Chapter 4　Listening and Smelling Examination

The listening and smelling examination means listening to the patient's sounds and smelling their odours so as to investigate the circumstances of disease. Listening to the sounds means listening and distinguishing various sounds such as speech, breathing, coughing, vomiting, hiccoughing, belching, sighing, sneezing, yawning and intestinal rumbling that occur during the pathological changes of the patient. The smelling examination means smelling the various odours from the patient's body and the abnormal odours of the sickroom including secretions or excreta.

Since sounds as well as odours all come from the physiological activities and pathological changes of thezang-fu organs, listening to the sounds and smelling odours are helpful for examining the morbid conditions of thezang-fu organs and providing evidence for identifying patterns.

First of all, one should familiarise oneself with the normal sounds and odours of healthy people so as to recognise any changes from the norm. Next, it is essential to have sufficient knowledge about sounds and odours in poor health and their clinical significance. Finally, the practitioner needs to combine the identifying of patterns with the contents of the listening and smelling examination and pay attention to its general rules in clinical practice.