When Auenbrugger introduced percussion it was direct or immediate percussion of the chest. Corvisart was the first to recognise that percussion not merely gave a sound but also a sensation to the percussing fingers. When Piorry introduced mediate percussion the sensation was more readily appreciable. However, there were many astute clinicians who ignored the sensation and these included Stokes, Hope, Latham and Gerhard. To this day some popular handbooks of physical signs do not mention this valuable component of percussion.
