An Interactive Annotated World Bibliography of Printed and Digital Works in the History of Medicine and the Life Sciences from Circa 2000 BCE to 2022 by Fielding H. Garrison (1870-1935), Leslie T. Morton (1907-2004), and Jeremy M. Norman (1945- ) Traditionally Known as “Garrison-Morton”

15961 entries, 13944 authors and 1935 subjects. Updated: March 22, 2024

AUENBRUGGER, Leopold

2 entries
  • 2672

Inventum novum ex percussione thoracis humani ut signo abstrusos interni pectoris morbos detegendi.

Vienna: J. T. Trattner, 1761.

The greatness of Auenbrugger’s discovery of the value of immediate percussion of the chest as a diagnostic measure was not recognized until many years after he first published. His little book met with a cold reception, while a French translation by Rozière de la Chassagne in 1770 attracted little notice. But Auenbrugger lived to see the appearance in 1808 of J. N. Corvisart’s classic translation of the book, after which the value of percussion was universally recognized. It should be noted that recognition did not occur until nearly 50 years after Auenbrugger first published.

English translation by J. Forbes, 1824 (reprinted in Willius and Keys, Cardiac classics, 1941., pp. 193-213); also with introduction by H. E. Sigerist, in Bull. Hist. Med., 1936, 4, 373-403. For bibliography of the Inventum novum see P.J. Bishop, Tubercle, 1961, 42, 78. The facsimile reprint by Max Neuburger (Vienna, 1922) includes a facsimile of the original edition, and translations into English, French and German.



Subjects: PHYSICAL DIAGNOSIS › Percussion
  • 11599

Original cases with dissections and observations illustrating the use of the stethoscope and percussion in the diagnosis of diseases of the chest: Also commentaries on the same subjects selected and translated from Auenbrugger, Corvisart, Laennec and others. By John Forbes.

London: T. and G. Underwood, 1824.

This is the earliest English work on the stethoscope. It "includes the first English translation of Auenbrugger's book on percussion, selected sections from Laennec's book on auscultation, and detailed reports from 39 cases from Forbes's practice in which auscultation and percussion were especially helpful" (W. Bruce Fye). Digital facsimile from the Wellcomcollection.org at this link.
See P. J. Bishop, "Reception of the Stethoscope and Laennec's Book", Thorax, 36, 487-492. https://thorax.bmj.com/content/thoraxjnl/36/7/487.full.pdf



Subjects: CARDIOLOGY › Tests for Heart & Circulatory Function › Auscultation and Physical Diagnosis, INSTRUMENTS & TECHNOLOGIES › Medical Instruments › Stethoscope, PHYSICAL DIAGNOSIS › Percussion