February 17, 1781 : Birth of R.T.H. Laennec in a small house in the port of Quimper. His father is an adviser to the king and lieutenant in the French Navy. His mother is a relative of several wealthy families. This will be a family of a low noble rank with little money.
November 1786 : Death of his mother. His father cannot handle the education and upbringing of his children. The two boys are sent to live with their uncle, the priest of Elliant, Michel Laennec.
May 13, 1788 : Théophile and his brother nare sent to live with their uncle Guillaume-François Laennec, important doctor in Nantes. He will be a true father figure for Théophile.
1795 : Excellent student, Théophile starts his studies as a Third Class Surgeon at Hôtel-Dieu Hospital. He practices dissection.
1797 : Vacationing at the estate of his breton cousin, Marie Andouyn of Cosquer, not too far from the port of Pont-l'Abbé, he discovers the breton music that he will appreciate all of his life. Upon his return to Nantes, he keeps studying at the Military Hospital.
June 1799 : He takes an entry test to be a surgeon and returns to Nantes to take care of the victims of the White and Blue War. At the end of the year, he will be recruited as a military doctor in the army of General Brune against the Chouans. He writes "The war of the Vénètes", an heroic-comical poem and studies the works of Breton linguists.
1800 : Laennec return to Nantes to study at Hotel-Dieu Hospital.
1801 : It's on foot that he return to Paris to go to Health School where he will meet several masters who will be his real initiators: Corvisart, Bichart, and Dupuytren.
Easter 1802 : Conversion of Laennec, he becomes a member of the "Congregation".
1803 : He receives the first prize of Medicine and the only prize given in Surgery. Then he gives lectures about pathological anatomy, these lectures will be very successful. He is only 22.
1804 : He writes a dissertation about the doctrine of Hippocrates that he present to Corvisart. He settles next to the College of Medicine, and becomes a famous physician. He also write for the "Journal of Medicine, Surgery, and Pharmacy".
1805 : He is introduced to Pope Pius VII when Napoléon is crowed emperor. But the murder of the Duke of Enghien and the execution of Cadoudal drive him away from the court.
1812 : He takes care of the Breton soldiers of Napoléon's Great Army at La Salpêtrière Hospital. June 5, 1816 : Laennec is appointed to Necker Hospital, unforgivable place of his discoveries. 1814 : He returns to Brittany after 15 years of absence.
1816 : A simple children's game make him discover the stethoscope. He becomes the physician of famous people of Paris (such as Mrs de Staël, Mrs de Chateaubriand). 1819 : He publishes his "Dissertation on Mediate Auscultation" and starts selling his stethoscopes.
1821 : Opening of a clinic in Paris where students and people from all of Europe can learn how to use a stethoscope. Laennec is named the official physician of the Duchess de Berry: vlots of honors but very little money still.
December 16, 1822 : He marries a widow, Mrs Argou.
1826 : Second publishing of his "Dissertation on Mediate Auscultation" with an extensive preface. But he contacted tuberculosis from his patients and returns to Brittany to finish his life in Kerloçuarnec on August 13, 1826. |