Historical outline of attempts to classify skin diseases.

摘要

Over the years physicians have attempted to classify skin diseases. Plenck and Willan were the first to outline clearly the basic components of skin diseases and to devise classifications based on living gross pathologic features. With the development of molecular biology, etiologic classification--a system unrelated to that of clinical appearance--was begun. Most current textbooks present combinations of these two systems and those based on location or on other concepts.