Plica polonica: from national plague to death of the disease in the nineteenth‑century Vilnius

• Sakalauskaitė‑Juodeikienė, Eglė
• Jatužis, Dalius
• Kaubrys, Saulius

EN“Plica polonica is an endemic disease of Poland, Tartary, and neighboring countries; it begins with a long‑lasting nervous‑rheumatic ailment and progresses to the formation of uncombed and filthy hair plaits in hairy parts of the body, especially the head,” wrote Joseph Frank (1771–1842), Professor of Special Therapy and Clinical Medicine at Vilnius University in 1815. Plica polonica, a tuft of matted, felted and filthy hair, is a phenomenon that was often considered an affliction exclusively characteristic of Poland and Lithuania; however, a number of publications on plica came mostly from central European regions. [Extract, p. 510]