Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 954

LEOPOLD AUENBRUGGER (1722-1809) Inventum novum ex percussione thoracis humani et signo abstrusos interni pectoris morbos detegendi. Typis Joannis Thomas Trattner 1761 95 [1] pp. 19 cm.

This small book is one of the greatest of all medical classics and contains the results of Auenbrugger's experience with a new method of physical diagnosis--thoracic percussion. In the book, Auenbrugger describes the technique of percussion and the sounds made in various diseased conditions of the chest. Although his discovery was extremely important, it attracted little attention from the medical community. Stoll (see No. 1040), then director of the medical clinic at the Spanish Hospital, tried the new method and praised it in one of his books. After that, no more was heard of it until the late eighteenth century when Corvisart (see No. 1126), while studying the works of Stoll, found a reference to Auenbrugger's discovery and began practicing percussion. Corvisart published a French translation of Inventum novum (see No. 955), the year before Auenbrugger died. Although modern methods of clinical diagnosis have to a great extent replaced manual percussion, Auenbrugger's discovery is one of the milestones in the history of medicine.

See Related Record(s): 1040 1126 955

Cited references: Garrison-Morton 2672; Osler 1864; Waller 519; Wellcome II, p. 70

Gift of John Martin, M.D.