Sporotrichosis is also called “Schenck’s disease,” and the causative organism is named Sporothrix schenckii. Who was Schenck?

The disease is named after Bernard R. Schenck, who described the first definitive case of sporotrichosis (in an arm) in which the fungus was also isolated from the patient. Schenck was a second year medical student at Johns Hopkins Hospital when he made his famous discovery. The fungus could not be identified and was sent to Dr. E.F. Smith at the United States Department of Agriculture. Based on the colony appearance and microscopic morphology, Dr. Smith considered the fungus to be a species of Sporotrichium. In 1900, Hektoen and Perkins described a case of sporotrichosis in the finger of a boy who had struck his finger with a hammer. They reported the case as “Refractory subcutaneous abscesses caused by Sporothrix schenckii” and Dr. Schenck’s name became forever associated with this fungal infection. Dr. Schenck did not become a dermatologist and reportedly specialized in obstetrics and gynecology after medical school.