Milestones of Science Books

AUENBRUGGER, Leopold.

Neue Erfindung mittelst des Anschlagens an den Brustkorb, als eines Zeichens, verborgene Brust-Krankheiten zu entdecken. Im lateinischen Original herausgegeben, übersetzt und mit Anmerkungen versehen von Dr. S. Ungar. Begleitet mit einem Vorworte von Joseph Skoda.

Vienna: J.B. Wallishausser, 1843.

1st Edition. Soft cover. 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" tall. Very Good. Item #003558

8vo (225 x 145 mm). viii, 72 pp. Latin and German parallel text, printed in two columns. All pages uncut. Original printed wrappers (dust soiled, creased, upper wrapper and spine repaired, corners chipped, front wrapper working loose). Protected in custom-made half-morocco over cloth slip case. Text slightly browned, occasional foxing and dust soiling. Provenance: J. Desmonts J. Mac Donald Co., Norwalk, Conn. (bookbinder's stamp to slip-case). ----

PMM 514, Heirs of Hippocrates 954; Garrison-Morton 2672; Osler 1864; Waller 519; Wellcome II, p. 70 (all for 1st ed.), Norman 86, Waller 522. RARE FIRST GERMAN TRANSLATION of Auenbrugger's Inventum novum with an introduction by Joseph Skoda who was the author of Abhandlungen über Perkussion und Auskultation. A "milestone in the history of medicine" (Heirs 954). Auenbrugger (1722-1809) had already learned from Van Swieten that tapping the abdomen could detect certain diseases (e.g. ascites). For seven years he studied the various sound phenomena that arose when tapping the chest with his fingers before he published the results (Inventum novum, 1761). The scientific recognition of the importance of this discovery was denied to him until shortly before the end of his life; van Swieten in particular spurned his work and kept silent about it. Maximilian Stoll - then director of the medical clinic at the Spanish Hospital - tried the new method and praised it in one of his books, but this had no further consequences. Auenbrugger left the Spanish Hospital in Vienna disappointed and retired to a private practice; the percussion was forgotten. It was only through Jean Nicolas Corvisart (1755-1821) that the method received its well-deserved recognition; he discovered Stoll's remark and in 1808 published a French translation of the Inventum novum (see Heirs 955). Joseph Skoda (1805-1881) was one of the best clinicians of the younger Vienna Medical School and founded modern physical diagnostics after having studied the methods of percussion and auscultation. His own "Abhandlung über Perkussion und Auskultation" (Vienna 1839) became world famous. - Visit our website to see more images!

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