AN HISTORICAL REVIEW OF THE PHYSICAL EXAMINATION OF THE CHEST
Authors: F M POTTENGER
Journal: Annals of Internal Medicine (1949)

Article1 April 1949AN HISTORICAL REVIEW OF THE PHYSICAL EXAMINATION OF THE CHESTF. M. POTTENGER, M.D., F.A.C.P.F. M. POTTENGER, M.D., F.A.C.P.Search for more papers by this authorAuthor, Article, and Disclosure Informationhttps://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-30-4-766 SectionsAboutPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail ExcerptThere is no part of medicine that offers so great a challenge to the medical mind as diagnosis. Early diagnosis detects disease when the least harm has been done to the patient and makes treatment more simple and cure more probable. Then too, if the disease is infectious, it permits early application of public health measures for the protection of others.Any method of examination which adds to the earliness or the certainty of diagnosis is a valuable contribution to the welfare of man.For a long time it was thought that disease was a general disorder involving the whole...Bibliography1. MORGAGNI GB: De sedibus et causis morborum per anatomen indagatis libri quinque, 1761. (The seat and the causes of maladies anatomically studied.) Google Scholar2. AUENBRUGGER L: Inventum novum ex percussione thoracis humani ut signo abstrusos interni pectoris morbos detegendi, Vindobonae, 1761. Google Scholar3. CASTIGLIONI A: A History of Medicine Translated from the Italian by E. B. Krumbhaar, 1941, Alfred A. Knopf, New York. Google Scholar4. AUENBRUGGER L: Methode pour connaître les maladies de poitrine par la percussion. Trad. et commenté par J. W. Corvisart, Paris, 1808. Google Scholar5. CORVISART : Essai sur les maladies et les lésions organiques du coeur et des gros vaissezuz. 3 ième édit. Paris, 1818. Google Scholar6. LAENNEC RT: De l'auscultation médiate, Paris, 2 bde. 1819. Google Scholar7. PIORRY PA: De la percussion médiate, Paris, 1828. Google Scholar8. PIORRY PA: Du procédé operatoire à suivre dans l'exploration des organes par la percussion médiate, Paris, 1831. Google Scholar9. SKODA J: Abhandlung über Perkussion und Auskultation, Wien, 1839, 2. Aufl. 1842, 3. Aufl. 1844, 6. Aufl. 1864. Google Scholar10. LAENNEC RT: Traité de l'auscultation médiate et des maladies du poumon et du coeur. 3 ième èdit., augmentée de notes par Mériadec Laennec. 2 Bde. Paris, 1826. Google Scholar11. BEAU M: Recherches sur la cause des bruits respiratoires percus au moyen de l'auscultation, Arch. gén. de méd., Paris, 1834, IIe serie, tome V., p. 557. Google Scholar12. POTTENGER FM: Auscultation. A new appraisal, Am. Rev. Tuberc., 1947, lvi. Google Scholar13. _____: Auscultation: A discussion of the cause and characteristics of respiratory sounds, Trans. Am. Clin. and Climatol. Assoc., 1947. Google Scholar14. _____: Spasm of chest muscles, particularly the intercostals as a physical sign of disease of the lungs, Am. Jr. Med. Sci., 1909, cxxxvii, 669-674. Google Scholar15. _____: Further observations upon rigidity of the chest muscles as a sign of involvement of the pulmonary parenchyma, Med. Rec., 1909, lxxvi, 685. Google Scholar16. _____: Muskelspasmus und Degeneration. Ihre Bedeutung für die Diagnose intrathoräzischer Entzündung und als Kausalfaktor bei der Produktion von Veränderungen des knöchernen Thorax, und leichte Tastpalpation, Beitr. z. Klin. d. Tuberk., 1912, xxii, 1-72. English: Muscle spasm and degeneration and light touch palpation, 1912, The C. V. Mosby Co., St. Louis. Google Scholar17. _____: Clinical tuberculosis, ed. 2, Vol. I, 1928, The C. V. Mosby Co., St. Louis, pp. 324-333. Google Scholar18. _____: Tuberculosis in the child and the adult, 1934, The C. V. Mosby Co., St. Louis, p. 185. Google Scholar19. _____: Tuberculosis, 1948, The C. V. Mosby Co., St. Louis, pp. 170 and 175. Google Scholar20. COPLIN WM: Changes in the intercostal muscles and the diaphragm in infective processes involving the lung and pleura, Am. Jr. Med. Sci., 1905, cxxvii, 754; also Path. Soc. Philadelphia Proceedings, new series, 1903-4, vii, 65. Google Scholar21. SHERRINGTON CS: The intergrative action of the nervous system, 1906, Charles Scribner & Sons, New York, p. 158. Google Scholar22. POTTENGER FM: Symptoms of visceral disease, ed. 6, 1944, The C. V. Mosby Co., St. Louis, p. 169. Google Scholar23. _____: The outlining of normal organs and the diagnosticating of disease conditions of the pleura and lungs by means of palpation, Interstate Med. Jr., 1909, xvi, No. 12; also Lancet-Clinic, Dec. 11, 1909. Google Scholar This content is PDF only. To continue reading please click on the PDF icon. Author, Article, and Disclosure InformationAffiliations: Monrovia, California*Received for publication March 13, 1948. PreviousarticleNextarticle Advertisement FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Metrics 1 April 1949Volume 30, Issue 4Page: 766-777KeywordsInfectious diseasesPatientsPrevention, policy, and public healthThorax ePublished: 1 December 2008 Issue Published: 1 April 1949 PDF downloadLoading ...