Joseph Jakob Plenck


Joseph Jakob Ritter Plenk or Plenck was an Austrian physician and polymath. He is now known as a pioneer dermatologist.

Life

Plenck graduated at the University of Vienna in 1763, and was a follower of Heinrich Johann Nepomuk von Crantz. An academic at the University of Basel in 1770, he then taught at Tymau, Buda and Pesth. In 1783 he moved to the Josephinum in Vienna.

Works

Plenck was a prolific writer, on subjects including surgery. In 1776 he published a classification of skin diseases, Doctrina de morbis cutaneis. It introduced a consistent system, dividing dermatosis into 14 classes.