Rene's Dairy or Short Story
When Laënnec was five years old, his mother, Michelle Félicité Guesdon, died from tuberculosis, leaving Laënnec and his brother, Michaud, in the incompetent care of their father, Théophile-Marie Laënnec, who worked as a civil servant and had a reputation for reckless spending. In 1793, during the French Revolution, Laënnec went to live with his uncle, Guillaume-François Laënnec, in the port city of Nantes, located in the Pays de la Lorie region of western France. Laënnec’s uncle was the dean of medicine at the University of Nantes. Although the region was in the midst of counterrevolutionary revolts, the young Laënnec settled into his academic training and, under his uncle’s direction, began his medical studies. His first experience working in a hospital setting was at the Hôtel-Dieu of Nantes, where he learned to apply surgical dressings and to care for patients. In 1819 Laënnec published De l’auscultation médiate (“On Mediate Auscultation”), the first discourse on a variety of heart and lung sounds heard through the stethoscope. The first English translation ofDe l’auscultation médiate was published in London in 1821.