Johann Gottfried Zinn

Johann Gottfried Zinn was a German anatomist and botanist and a member of the Berlin Academy, who died in 1759 at the age of only thirty one. Born in Schwabach in 1727, he became director of the botanic garden of the University of Göttingen in 1753 and a professor in its medical faculty in 1755. His book Descriptio anatomica oculi humani gave the first detailed and comprehensive anatomy of the human eye, and he coined anatomical terms still in use, among them the zonule of Zinn and the annulus of Zinn, also called the circle of Zinn. In 1757 he described the orchid genus Epipactis, and Carl Linnaeus named the flower genus Zinnia in his honour. He died in Göttingen.