Viennese vibrations: doctors, lungs and opera

Eighteenth century physician Josef Leopold Auenbrugger, originator of chest percussion, was also part of Vienna's rich musical life

Links between music and medicine typically focus on ailments, known or suspected, of composers — Beethoven's deafness, Chopin's tuberculosis, Schubert's syphilis, Schumann's mental disorder, Mozart's nearly everything, Paganini's suspected Ehlers–Danlos syndrome. But few doctors have actually written an opera libretto. One exception was the Austrian physician Josef Leopold Auenbrugger (1722–1809) (Box 1).