Plenck, joseph jacob

(¤ 1738, † 1807) Habsburg scientist of chemistry, botany, surgery, anatomy, dermatology and obstetrics, working in Vienna at the military medical (Josephinian) academy. Previously worked in Tyrnau/Nagyszombat/Tyrnava (today Slovakia) and in Buda as well as in Pest (Budapest) as Professor of Surgery and Obstetrics. Plenck justified the classification of skin diseases according to their specific manifestation and the most important types of the different diseases. In his systematic dermatological work published in Vienna in 1776: "Doctrine of Skin Diseases", Plenck listed 115 skin diseases, which he divided into 14 classes. Later, Robert Willan, who took up Plenck's system, will simplify the division into 8 groups. Even before Willan, Plenck is the founder of systematic dermatology.