Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Menkey's Cabinet of Curiosity is a production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio and grim and Mild. Our world
Speaker 1: is full of the unexplainable, and if history is an
Speaker 1: open book, all of these amazing tales are right there
Speaker 1: on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to
Speaker 1: the Cabinet of Curiosities. Necessity is the mother of invention,
Speaker 1: As the saying goes, so many inventions and products we
Speaker 1: have today arose from a problem someone needed to solve,
Speaker 1: and such was the case with French physician Renee, theofully
Speaker 1: Hyacinthe Lenek, who desperately wanted to find a better way
Speaker 1: to listen to a patient's heartbeat. Anyone who's ever been
Speaker 1: to a doctor's office is familiar with Renee's iconic invention,
Speaker 1: the stethoscope. The name comes from the Greek word stetho,
Speaker 1: meaning chest and scope, which translates to examination. The stethoscope's
Speaker 1: invention forever changed healthcare and is probably one of the
Speaker 1: top inventions in medical history. The device amplifies internal sounds,
Speaker 1: allowing for preliminary clues in evaluating the patient's health. For example,
Speaker 1: a dull sound where a more resonant sound should be
Speaker 1: might indicate a build up a fluid in the lungs,
Speaker 1: or even a tumor. Healthcare professionals have used the stethoscope
Speaker 1: to listen to everything internal, from hearts and lungs to
Speaker 1: gastro intestinal exam and obstetrics. Before Renee's invention, though, doctors
Speaker 1: had very few tools at their disposal to diagnose problems
Speaker 1: with the hearts or lungs. They knew that diseases of
Speaker 1: the heart and lungs were the number one cause of death,
Speaker 1: but diagnosing them wasn't easy or always accurate. Renee was
Speaker 1: just five when his mother passed away from tuberculosis in
Speaker 1: six His father proved incompetent to care for his children,
Speaker 1: and Renee and his brother were sent to live with
Speaker 1: an uncle who worked as a dean of a medical university.
Speaker 1: His mother's death had impacted him greatly, and young Renee
Speaker 1: dove deeply into his studies. His first foray into the
Speaker 1: profession came during the midst of counter revolutionary revolts. He
Speaker 1: cared for patients and applied surgical dressings. In eighteen hundred,
Speaker 1: he went to Paris, where he was accepted by a
Speaker 1: very selective and elite school and studied anatomy and dissection
Speaker 1: under some of France's most prestigious professionals in the medical field.
Speaker 1: As a student, Renee became well known and regarded for
Speaker 1: his studies in perian titus and tuberculosis. When he graduated
Speaker 1: in eighteen o four, he continued his research at the
Speaker 1: Society of School of Medicine in Paris, and after that
Speaker 1: he became the personal physician to Cardinal Fesch, Napoleon's half brother.
Speaker 1: His employment with a cardinal encourage Renee to work with
Speaker 1: the poor and bring them better health care. During the
Speaker 1: Napoleonic Wars, Renee took charge of award in a Paris
Speaker 1: hospital reserve for wounded soldiers, and then in eighteen sixteen
Speaker 1: he was appointed to the Necker Hospital in Paris, where
Speaker 1: he worked as a physician. Now. It was there where
Speaker 1: he noticed the problem. He'd grown critical of the way
Speaker 1: most doctors listened to a patient's heartbeat, and worse, he
Speaker 1: thought it was unsanitary for doctors to place their heads
Speaker 1: on patient's chests, especially those with poor hygiene or lice.
Speaker 1: His peers considered the bright young physician a rising star
Speaker 1: in the medical field. Renee had become adept at percussion,
Speaker 1: a method of tapping the chest and back with fingers
Speaker 1: as part of the examination process, but on one particular afternoon,
Speaker 1: he realized that he had a problem. He walked into
Speaker 1: the room to see a young woman. She'd complained about
Speaker 1: difficulty breathing, among other symptoms indicating a heart condition. One
Speaker 1: look at her told him that the percussion method wasn't
Speaker 1: going to be of any use. For several awkward moments,
Speaker 1: doctor and patients stared at each other, and then the
Speaker 1: idea came to him. It was a simple fact of acoustics.
Speaker 1: He grabbed a few nearby papers and rolled them into
Speaker 1: a tube much like a lute, and then he placed
Speaker 1: one end over the young woman's heart and placed his
Speaker 1: ear over the other. The sound of her heartbeat echoed
Speaker 1: back to him even louder than he'd expected, and from
Speaker 1: that moment on, Renee experimented with his invention, using pine
Speaker 1: to make the first stethoscope, solving his problem. You see,
Speaker 1: Renee had treated mostly men and was reluctant to place
Speaker 1: his head so close to a female patient's breast, especially
Speaker 1: a rather well endowed one. In short, embarrassment sparked the
Speaker 1: stethoscope's invention. I guess you could say that Renee finally
Speaker 1: got that problem off his chest. During World War One,
Speaker 1: the Navy banned alcohol on ships, and while coffee and
Speaker 1: cigarettes were still staples, morale sunk to a new low.
Speaker 1: Officers needed something to lift spirits. They tried many foods
Speaker 1: and drinks, although none seemed to do as well or
Speaker 1: were as universally liked as alcohol, But that didn't stop
Speaker 1: them from trying, and finally they found something that all
Speaker 1: the men loved even more than their favorite liquor. The
Speaker 1: men enjoyed it so much that keeping it on board
Speaker 1: the ship proved difficult. To solve the problem, they transformed
Speaker 1: a refrigerated barge into a makeshift factory. Years went by,
Speaker 1: and one war led to another. Throughout World War two,
Speaker 1: this favorite food came in handy for a different reason,
Speaker 1: rescue missions. While some Navy ships had aircraft aboard, they
Speaker 1: didn't have helicopters. For any serviceman or pilot who fell overboard,
Speaker 1: time was of the essence, making matters worse for the sailor.
Speaker 1: Carriers were difficult to slow down or even turn around.
Speaker 1: The men aboard had found a solution, though trade they
Speaker 1: offered smaller boats, like some of the easily maneuverable destroyers
Speaker 1: food for rescuing them. Daniel W. Kluss recalled his time
Speaker 1: as the sailor during World War Two aboard the USS Hancock,
Speaker 1: one of the Navy's twenty four Essex class air craft carriers,
Speaker 1: dubbed the Fighting Hannah for her service in several campaigns,
Speaker 1: the ship had earned four battle stars. One of their
Speaker 1: pilots went off the flight deck and the captain put
Speaker 1: out a call to a nearby destroyer. While the pilot
Speaker 1: would have been rescued sooner or later, Klaus believed it
Speaker 1: was the initial offer of two hundred and fifty pounds
Speaker 1: of this food that got the destroyer to respond so quickly.
Speaker 1: In fact, the item is accredited with saving many of
Speaker 1: the pilots lives. You see, smaller ships didn't have enough
Speaker 1: room for this dish, so when they were called on
Speaker 1: to rescue pilots, they usually could count on the food
Speaker 1: as a reward for a timely response. This food became
Speaker 1: so popular that Americans were rationed two key ingredients during
Speaker 1: wartime to ensure that the troops had enough to make it.
Speaker 1: The military spent one million dollars to keep the servicemen
Speaker 1: in supply. Tragedy struck the USS Lexington in May of
Speaker 1: ninety two. The ship was critically damaged during the Battle
Speaker 1: of the Coral Sea. Over two hundred men lost their lives.
Speaker 1: When the surviving men were told to abandon ship, it's
Speaker 1: reported that some of the men broke into the galley
Speaker 1: filled their helmets, then ate their fill before jumping overboard.
Speaker 1: The food became so important during wartime that each branch
Speaker 1: began to try to outdo the other in supplying their troops.
Speaker 1: Cries went up petitioning Washington to subsidize factories to supply
Speaker 1: the item to wounded soldiers in overseas hospitals, and while
Speaker 1: the petitions didn't work, the military branches got creative. In
Speaker 1: September of nineteen forty four, Marine Squadron Commander J. Hunter
Speaker 1: Reinberg wanted to lift his men's morale. They were stationed
Speaker 1: on the hot and tropical island of Paleliu in the
Speaker 1: South Pacific. The island is best known for one of
Speaker 1: the bloodiest battles during World War Two. The commander tried
Speaker 1: to recreate the food with resources available on the island.
Speaker 1: When his first attempt failed, he'd tried again, this time
Speaker 1: making enough to satisfy his men. From then on, marine
Speaker 1: pilots made it a practice to help with the recipe.
Speaker 1: It took some ingenuity, but after mixing the ingredients into
Speaker 1: cans and repositioning the AMMO cans away from the engine,
Speaker 1: it worked. Soon aircraft bombers were using the planes to
Speaker 1: make their favorite food by strapping buckets full of the
Speaker 1: mix behind the rear gunner's compartment. From there, the engine
Speaker 1: vibrations blended everything together as the pilots flew in high
Speaker 1: altitudes over enemy territory. When not making the dish during combat,
Speaker 1: the men frequently went on what they called test flights.
Speaker 1: When Rheinberg's superior officer learned of these flights, he didn't
Speaker 1: reprimand the commander. Instead, he just wanted in on the recipe.
Speaker 1: Back home, there was a shortage of this food item.
Speaker 1: Not to mention those two key ingredients to make it,
Speaker 1: milk and sugar. So what food helped military morale? No,
Speaker 1: it wasn't cookies. As the children saying goes ice cream,
Speaker 1: you scream, We all scream for ice cream. I hope
Speaker 1: you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Speaker 1: Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about
Speaker 1: the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show
Speaker 1: was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how
Speaker 1: Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore,
Speaker 1: which is a podcast, book series, and television show and
Speaker 1: you can learn all about it over at the World
Speaker 1: of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious. Yeah,