Alexander von Frantzius

Alexander von Frantzius (10 June 1821, in Danzig – 18 July 1877) was a German physician and naturalist.

He studied medicine at the universities of Heidelberg, Erlangen, Halle and Berlin, where in 1846, he obtained his doctorate.

[1] In 1853, with fellow naturalist, Karl Hoffmann, he journeyed to Costa Rica,[2] where he would spend the next 15 years conducting geographical, climatological, ethnographical and zoological research.

After arriving in Costa Rica, he settled in Alajuela (1854), later setting up a successful pharmacy in San José, an institution that eventually became known as the Botica Francesa.

He returned to Germany in 1868, settling in Heidelberg, from where he served as secretary of the Gesellschaft für Anthropologie (German Anthropological Society).