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Monitoring Vital Signs
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Early wooden stethoscopes evolved into devices for recording patients' vital signs under anesthesia. Neurosurgeon Harvey Cushing and Anesthesiologist S. Griffith Davis introduced flexible precordials, blood pressure measurement and anesthesia records into the O.R.
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Laennec Stethoscope
Courtesy of Drs. George SL Bause & EV Miller. ©1994, The Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology
This first prototype stethoscope was purchased for 1991 ASA members from a Hastings-on-Hudson, NY, antiques dealer. Historian RH Major noted that Frenchman Rene-Theophile-Hyacinthe Laennec "saw some children, who, with their ears glued to the two ends of some long pieces of wood which transmitted the sound of the little blows of the pins, struck at the opposite end...."

1819

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Cushing's Bowles Stethoscope
Courtesy of Dr. George SL Bause. ©1994, The Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology
At Johns Hopkins, Harvey Cushing used his personal Bowles stethoscope as the world's 1st continuous precordial monitor for general anesthesia. S Griffith Davis' phonendoscope to the right was then touted by Cushing as the world's 2nd O.R. precordial monitor for "the continuous auscultation of cardiac and respiratory rhythm during the entire course of anesthesia."

1907

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Wood(en) Stethoscopes
Courtesy of Drs. Paul M Wood & Gertie Marx. ©1994, The Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology
Dr. Gertie Marx kindly donated this wooden monaural stethoscope given to her by some early German auscultators. Two of Dr. Paul Wood's personal precordial stethoscopes engraved with his name are located to the right of the wooden scope.

1930

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Dr. Harvey Cushing's Diary
Courtesy of Dr. George SL Bause. ©1994, The Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology
Dr. Harvey Cushing's 6 May 1901 diary entry was photographed by WLM Curator Bause. Cushing's sketch of Italian Riva-Rocci's "sfigmomanometro" was accompanied by the note "Riva-Rocci's apparatus is home made." Cushing returned to Johns Hopkins by Sep 1901 and began insisting that blood pressures be measured and recorded intraoperatively.

1901

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S Griffith Davis Ether Inhaler
Courtesy of Drs. EH Davis & George SL Bause. ©1994, The Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology
This device features an ether chamber and a Davis heater for ether or nitrous oxide and oxygen. Calibrated by half-increments from 0 to 5, this heated inhaler is inscribed with "DR S.G. DAVIS, WILLMS S.I. CO., BALTO." An assortment of apparatus including a gag and pressure gauge were donated along with the inhaler by SG Davis' nephew E Hollister Davis, MD.

1908

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