Pierre Adolphe Piorry

He invented pleximetry (a method for the investigation of internal organs using percussion) and was the creator of medical terms toxin, toxemia and septicemia.

In 1816 he earned his doctorate with a thesis titled Du danger de la lecture des livres de médecine par les gens du monde (On the danger of reading medical text books by the laity).

[1] He later became an esteemed professor of medicine at the Charité, Pitié, and Hôtel Dieu of Paris.

[2] René Laennec's invention of the stethoscope (1816) and his publication of De l' Auscultation Médiate (1819) inspired Piorry to make an analogous contribution to the science of medical percussion.

In 1826 Piorry introduced the pleximeter (le plessimétre), a device used to help delineate internal organs, of which he described in his 1828 treatise De la Percussion Médiate.