[How Kergaradec listened to the fetus (author's transl)]

Laennec wrote in the second edition of his Treaty on Auscultation (1826, II, 457) : "I never thought of applying auscultation to studying the phenomena of pregnancy. This fortunate idea came to my compatriot and friend Monsieur le docteur de Kergaradec." It was in fact on the 26th December 1821 that Kergaradec read his "Memoire on Auscultation as applied to the study of pregnancy" and posed the vital question : "Would it not be possible to judge the state of health or illness of the fetus from the variations in the strength and frequency of the fetal heart beat?" The answer 160 years later, after so much work has been done by innumerable authors is : yes, the fetal heart does make it possible to judge as to the vitality or the distress of the fetus! It is right that today obstetricians should stop a little and think about Kergaradec's existence on earth and on the everlastingness of his inspired prophecy, for he was the first to think of it.