Austin Flint the "American Laennec"

Oil portrait of Austin Flint, Sr., M.D. shown above was a family portrait by the New York painter John L. Harding, Sr. and is signed and dated 1865 by the artist. Dr. Flint is wearing a pin of the Freemasons on his vest and Victory of the Cross on his shirt. The Flint family donated the portrait to the New York Academy of Medicine in 1900 and was displayed in their Museum Room.

Portraitist George R. Boynton was commissioned by the New York Academy of Medicine to paint a posthumous portrait of Dr. Flint shown above. This very portrait was presented to the Academy on January 17, 1901, by Dr. J.E. Janeway on behalf of himself and 14 other fellows of the Academy who were the donors for the portrait. This posthumous oil portrait was signed by Boynton and based on the last known photograph of Dr. Flint by the New York portraitist photographer Benjamin J. Falk, as shown in The Medicine of the Future publication of Dr. Flint's intended address to the British Medical Association in 1886, delivered by Dr. Flint's son, Austin Flint, Jr., on April 24, 1886, after his father's death. The portrait was displayed in the President's Gallery at the New York Academy of Medicine. John Harding, George Boynton and Benjamin Falk were all leading New York artists that were well known for their portraits and especially their use of lighting and positioning of the subject.

Austin Flint, Sr., M.D., who was recognized as an exceptional clinician and teacher, prolific writer, visionary thinker and the forerunner of modern cardiology, was regarded as the "American Laennec" (Dr. Samuel Gross). Austin Flint was a graduate of Havard Medical School where he was a pupil of James Jackson, who was an early advocate of the use of the stethoscope for auscultation. Dr. Flint was one of the founders of the Buffalo Medical College and Bellevue Hospital Medical College, also taught in Chicago, Louisville and New Orleans before settling in New York in 1861, serving as professor of both the Long Island College Hospital (now SUNY Downstate Medical College) and Bellevue Hospital Medical College (now NYU School of Medicine). He was elected president of the New York Academy of Medicine in 1872 and the American Medical Association in 1884. Dr. Flint continued to evolve the art of physical diagnosis and especially percussion and auscultation initiated earlier by Leopold Auenbrugger and Rene Laennec, respectively. His texts on diseases of the heart, respiratory system and manual on percussion and auscultation are considered classics. By the time of his death on March 13, 1886, he had a national and international reputation as an esteemed medical professional.

In 1852, George P. Cammann, M.D. designed a stethoscope that used both ears. This new "binaural" instrument was touted to be the preferred method of auscultation. Also in 1852, Dr. Austin Flint published his prize essay On Variations in Pitch in Percussion and Respiratory Sounds and their Application to Physical Diagnosis establishing his expertise in auscultation of the chest. At first, Dr. Flint was concerned that the transmission of sounds by the binaural stethoscope would be attenuated and that its advantages were not appreciated without considerable practice. In his text on Physical Exploration and Diagnosis of Diseases affecting the Respiratory Organs published in 1856 he stated, "In making trial of this instrument, I have found it more difficult to institute comparisons as regards quality and pitch of sound with the ear alone, or the ordinary stethoscope." Ten years later in the second edition of his text published in 1866, 3 years after Dr. Cammann's death, he corrected his opinion stating that "the objection on the score of the alteration of the pitch and quality of sounds I have long since found to be without foundation, and I am sure that this instrument will supplant all wooden stethoscopes as soon as it is fully appreciated."