Leopold von Auenbrugger

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Leopold Auenbrugger

Johann Leopold Auenbrugger , from 1784 Edler von Auenbrugg (born November 19, 1722 in Graz , † May 18, 1809 in Vienna ) was an Austrian physician and also a librettist . He was an enlightenment doctor and is considered to be the inventor of the medical examination technique of percussion .

biography

Leopold Auenbrugger was born on November 19, 1722 in Graz as the son of an innkeeper. It is said that as a child he helped his father in the inn "Zum Schwarzen Mohren" and thus learned to estimate the filling level of wine barrels by knocking on the wall of the barrel.

He studied medicine first in Graz, then in Vienna, where he worked as a doctor in the Spanish Hospital from 1751 after completing his studies and received his doctorate on November 18, 1752. During this time, he noticed the differences in sound that arise when you tap on the surface of the chest wall at different points. He investigated this phenomenon further and in 1761 published a work with the title Inventum novum ex percussione thoracis humani ut signo abstrusos interni pectoris morbos detegendi (New invention by striking the human chest as a sign to discover hidden breast diseases). He is therefore considered to be the inventor of percussion .

Among other things, he described the phenomenon of damping and explained it with the reduced air content of the tissue. He also listed various clinical pictures in which he found an increased damping of the knocking sound.

With his discovery, Auenbrugger is considered a pioneer of physical diagnostics, alongside René Laënnec (1781–1826), the inventor of the stethoscope . Percussion and auscultation are basic clinical examinations in medicine that have retained their importance even in the age of “apparatus medicine”.

His work initially received little attention and was almost forgotten. In 1762 he left the Spanish Hospital and became the court doctor of Maria Theresa . Only another of his writings on the treatment of various diseases with camphor (1783) earned him a far greater reputation. In 1784 he was given the nobility title Edler von Auenbrugg . The writing about the percussion fell into oblivion for almost forty years and was only rediscovered by Napoleon 's personal physician Jean-Nicolas Corvisart , translated into French and published in Paris in 1808 . The first version in German appeared in Vienna in 1843.

Auenbrugger was a student of Gerard van Swieten and viewed the Hippocratic observation of the sick, the Harnschau, which was replaced by auscultation as the standard diagnostic method, and the concept of humoral pathology with skepticism.

He also wrote the libretto for a Singspiel by Antonio Salieri - whose best man he was in 1774 - entitled Der Rauchfangkehrer , which premiered in Vienna in 1781.

After his death, Auenbrugger was buried in the Catholic cemetery in Matzleinsdorf .

Honors

In 1891, Auenbruggergasse in Vienna- Landstrasse (3rd district) was named after him.

A memorial plaque was placed on the house where he died ( Neuer Markt 9, next to the Capuchin Church ) shortly before the hundredth anniversary of his death.

The Medical University of Graz , founded in 2004 from the former medical faculty, bears the portrait of Auenbrugger in its seal, the area of ​​the LKH University Hospital Graz is called Auenbruggerplatz .

literature

Web links

Commons : Leopold von Auenbrugger  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Friedrich v. Zglinicki : Uroscopy in the fine arts. An art and medical historical study of the urine examination. Ernst Giebeler, Darmstadt 1982, ISBN 3-921956-24-2 , pp. 6 and 18.
personal data
SURNAME Auenbrugger, Leopold von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Auenbrugger, Johann Leopold von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian physician and librettist
DATE OF BIRTH November 19, 1722
PLACE OF BIRTH Graz
DATE OF DEATH May 18, 1809
Place of death Vienna