Heinrich Rudolf Schinz

Heinrich Rudolf Schinz (1777 to 1861) was a Swiss medical doctor and naturalist. He was born in Zurich, studied medicine at the universities of Wurzburg and Jena, and received his doctorate in 1798 before returning to Zurich as a medical practitioner. In 1804 he became a teacher of physiology and natural history at the medical-surgical institute in Zurich, and from 1833 to 1855 he served as an associate professor of zoology at the University of Zurich. He was also curator of the natural history society of Zurich and wrote many important zoological works, among them a German edition of Georges Cuvier's Le Regne animal with numerous additions, illustrated natural histories of fishes and of reptiles, and a European fauna. He died on 8 March 1861.