The History of Dermatology

by Scott Jackson, MD and Althea Ashe,  PhD. 

Ever wonder what an 18th-century physician or surgeon needed to know about skin diseases? For the first time ever, the 18th-century handbook, Doctrina de Morbis Cutaneis (1783 edition), has been translated into English. In an effort to distill  confusing information about skin diseases into a simple system for his students, Joseph Jacob Plenck (1738-1807) unknowingly and without any recognition set the study of skin disease on a path towards formal specialization. Doctrina was the text that inspired Robert Willan (1757-1812) to make his own system, and thus, it is the foundational text of dermatology.  In the 250th anniversary year of the first edition of this work (1776), it is our intent both to honor Plenck with a translation of his masterful work and to reveal its secrets to modern readers and scholars.