Constantine Samuel Rafinesque, 7 



lie had wasted no time on dead languages, &quot;but had 

 spent it in learning alone and by mere reading ten times 

 more than is taught in the Schools.&quot; 



In 1796 Rafinesque was taken to Genoa, and the 

 journal of this tour constituted his first essay of the 

 kind. In making mention of this journal he remarks 

 that he had done the same ever since by notes or journals. 

 His residence varied for the next few years between 

 Genoa, Pisa, and Marseilles, during which period his 

 training was successively in the care of his mother and 

 grandmother, but was completed by himself. During 

 these years also he continued his botanical studies and 

 &quot;read every kind of books, good or bad; but happily I 

 knew how to distinguish them.&quot; To his studies he now 

 added natural and moral philosophy, chemistry, and 

 medicine. It is not to be understood, I take it, from 

 these remarks of Rafinesque about the direction assumed 

 by his student-work at this time that he means to imply 

 he had mastered these branches. He was an indefati 

 gable reader and no doubt read every thing in the way 

 of books that came to hand, and books on these subjects 

 were among the number. In a curious and naive way 

 he tells us about his nature studies in the neighborhood 

 of Marseilles, where his botanical walks gave him much 

 pleasure. He appears first of all to have devoted him- 



