His father, owner of the inn Zum Schwarzen Mohren, gave his son every opportunity for an excellent preliminary education in his native town and then sent him to Vienna to complete his studies at the university.

[citation needed] He found out that, by applying his ear to the patient[4] and tapping lightly on the chest, one could assess the density of underlying tissues and organs.

[citation needed] During his ten years of patient study, Auenbrugger confirmed his observations on the diagnostic value of percussion by comparison with post-mortem specimens, and besides made a number of experimental researches on dead bodies.

These observations were published in a little book called Inventum Novum ex Percussione Thoracis Humani Interni Pectoris Morbos Detegendi, the full English title being "A New Discovery that Enables the Physician from the Percussion of the Human Thorax to Detect the Diseases Hidden Within the Chest".

[citation needed] The value of percussion in physical examination was later recognized by Jean-Nicolas Corvisart, who popularized it teaching it to his students in France, and by Joseph Škoda in Vienna.