The Art of Listening: Perceiving Pulse in Eighteenth‐Century France

Abstract

This article examines the importance of sound in medical and musical circles of the French Enlightenment. Sound and listening in medicine were highlighted in 1756 by the Montpellier doctor Théophile de Bordeu, in his work on pulse. Pulse recognition, according to Bordeu, depended not only on the tactile abilities of the doctor but also on his skills in auditory perception. Doctors were required to memorise various acoustical patterns, then match them to the 'live' pulse pattern of the patient perceived during observation. The Enlightened medical physician, like the musician, relied on his ear to communicate knowledge and understanding.In 1756 the Montpellier doctor Théophile de Bordeu (1722-1776) published his groundbreaking work on pulse Recherches sur le pouls par rapport aux crises ('Research on the pulse in relation to attacks on health'). 1 Scholars have recently acknowledged its importance in the construction of a new mode of clinical diagnosis. 2 Bordeu insisted that pulse-taking required the physician to develop a sensitivity of touch together with a clear understanding of different pulse types. This, in combination with clinical observation and experience, led to correct diagnosis. Crucial to Bordeu's diagnostic model, however, was an acknowledgement that pulse consists of sound-waves. Seeing and touching were, of course, required to make the final diagnosis. Yet the art of listening was also necessary for comprehending the nature of the patient's arterial flow. Bordeu believed listening required training. In order to select an appropriate acoustical pattern, he demanded that physicians have a clear sense of rhythm, timbre, melody, form (or genre) and harmony relating to the different pulse types already in their minds. Auditory training occurred not simply by reading the educational literature prior to listening but also through the immediate activity of touch-based experience. Bordeu recognised, however, that touching alone could not, in itself, create comprehension in pulse diagnosis. The physician required the more objective qualities of the auditory system in order to process the oscillation patterns felt by the fingers. This essay will reveal the sophisticated way in which listening is described in Bordeu's text. Listening was often implied rather than stated through the use of medical vocabulary. Words chosen to describe oscillations were boldly acoustical. Most importantly, Bordeu demonstrates that the desire to create a universal language of pulse types was inherently concerned with the materiality of sound. In his desire to classify pulse types Bordeu was himself engaged in a form of close listening. Only after this had occurred could correct diagnosis take place among a common group of physicians, and across time and space.Bordeu's interest in hearing can be situated within a broader Enlightenment context of auditory cognition. 3 His work emerged during a debate over the auditory nature of pulse. Some physicians believed that pulse patterns resembled musical laws and could be

Listening to the archive: Historical geographies of sound

“…For example, Bijsterveld (2010) explored the paradox of how, between the 1930 and 1990s, the car, a noisy contraction and major source of acoustic pollution, gradually transformed its interior into a relaxing sonic bubble and controlled acoustic environment by way of car radio sets. In the context of eighteenth-century French medical practices, Ingrid Sykes (2012) discussed the conceptualization the human body as a resonant chamber whose health could be assessed by feeling and listening to its pulse. Physicians devised a notation system for transcribing different types of pulse and attempted their classification for diagnostical purposes.…”