Constantine Samuel Rafinesque. 43 



In still another matter lie appears to have antedated 

 some more modern observations, as may be gathered 

 from the following facts: 



&quot; He often lectured to the students in College and in a most 

 entertaining manner to the great delight of his audiences. His 

 lecture on the ants was peculiarly instructive and interesting, caus 

 ing many of the students to laugh heartily when he gave us the 

 history of ants, especially when he described them as having lawyers, 

 doctors, generals and privates, and of their having great battles and 

 of.the care by physicians and nurses of the wounded, etc., etc. . . . 



&quot; I would now give any reasonable sum to hear him repeat one of 

 his lectures that I listened to in Transylvania University.&quot;* 



Skilled indeed mnst have been the mind that could 

 fix facts like these in such manner that they endured 

 for seventy years ! 



RAFINESQUE AS A LECTURER. 



Much of the time of Rafinesque in, the University 

 was employed in teaching the modern languages, in which 

 he again was the pioneer of the West. Transylvania 

 University, through him, has thus a remarkably impor 

 tant place in the history of higher education west of 

 the Appalachians. But it would appear that the professor 

 and naturalist, notwithstanding the wide range of his 

 scientific investigations and the great number of papers 



* General Geo. W. Jones, in litt., Aug. 25, 1894. 



