PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 25 



His nephew and successor in the Presidency of the Linnaean 

 Society and the University Professorship, William P. C. Barton 

 [b. 1786, d. 1856], was a man of similar tendencies, who in 

 early life published papers on the flora of Philadelphia [Flora? 

 Philadelphia? Prodromus, 1815], but later devoted himself chiefly 

 to professional affairs, writing copiously upon materia medica and 

 medical botany. 



The admirers of Benjamin Smith Barton have called him "the 

 father of American Natural History," but I cannot see the pro 

 priety of this designation, which is equally applicable to Mitchill 

 or Jefferson, and perhaps still more so to Peter Collinson, of 

 London. The praises of Barton have been so well and so often 

 sung that I do not feel guilty of injustice in passing him briefly by.* 



The most remarkable naturalist of those days was Rafmesque, 

 [b. 1784, d. 1872], a Sicilian by birth, who came to Philadel 

 phia in 1802. 



Nearly fifty years ago this man died, friendless and impover 

 ished, in Philadelphia. His last words were these: "Time ren 

 ders justice to all at last." Perhaps the day has not yet come 

 when full justice can be done to the memory of Constantine 

 Rafinesque, but his name seems yearly to grow more prominent 

 in the history of American zoology. He was in many respects 

 the most gifted man who ever stood in our ranks. When in his 

 prime he far surpassed his American contemporaries in versa 

 tility and comprehensiveness of grasp. He lived a century too 

 soon. His spirit was that of the present period. In the latter 

 years of his life, soured by disappointments, he seemed to become 

 unsettled in mind, but as I read the story of his life his eccen 

 tricities seem to me the outcome of a boundless enthusiasm for 

 the study of nature. The picturesque events of his life have 



* W. P. C. BARTON : Biography of Benjamin S. Barton, Philadelphia, 

 1815 



