LAENNEC (René) - Lot 88

LAENNEC (René) René Laennec Henri Mondor Édouard Rist M.A.S. "R.B." entitled "Vocations II - La jeunesse de Laennec", for the collection directed by Henri Mondor. S.l.n.d. [circa mid-twentieth century]. 4 autograph folio pages in blue ink. Important manuscript dedicated to the youth of René Laennec, on the occasion of the publication of Édouard Rist's work published by Gallimard in the "Vocations" collection edited by Henri Mondor. The text, written in beautifully legible script, recounts with elegance and erudition the formative years of Laennec, described as "probably the greatest physician of all time" and "the initiator of modern medicine". The author emphasizes the Breton doctor's clinical method, based on rigorous observation and the correlation between symptoms and anatomical lesions. The manuscript successively recounts Laennec's difficult childhood during the Revolution and Terror, his training with his doctor uncle in Nantes, his Parisian beginnings with Corvisart, Bayle, Dupuytren and Bichat, and the material difficulties that almost interrupted his career. The story culminates in his decisive meeting with Becquey, who enabled him to join the Necker hospital, a prelude to the invention of the stethoscope and the birth of modern auscultation. The final leaflet emphasizes the vital importance of this discovery: "thanks to this simple instrument, auscultation of the chest is discovered and immediately brought to a point of perfection". An interesting account combining medical history, popular science and humanist admiration for one of France's great medical figures. A fine set of manuscripts, of high literary and documentary quality.