Joseph Plenck (1735–1807): Amalgam of dermatology and ophthalmology

Abstract In today's world of specialization, many of our current major contributors to the medical literature tend to work in only their specialty area. Historically, that was not the case. Great physicians were great observers and often contributed to many areas of medicine. The best example of this type of physician was Joseph Plenck who, although trained as a surgeon, had major impacts on many fields of medicine including both dermatology and ophthalmology.