Volcher Coiter (also spelled Coyter or Koyter; Latin: Volcherus Coiterus; 1534 – 2 June 1576) was a Dutch anatomist who established the study of comparative osteology and first described cerebrospinal meningitis.

Excelling in Latin, dialectics and mathematics, he received a stipend from the city to study abroad for five years which led him to study from 1555 in Italy and France and was a pupil of Ulisse Aldrovandi and Giulio Arenzi in Bologna; Gabriele Falloppio in Padua; Bartolomeo Eustachi in Rome; and Guillaume Rondelet.

In 1565 he was sent to jail in Rome partly because he was a Protestant but was released by assistance from Germans and then was forced to leave Italy.

In 1575 he took part in the French Wars of Religion as field surgeon to Count Palatine Johann Casimir who went into France to support the Huguenots.

[3] His works included Externarum et Internarum Principalium Humani Corporis Partium Tabulae (1572)[4] and De Avium Sceletis et Praecipius Musculis (1575).