Surely, You Chest

the Cabinet of Curiosities. Necessity is the mother of invention, As the saying goes, so many inventions and products we have today arose from a problem someone needed to solve, and such was the case with French physician Renee, theofully Hyacinthe Lenek, who desperately wanted to find a better way to listen to a patient's heartbeat. Anyone who's ever been to a doctor's office is familiar with Renee's iconic invention, the stethoscope. The name comes from the Greek word stetho,

meaning chest and scope, which translates to examination. The stethoscope's invention forever changed healthcare and is probably one of the top inventions in medical history. The device amplifies internal sounds, allowing for preliminary clues in evaluating the patient's health. For example, a dull sound where a more resonant sound should be might indicate a build up a fluid in the lungs,

or even a tumor. Healthcare professionals have used the stethoscope to listen to everything internal, from hearts and lungs to gastro intestinal exam and obstetrics. Before Renee's invention, though, doctors had very few tools at their disposal to diagnose problems with the hearts or lungs. They knew that diseases of the heart and lungs were the number one cause of death,

but diagnosing them wasn't easy or always accurate. Renee was just five when his mother passed away from tuberculosis in six His father proved incompetent to care for his children, and Renee and his brother were sent to live with an uncle who worked as a dean of a medical university. His mother's death had impacted him greatly, and young Renee dove deeply into his studies. His first foray into the profession came during the midst of counter revolutionary revolts. He

cared for patients and applied surgical dressings. In eighteen hundred, he went to Paris, where he was accepted by a very selective and elite school and studied anatomy and dissection under some of France's most prestigious professionals in the medical field. As a student, Renee became well known and regarded for

his studies in perian titus and tuberculosis. When he graduated in eighteen o four, he continued his research at the Society of School of Medicine in Paris, and after that he became the personal physician to Cardinal Fesch, Napoleon's half brother. His employment with a cardinal encourage Renee to work with

the poor and bring them better health care. During the Napoleonic Wars, Renee took charge of award in a Paris hospital reserve for wounded soldiers, and then in eighteen sixteen he was appointed to the Necker Hospital in Paris, where he worked as a physician. Now. It was there where

he noticed the problem. He'd grown critical of the way most doctors listened to a patient's heartbeat, and worse, he thought it was unsanitary for doctors to place their heads on patient's chests, especially those with poor hygiene or lice. His peers considered the bright young physician a rising star in the medical field. Renee had become adept at percussion, a method of tapping the chest and back with fingers as part of the examination process, but on one particular afternoon,

he realized that he had a problem. He walked into the room to see a young woman. She'd complained about difficulty breathing, among other symptoms indicating a heart condition. One look at her told him that the percussion method wasn't going to be of any use. For several awkward moments, doctor and patients stared at each other, and then the idea came to him. It was a simple fact of acoustics.

He grabbed a few nearby papers and rolled them into a tube much like a lute, and then he placed one end over the young woman's heart and placed his ear over the other. The sound of her heartbeat echoed back to him even louder than he'd expected, and from that moment on, Renee experimented with his invention, using pine to make the first stethoscope, solving his problem. You see, Renee had treated mostly men and was reluctant to place his head so close to a female patient's breast, especially

a rather well endowed one. In short, embarrassment sparked the stethoscope's invention. I guess you could say that Renee finally got that problem off his chest. During World War One, the Navy banned alcohol on ships, and while coffee and cigarettes were still staples, morale sunk to a new low.

Officers needed something to lift spirits. They tried many foods and drinks, although none seemed to do as well or were as universally liked as alcohol, But that didn't stop them from trying, and finally they found something that all the men loved even more than their favorite liquor. The men enjoyed it so much that keeping it on board the ship proved difficult. To solve the problem, they transformed a refrigerated barge into a makeshift factory. Years went by,

and one war led to another. Throughout World War two, this favorite food came in handy for a different reason, rescue missions. While some Navy ships had aircraft aboard, they didn't have helicopters. For any serviceman or pilot who fell overboard, time was of the essence, making matters worse for the sailor. Carriers were difficult to slow down or even turn around. The men aboard had found a solution, though trade they offered smaller boats, like some of the easily maneuverable destroyers

food for rescuing them. Daniel W. Kluss recalled his time as the sailor during World War Two aboard the USS Hancock, one of the Navy's twenty four Essex class air craft carriers, dubbed the Fighting Hannah for her service in several campaigns, the ship had earned four battle stars. One of their pilots went off the flight deck and the captain put

out a call to a nearby destroyer. While the pilot would have been rescued sooner or later, Klaus believed it was the initial offer of two hundred and fifty pounds of this food that got the destroyer to respond so quickly. In fact, the item is accredited with saving many of the pilots lives. You see, smaller ships didn't have enough room for this dish, so when they were called on to rescue pilots, they usually could count on the food

as a reward for a timely response. This food became so popular that Americans were rationed two key ingredients during wartime to ensure that the troops had enough to make it. The military spent one million dollars to keep the servicemen in supply. Tragedy struck the USS Lexington in May of ninety two. The ship was critically damaged during the Battle of the Coral Sea. Over two hundred men lost their lives.

When the surviving men were told to abandon ship, it's reported that some of the men broke into the galley filled their helmets, then ate their fill before jumping overboard. The food became so important during wartime that each branch began to try to outdo the other in supplying their troops. Cries went up petitioning Washington to subsidize factories to supply the item to wounded soldiers in overseas hospitals, and while

the petitions didn't work, the military branches got creative. In September of nineteen forty four, Marine Squadron Commander J. Hunter Reinberg wanted to lift his men's morale. They were stationed on the hot and tropical island of Paleliu in the South Pacific. The island is best known for one of the bloodiest battles during World War Two. The commander tried to recreate the food with resources available on the island. When his first attempt failed, he'd tried again, this time

making enough to satisfy his men. From then on, marine pilots made it a practice to help with the recipe. It took some ingenuity, but after mixing the ingredients into cans and repositioning the AMMO cans away from the engine, it worked. Soon aircraft bombers were using the planes to make their favorite food by strapping buckets full of the mix behind the rear gunner's compartment. From there, the engine vibrations blended everything together as the pilots flew in high

altitudes over enemy territory. When not making the dish during combat, the men frequently went on what they called test flights. When Rheinberg's superior officer learned of these flights, he didn't reprimand the commander. Instead, he just wanted in on the recipe. Back home, there was a shortage of this food item. Not to mention those two key ingredients to make it, milk and sugar. So what food helped military morale? No, it wasn't cookies. As the children saying goes ice cream,

you scream, We all scream for ice cream. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show and you can learn all about it over at the World

of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious. Yeah,