Technology and medicine Milton Roy kidney machine, United
States, 1966 Take a ride on the magic bus Machines became
central to medicine in Europe during the 1800s. Medicine had
always relied on technology such as scalpels, probes and materia
medica. However, by the start of the 20th century new
instruments were available to study, diagnose and treat the
body. Today, hospitals worldwide use complex, computerised
machines to image the body or assist its function. Developing
medical devices in the 1800s During the 1800s doctors and
biomedical scientists developed instruments to examine and
understand the body. Devices such as the thermometer, microscope
and kymograph revealed how healthy and diseased bodies worked.
In 1816, French doctor Rene Laennec invented the stethoscope.
This simple wooden tube enabled doctors to hear and diagnose
chest diseases. It became an iconic object in biomedicine. Other
instruments were developed over the century: the ophthalmoscope
saw into specific organs such as the eye and the o