Auenbrugger von Auenbrugg, Leopold  ( born Nov. 19, 1722 , Graz, Austria—died May 17, 1809 , Vienna )  physician who devised the diagnostic technique of percussion (the art of striking a surface part of the body with short, sharp taps to diagnose the condition of the parts beneath the sound). In 1761, after seven years of investigation, he published a description of the method in his book Inventum Novum, but . Although a few doctors began to use Auenbrugger’s techniques, it was not until a French translation by Jean-Nicolas Corvisart des MaretsMarest, personal physician to Napoleon, appeared in 1808 that the diagnostic method gained worldwide acceptance. It remains a fundamental an important procedure in bedside diagnosis.