A   HISTORY   OF   MEDICINE
in Liverpool, took up the idea inaugurated by Sanctorius, and
while treating typhoid fever with cold baths, checked his results
by thermometry.
Meanwhile, in Vienna, there had been published a monograph
of ninety-five pages which contained the first account of per-
cussion as an aid to diagnosis, and bore the lengthy title, Inventum
Novum ex percussione thoracis humani ut signo abstrusos interni pectoris
morbos detegendi, 1761. leopold auenbrugger (1722-1809) was
the son of an innkeeper of Graz, and he had often used percussion
to ascertain the level of wine in his father's casks. This principle
he applied to the human chest when he became physician to
the Military Hospital of Vienna. The Inventum Novum com-
mences with the words, " I here present the reader with a new
sign which I have discovered for detecting disease of the chest.
It consists in percussion of the human thorax, whereby ... an
opinion is formed of the internal state of that cavity." * The
work attracted little notice for twenty years. Then, jean nicholas
corvisart (1755-1821) of Paris,2 personal physician and friend
of Napoleon Bonaparte, translated it into French a year before
Auenbrugger died, popularizing the method, and according full
credit to the discoverer. It is interesting to note that Auenbrugger
was musical, and that he had composed, at the request of Maria
Theresa, an opera entitled The Chimney-sweep.
Although he really belongs to the following century, it is
convenient to mention here the discoverer of the stethoscope,
rene theophile hyacinthe laennec (1781-1826). Born at
Quimper, in Brittany, where his statue may still be seen, he com-
menced his medical career by assisting his uncle, a physician at
Nantes.3 Next, he proceeded to Paris where he studied under
Corvisart and Dupuytren, acquitting himself with great distinc-
tion, although unfortunately to the detriment of his health, for
he was attacked by tuberculosis which eventually caused his
death at the age of forty-five years. Shortly after his appointment
as physician to the Necker Hospital in 1816, he had occasion to
examine a patient whose stoutness made it difficult for the phy-
1 J. Forbes," On Percussion of the Chest; A Translation of Auenbrugger's Original
Treatise," BuLL Hist. Med., 1936, vol. iv. p. 373
* B. B, iBeeson," Corvisart, His Life and Works," Ann. Med. Hist., 1930, vol. ii. p. 1297;
A. L. McDonald, *c The Aphorisms of Corvisart/' Ann. Med. Hist., 1939, vol. i. pp. 243,
374, 471, 546; and '1940, vol. ii. p. 64
» H. Saintignon, Loennec, $a vie et son (Wire, Paris, 1904 ; G. B. Webb, *' Rend Th^ophile
Hyacinthe Laennec," Ann* Med. Hist., 1937, v°l* »• P* 27
258