Instrument used to amplify sounds from within the body especially used to listen to heart, pulse, breathing and lungs, so that they may be heard by the user.

Part of a larger collection of medical artifacts, archival material and trade literature transferred to CSTM in 2002 from the former History of Medicine Museum in Toronto, Ontario.

Example of two-piece monaural stethoscope, with separate ear-piece. First monaural stethoscope invented in France in 1816: compact and rugged, the instrument greatly improved the physician’s ability to listen to internal body sounds. Monaural used exclusively c. 1820-1850 when binaural stethoscope introduced.