A kind of Mozart of medicine: Joseph Plenck (1735-1807).
This is a tribute to one of the fathers of modern European dermatology and venereology, Dr Joseph Plenck, the Viennese protodermatologist of two hundred years ago, 1735-1807, who was professor and secretary of the Imperial Medical Josephine Academy, where today is the Institute for the history of medicine. Plenck introduced the systematization of dermatovenereological diseases based on their paradigmatic differences, which is deemed as "the only (system) with pretensions to accuracy". A man of diversified interests and a fruitful author, he wrote many treatises covering various fields from dermatology, venereology, and dentistry to surgery, obstetrics, anatomy, pediatrics, pharmacology, and botany. This remarkable physician definitely left a deep trace in the history of dermatology and venereology, and marked the transition from text-based to visually dependent culture in the field of dermatovenereology.
Holubar
Karl
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D001317:Austria; D003880:Dermatology / Q000266:history*; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D006801:Humans; D014686:Venereology / Q000266:history*