156 SCIENCE SKETCHES. 



siz^ has said a word in mitigation of the harsh ver- 

 dict passed on Rafinesque by his fellow-workers 

 and their immediate successors. Agassiz says, 

 very justly : — 



" I am satisfied that Rafinesque was a better man than 

 he appeared. His misfortune was his prurient desire for 

 novelties, and his rashness in publishing them. . . . Trac- 

 ing his course as a naturalist during his residence in this 

 country,, it is plain that he alarmed those with whom he 

 had intercourse, by his innovations, and that they pre- 

 ferred to lean upon the authority of the great naturalist 

 of the age [Cuvier], who, however, knew little of the 

 special history of the country, rather than to trust a some- 

 what hasty man who was living among them, and who had 

 collected a vast amount of information from all parts of 

 the States upon a variety of subjects then entirely new to 

 science." ^ 



In a sketch of "■ A Neglected Naturalist," Pro- 

 fessor Herbert E. Copeland has said : — 



" To many of our untiring naturalists, who sixty years 

 ago accepted the perils and privations of the far West, to 

 collect and describe its animals and plants, we have given 

 the only reward they sought, — a grateful remembrance of 

 their work. Audubon died full of riches and honor, with 

 the knowledge that his memory would be cherished as 

 long as birds should sing. Wilson is the ' father of Amer- 

 ican ornithology,' and his mistakes and faults are forgotten 



1 So early as 1844, Professor Agassiz wrote to Charles Lucien 

 Bonaparte : " I think that there is a justice due to Rafinesque. 

 However poor his descriptions, he first recognized the necessity 

 of multiplying genera in ichthyology, and this at a time when the 

 thing was far more difficult than now." 



'^ Agassiz, American Journal of Science and Arts, 1854, p 354. 



