This week, Dear Reader, I won’t be posting, as I’m doing research for my next book. I’m staying in the empty apartment of a New York City friend and will be spending all my time here, at the New York Academy of Medicine:
And here, at the New York Public Library. Back next week!
The invention of the stethoscope by R. T. Laennec in 1816 enabled a male doctor to listen to a female patient’s heart without needing to put his ear to her chest.