A treatise on the diseases of the chest and on mediate auscultation / by R. T. H. Laennec. Translated from the latest French edition / with notes and a sketch of the author's life / by John Forbes.

  • Laennec, R. T. H. (René Théophile Hyacinthe), 1781-1826.
Date:
1829
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on the diseases of the chest and on mediate auscultation / by R. T. H. Laennec. Translated from the latest French edition / with notes and a sketch of the author's life / by John Forbes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    a man, ought not to be visited by heavy censure. Indeed, am convinced that every unprejudiced reader, qualified by the study and practice of auscultation to judge of the cha racter of his work (.and none else are qualified), must confess that the author stands in need of less indulgence on this point than could have been expected; certainly less than every candid and honourable mind will be ready to concede. To estimate fairly the correctness of M. Laennec's state ments, we ought, also, to take into account his vast expe rience, and his unequalled practical tact, which was the ad miration of every one who had opportunities of observing his examinations. In no case, even the most obscure, did he shrink from pronouncing his opinions, and fixing his diag nosis; and rarely indeed was he mistaken. These circum stances ought to make his successors long hesitate before they call in question the correctness of his statements, even although they should fail to verify them, by repeated expe rience; and incline them rather to doubt their own capacity in exploring, and the accuracy or acuteness of their percep- tive powers, than the fidelity of the records which he has bequeathed to them. And here I think it necessary to state, in the most distinct and unequivocal terms, that although nothing is easier than for any one to acquire sufficient evidence of the truth and powers of Auscultation, it is only by long and painful trials (inter toedia et labores, as Avenbrugger says of his conge- nerous discovery), that any useful practical knowledge of it can be acquired. When, therefore, we hear, as we sometimes do, that certain persons have tried the stethoscope, and aban- doned it upon finding it useless or deceptive; and when we] learn, on enquiry, that the trial has extended merely to the hurried examination of a few cases, within the period of a few days or weeks; we can only regret that such students should have been so misdirected, or should have so misunderstood] the fundamental principles of the method. No conclusions deduced from such attempts—I cannot dignify them with the term experience,—can have any weight with those qualified to judge in the matter; they can only be added to the heap J of false facts, as they have been called, with which medicine, and indeed every department of human knowledge, is over-, laid, and which are the characteristic and ready offspring oV minds too feeble to be habitually conversant with general]