From Plenck (d. 1807) to Dohi (d. 1931) and today: Austrian influence on Japanese dermatology

The Vienna surgeon Joseph Plenck first listed individual skin lesions, some of which we consider primary efflorescences today. He wrote many more treatises, relating to different areas of medicine, most of which reached Japan. One century later Keizo Dohi wrote, that Plenck's oeuvre will remain unforgotten in the history of dermatology, for his importance, in general and for the close relation to the development of medicine and dermatology in Japan. A search for Japanese translations of Plenck's books could prove that. Dohi himself wanted to become a surgeon but changed his plans and enrolled in Moriz Kaposi's (1837-1902) department in Vienna as a postgraduate student in 1893. Sifting through Dohi's textbook and papers, the importance of the Hebra-Kaposi School for Japan is again explicitly stated by the Japanese master, who founded the Japanese Dermatological Society in December of 1900 and the disciplines's journal in 1901. The language of publication was German. Dohi's first paper appeared in the Archiv für Dermatologie und Syphilis in 1896, in German. In recent years Austrian dermatology has become influential again in dermatological research after a mid century low. A series of investigators have spent sabbatical years or postgraduate training at the former Hebra-Kaposi Department in Vienna. Their scientific achievements were mainly in the field of immunobiology of the skin. A list of publications and their authors is presented.