4 The Life and Writings of 



of German parentage, from Saxony. The mercantile 

 enterprises of his father reached to distant lands and 

 often necessitated his absence from home for long periods 

 at a time. There would seem to be but little question 

 but that matters connected with his father s business 

 ventures and their recital in the home of the lad had 

 something to do with determining his future bent toward 

 travel. The family was not a large one; Rafinesque 

 had one only sister, who became a Mrs. G. Lanthois, of 

 Bordeaux, whose name was never mentioned by our 

 author save once, and a younger brother, Anthony 

 Augustus. From the circumstance that Rafinesque 

 speaks of this brother as his younger brother some 

 have inferred that there was an older member of the 

 group of sons, but if so it nowhere appears in any of 

 his writings. More of the family is not known. The 

 younger brother drops out of the record after 1805, 

 having gone to France from Philadelphia, and thence to 

 Sicily, and nothing further is known of him. Of the 

 mother very little is known, but from the fragmentary 

 items connected with the earlier education of Rafinesque 

 it would appear that she was a most intelligent woman, 

 and had great concern for the proper education of 

 this son. The absence from home of the father natu 

 rally placed almost the entire care of this phase of the 



