René Laennec: Inventor of the Stethoscope

Good read. Here's the best part:

In 1816, I was consulted by a young woman laboring under general symptoms of diseased heart, and in whose case percussion and the application of the hand were of little avail on account of the great degree of fatness. The other method just mentioned [direct auscultation] being rendered inadmissible by the age and sex of the patient, I happened to recollect a simple and well-known fact in acoustics, ...

I remember reading an old Reader's Digest Medical Compendium type book in high school that I had found at a thrift store and they had this story in there. If I can find the book I'll share how they wrote it in there (but he was self-conscious about putting his head on her bosom if I remember correctly so he came up with his alternative method because of that so as not to make her feel uncomfortable).