[History of chest percussion]

Although percussion of the abdomen was already known to the Greek physician Galenos (2nd century A. D.) who used it to distinguish between ascites and meteorism, the Viennese physician Leopold Auenbrugger (1722-1809) started to use, the percussion of the chest as a diagnostic tool. In 1761 he published his experience in a treatise called "New Method for Detecting Hidden Ailments of the Chest by Percussion of the Thorax" (Inventum novum ex percussione thoracis hummani ut signo abstruso interni pectoris morbos detergendi). However, this method was introduced into practice only 50 years later by Jean Nicolas Corvisart, who translated Auenbrugger's book in 1808 into French. The famous Vinnese internist of Czech origin Joseph Skoda (1805-1881) set the teaching about percussion and auscultation on a firm physical basis. Skoda confronted the physical findings with dissection materials in close cooperation with the renowned Vinnese pathologist Karl Rokitansky (1804-1878), who was born in Hradec Králové. The Medical School in Prague became famous for its excellent command of methods based on physical examination and surpassed even the Viennese School.