Marcus Elieser Bloch

Marcus Elieser Bloch (1723–1799) was a German-Jewish medical doctor and naturalist. Although he had limited education, he became a teacher in Hamburg, learned German and Latin and studied anatomy. He later settled in Berlin where he became a physician. Always interested in natural history, he amassed a private collection of natural objects. He is generally considered one of the most important ichthyologists of the 18th century, and wrote many papers on natural history, comparative anatomy, and physiology.