[Laennec. The bicentenary of the birth of the author of "auscultation mèdiate" (author's transl)].

R. T. H. Laennec (17. 2. 1781-13. 8. 1826), the founder of the principles of auscultation, started from poor beginnings to become the leading clinician of France. In the prime of life, holder of two chairs of clinical medicine and physician to prominent persons in public life, Laennec contracted pulmonary tuberculosis, which led to his death at his home in Brittany at the early age of 45 years. Laennec is still remembered by posterity as the inventor of the stethoscope and author of a pioneering textbook on diseases of the heart and lungs, which is still worth reading today.