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Karl Holubar

Publications and source records attributed to Karl Holubar.

25 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed2003

A kind of Mozart of medicine: Joseph Plenck (1735-1807).

This is a tribute to one of the fathers of modern European dermatology and venereology, Dr Joseph Plenck, the Viennese protodermatologist of two hundred years ago, 1735-1807, who was professor and secretary of the Imperial Medical Josephine Academy, where today is the Institute for the history of medicine. Plenck introduced the systematization of dermatovenereological diseases based on their paradigmatic differences, which is deemed as "the only (system) with pretensions to accuracy". A man of diversified interests and a fruitful author, he wrote many treatises covering various fields from dermatology, venereology, and dentistry to surgery, obstetrics, anatomy, pediatrics, pharmacology, and botany. This remarkable physician definitely left a deep trace in the history of dermatology and venereology, and marked the transition from text-based to visually dependent culture in the field of dermatovenereology.

Austria↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Early history and iconography of lupus erythematosus.

In analyzing the history of a certain disease, not only must the particular disease be investigated, but related pathological conditions that exist in a population at a given time must also be addressed. Also, the prevalence of other diseases should be explored, which may have a bearing on the problem under discussion. The history of medicine can help in this respect, revealing the circumstances or the environment when certain diseases (dis)appeared. Terminology must also be explored, and is the point with which we will begin. With regard to lupus, this again is the case (Latin for wolf; lykos ___ in Greek). Taboo and fantasy border semantics because in the naming of the wolf, the image of "tearing apart" or "pulling or ripping off" (a destructive phenomenon) comes into play. Even the Sanskrit word allows such a relation (v_ik, varkate, v_íkah [symbols: see text]). As a consequence, processes of various origin but characterized by ulceration or necrosis (neoplastic, infectious, traumatic, etc), were labeled lupus before the mid-19th century, and no specific pathogenesis was implied. This resulted in considerable confusion, as the books of Willan, Alibert, Cazenave, Schedeland, Hebra, and others prove. We see no purpose in delving further into the history of ulcerative lesions and what was understood early on to be their presumed cause, eg, back to Paracelsus and to the Old Testament ("shekhin" [see text] Hebrew, meaning "ulcer"); or, "cancer," another such descriptive term relating to destruction, taken from the Greek).

Dermatology↗