Otoscopes and Stethoscopes

You all know what a stethoscope is....the wonderful instrument that allows your doctor or nurse to listen to your heartbeat, but did you know that it will be 200 years old in 2016?  It was invented in 1816 by a young French physician named Laennec, who was too embarrassed to put his ear to the chest of a young woman he was examining. So, he rolled  up 24 sheets of paper into a tube, put one end on her chest and listened to the other...voila! the stethoscope.  The stethoscope shown here is from the 1920's and would be very similar to the one Robert carried in his medical bag.  He also carried a sphygomometer. You would know it by its familiar name of blood pressure cuff. it measures the strength and speed of your pulse. Used  together, these two instruments provided the doctor with valuable information about your heart health.

Another  instrument Robert would carry when he visited a patient with an earache was an otoscope. The drawing of a doctor in the late 1800's shows an otoscope very similar to the one Robert would have used when he traveled to Alberta in 1909. Now of course, they are digitized and don't need the reflective mirrors shown in this drawing.

For more information abiut any of these instruments go to;
http://www.emsmuseum.org 
http://otoscopy.hawkelibrary.com/album09?GS-5​
http://ww.thefreedictionary.com/sphygmometer

Next week: A short history of medicine and childbirth.