The Days of a Man 



DP75 



Catalogue 

 of fresh- 

 water 

 fishes 



peared," and while he undoubtedly had great insight^ 

 and greater energy, his work does not deserve a 

 high place in the records of science. His failure 

 seems due to two things: first, his lack of attention 

 to details, a defect which vitiated all his writings; 

 and, second, his versatility, which led him to invade 

 every available field of learning. 



Dying almost deserted, in Philadelphia, he was 

 buried stealthily by two or three students to fore- 

 stall the sale of the body to a medical school for 

 unpaid rent. A whole nation wept for Agassiz. 

 Both men were learned naturalists, both had ac- 

 quired high reputations in Europe before casting 

 their lot with America. But while Agassiz's big 

 heart went out toward every one with whom he 

 came in contact, Rafinesque loved no man or woman, 

 and died, as he had lived, alone. Yet his last re- 

 corded words, **Time renders justice to all alike," 

 reveal a noble stoicism. 



Our third considerable piece of work, the cata- 

 logue of fishes, was necessarily incomplete, repre- 

 senting only the accumulated knowledge of the time. 

 In succeeding years it was my privilege to add 

 probably half as many more species and yet reduce 

 a large number of names to the rank of synonyms, 

 so often had different authors described the same 

 thing under other names. Take for example Ictalurus 

 punctatus, the Channel Cat of the Ohio, which had 

 appeared as a new species twenty-eight times, or 

 the small-mouth Black Bass — Micropterus dolomieu 

 — which was not far behind. 



' It is worth noting that Rafinesque was one of the very first to gain a 

 clear conception of organic evolution, the principles of which constitute the 

 foundation of modern Biology. 



c 144 :] 



