A CENTURY OF ZOOLOGY IN INDIANA. 195 



In 1832 and 1833 Rafinesque publislied in Philadelijliia a periodical wlueli 

 he called the "Atlantic Journal and Friend of Knowledge." In March, 1915, 

 while examining a bound c^opy of this journal, kindly loaned to me by my 

 friend Dr. John Van Denburgh, 1 was amazed to find on page 163, a most 

 remarkable document, which I here quote verbatim et literatim. This ex- 

 tremely interesting letter shows clearly that our eccentric naturalist, regarded 

 by some as a fool, by others as a knave, was neither — certainly not a fool — 

 but a man of remarkable vision who grasped clearly all the essential principles 

 of the evolutionary origin of species. Much of what he said in this letter 

 to John Torrey would sound well today in a discussion of the origin of species. 

 He even uses the word 'mutation', in a strictly De Vresian sense, thus an- 

 ticipating Professor De Vries's "Die Mutations-theorie" by nearly clu-ee- 

 quarters of a century. And all this 26 years before Darwin's "Origin of 

 Species," and just as Darwin was entering upon his voyage around the 

 world in the Beagle, to which he was indebted for so much of the data which 

 led him to his theory! 



The article to which I refer is as follows: 

 124. I'rinciples of the Philosophy of new Genera and new species of Plants 

 and Animals. 



Extract of a letter to Dr. J. Torrey of New York dated 1st Dec. 1832 ... I 

 shall soon come out with my avowed principles about G. and Sp. partly 

 announced 1814 in my principles of Somiology, and which my experience and 

 researches ever since have confirmed. The truth is that Species and perhaps 

 Genera also, are forming in organized beings by gradual deviations of shapes, 

 forms and organs, taking place in the lapse of time. There is a tendency to 

 deviations and mutations through plants and animals by gradual steps at 

 remote irregular periods. This is a part of the great universal law of PER- 

 PETUAL MUTABILITY in every thing. 



Thus it is needless to dispute and differ about new G. Sp. and varieties. 

 Every variety is a deviation which becomes a Sp. as soon as it is permanent 

 by reproduction. Deviations in essential organs may thus gradually become 

 N. G. Yet every deviation in form ought to have a peculiar name, it is 

 better to have only a generic and specific name for it than 4 when deemed a 

 variety. It is not impossible to ascertain the primitive Sp. that have pro- 

 duced all the actual; many means exist to ascertain it: history, locality, 

 abundance, &c. This view of the subject will settle botany and zoology 

 in a new way and greatly simplify those sciences. The races, breeds or varie- 

 ties of men, monkeys, dogs, roses, apples, wheat * * * and almost 

 every other genus, may be reduced to one or a few primitive Sp. yet 

 admit of several actual Sp. names may and will multiply as they do in 

 geography and history by time and changes, but they wall be reducible to 

 a better classification by a kind of genealogical order or tables. 



My last work on Botany if I live and after publishing all my N. Sp. 

 will be on this, and the reduction of our Flora from 8000 to 1200 or 1500 



