Stethoscope

Stethoscope, the instrument employed in auscultation of the chest. [AUSCULTATION.] The stethoscope consists of a perforated cylinder expanded at either end - on the one hand for adaptation to the ear of the observer, on the other for application to the chest-wall of the patient. It is usually made of wood. Of late years the binaural stethoscope has been largely used, such an instrument being applied to both ears of the auscultator, and the sounds from the chest examined being conducted by flexible india-rubber tubes.