Marcus Elieser Bloch (1723 - 1799) was born at Ansbach, Germany in 1723. His parents, being very poor, gave him hardly any education, so that on arriving at manhood he was almost illiterate, and till the age of nineteen could not even read German. Between 1782 and 1795 he published his Allgemeine Naturgeschichte der Fische, a 12 volume, beautifully illustrated comprehensive work on fishes.