Born to a Danish Jewish family,[2] his mother was a sister of Nathaniel Wallich.
Cantor worked for the British East India Company, and made natural history collections in Penang and Malacca.
[3] Cantor was the first Western scientist to describe the Siamese fighting fish.
[4][5][6][7] In the scientific field of herpetology he described many new species of reptiles and amphibians.
[8] Species first described by Cantor include Bungarus bungaroides (1839),[9] Bungarus lividus (1839),[10] Channa argus (1842),[11] Elaphe rufodorsata (1842),[12] Euprepiophis mandarinus (1842),[13] Hippocampus comes (1850),[14] Lycodon effraenis (1847),[15] Misgurnus anguillicaudatus (1842),[16] Naja atra (1842),[17] Oligodon albocinctus (1839),[18] Oligodon cyclurus (1839),[19] Ophiophagus hannah (1836),[20] Oreocryptophis porphyracea (1839),[21] Pareas monticola (1839),[22] Protobothrops mucrosquamatus (1839),[23] Ptyas dhumnades (1842),[24] and Trimeresurus erythrurus (1839).