Jean René Constant Quoy

Who was Jean René Constant Quoy?

Jean René Constant Quoy was a French naval surgeon, zoologist and anatomist.

In 1806, he began his medical studies at the school of naval medicine at Rochefort, afterwards serving as an auxiliary-surgeon on a trip to the Antilles. After earning his medical doctorate in 1814 at Montpellier, he was surgeon-major on a journey to Réunion.

Along with Joseph Paul Gaimard, he served as naturalist and surgeon aboard the Uranie under Louis de Freycinet from 1817 to 1820, and on the Astrolabe under the command of Jules Dumont d'Urville. Along with his skills as a naturalist, he was acclaimed for his work as an artist. On the Astrolabe expedition, Quoy and Gaimard discovered the now extinct giant skink of Tonga.

In 1824, he was appointed professor of anatomy at the Rochefort Naval School, where from 1832 to 1835, he was a professor of medicine. He then continued his career at naval hospitals in Toulon and in Brest, afterwards being chosen inspector general of the Naval Bureau of Medicine and Surgery.