ABSTRACT
Jonathan Couch trained and enlisted many of the local fishermen to aid him in his studies and was in regular correspondence with leading naturalists of the time including Thomas Bewick and William Yarrel, whose works on British fish benefitted greatly from his significant contributions. Couch produced many of his own ichthyological works and, in 1835, was awarded a prize for the best natural history of the pilchard. He spent five years under Mr John Rice of East Looe and Mr Lawrence Liskeard, before leaving Polperro for London in 1808 to further his medical studies. Couch attended the United Medical Schools of Guy’s and St Thomas’ to take the diploma of surgeons where he was profoundly influenced by some of the contemporaneous high ranking physicians and surgeons.
