Auenbrugger Von Auenbrugg, Leopold

Leopold Auenbrugger von Auenbrugg, (born Nov. 19, 1722, Graz, Austria—died May 17, 1809, Vienna), physician who devised the diagnostic technique of percussion (the art of striking a surface part of the body with short, sharp taps to diagnose the condition of the parts beneath the sound). In 1761, after seven years of investigation, he published a description of the method in his book Inventum Novum. Although a few doctors began to use Auenbrugger’s techniques, it was not until a French translation by Jean-Nicolas Corvisart des Marest, personal physician to Napoleon, appeared in 1808 that the diagnostic method gained worldwide acceptance. It remains an important procedure in bedside diagnosis.