MICA HISTORY
From an invention to a surviving object: museum records and historical milestones.
In 1816, René Laennec used a rolled paper tube to listen to the heart. The wooden monaural instrument then marked the development of mediate auscultation. The Science Museum’s object distinguishes this historical device from today’s binaural stethoscope.
An invention year is not necessarily the manufacturing date of the surviving specimen.
View the original objectScience Museum Group · Laennec’s stethoscope · A106078
Desormeaux presented his endoscope at the Medical Academy in Paris in 1853. A lamp and reflecting surfaces illuminated the cavity under examination. The museum’s Desormeaux-type specimen, made between 1861 and 1880, was intended for rectal examination.
This rigid, lamp-lit device differs from modern flexible endoscopes. Its light source could cause burns.
View the original objectScience Museum Group · Desormeaux type endoscope · A138510
The museum dates Willem Einthoven’s string galvanometer to around 1903. It also records Waller’s human tracing in 1887 and a commercial Cambridge instrument in 1908. Its portable 1928 machine illustrates a later stage of this development.
The electrocardiograph is the instrument; the electrocardiogram is its recorded output. Several stages and contributors shaped this history.
View the original objectScience Museum Group · Portable electrocardiograph machine, 1928 · 1989-577
Documented history and heritage. Clinical recommendations follow MICA’s scientific review workflow. Reading these pages earns no Grade points.
© MICA — Soraya AYOUB & Salim LARBANI