Constantine Samuel Rafinesque. ^ 



enough.&quot; Lexington was reached in July, and in August 

 and September the regions of Eastern Kentucky, as far 

 as Cumberland Gap and the Falls, to Pine Mountain, 

 were explored. This journey was the last that Rafinesque 

 made within the bounds of Kentucky. 



While resident at Lexington Rafinesque had perfected 

 a &quot;patent and Divitial Invention,&quot; which, in 1825, 

 prompted a journey to Washington to take caveats and 

 patents. This is described in the following language: 

 &quot;This Invention consisted chiefly in rendering Bank 

 Stock and Deposits and Savings circulable by divisible 

 Certificates; which will one day be certainly adopted. . . .&quot; 

 This has always been the basis of the claim of Rafinesque 

 that he was the inventor of the coupon system now so 

 common on bonds and similar instruments. It was on 

 the return from this journey that he &quot; found how the 

 President of the University had behaved&quot; in his absence. 

 He censured that official in no measured terms ; said he : 



&quot; I returned to Frankfort and to Lexington, . . . To evince 

 his hatred against sciences and discoveries, he had broken open my 

 rooms, given one to the students, and thrown all my effects, books 

 and collections in a heap in the other. He had also deprived me 

 of my position as Librarian and my board in the College. I had 

 to put up with all this to avoid beginning law suits. I took lodgings 

 in town and carried there all my effects: thus leaving the College 

 with curses on it and Holly ; who were both reached by them soon 

 after, since he died next year at sea of the Yellow fever, caught at 



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