Bernhard von Cotta

He was born in a forester's lodge at Kleine Zillbach, Meiningen, near Eisenach, the son of Heinrich von Cotta, founder of the Tharandt Forestry Academy near Dresden.

Botany at first attracted him and he was one of the earliest to use the microscope in determining the structure of fossil plants.

He published many important works on geology, including Rocks Classified and Described: A Treatise on Lithology (translated by Philip Henry Lawrence, 1866),[2] one of the first comprehensive works on the subject issued in the English language, which gave great impetus to the study of rocks in Britain.

In 1848 he was a candidate for the German National Assembly in Frankfurt am Main, as well as the president of the Patriotic Club in Freiberg.

[3] He also worked with Professor Carl Friedrich Naumann to publish geological maps of the region of Saxony between 1836 and 1847.