpool, United Kingdom Introduction Sir John Forbes, the remarkable Scottish royal physician and medical journalist, died on 13 November 1861. He was not an innovator like the great French physician René Laȅnnec (1781–1826), who invented the monaural stethoscope in 1816. This consisted of a crude cylinder that could be applied directly to the chest…

  • The history of the stethoscope

    MAS AhmedRomford, United KingdomVictoria TurnockLondon, United Kingdom No other symbol is as entwined with the concept of being a doctor as the stethoscope. It is currently one of the most widely used tools that doctors and nurses use for diagnostic purposes. Before its invention auscultation was done by placing the ear and head against the…

  • Auscultation

    Daly WalkerBoca Grande, Florida, United States In the hospital’s x-ray department, Dad and I entered a small room with a wall of lighted boxes. A man with dyed reddish hair sat, sipping at a mug of coffee and reading a magazine called The American Spectator. “Harry,” Dad said. “Meet my son, Bud. Bud, this is…