Trivia on Percussion

The following are probably only found in the history books but this is still interesting for me. I wish to share it with you guys.

In 1761, Leopold Auenbrugger, a Viennese physician, published a book proposing "percussion of the human thorax, whereby, according to the character of the particular sounds thence elicited, an opinion is formed of the internal state of that cavity."² He had observed his father, an innkeeper, use this technique to check the wine levels in his casks. Although his discovery was initially ignored, percussion was reintroduced by Jean-Nicolas Corvisart in early 19th-century France, and became an essential addition to the chest examination until it was mostly supplanted by the chest x-ray.

Reference:

Fuster, V., Walsh, R. A., O'Rourke, R. A., & Poole-Wilson, P. (2008). Hurst's The Heart, 12th ed. The McGraw-Hill Companies.