Rafinesque s Scientific Writings. 



UNDER the most favorable circumstances it often 

 becomes very difficult properly to estimate the 

 scientific work of a pioneer in natural science. And 

 when that work consists largely of papers printed in 

 scattered magazines, some of which do not possess a dis 

 tinctively scientific character, the task becomes doubly 

 difficult. In the case of the work of Rafinesque it is 

 not only that he published in magazines of this ephem 

 eral character, but that his work pertains to two conti 

 nents, which makes the final estimate extremely difficult. 

 His papers are now rare, notwithstanding the great 

 liberality with which he distributed them among scien 

 tific men. He disdained beauty and conventionality, 

 ignored typographical art, and his larger works, books, 

 and extended memoirs, were printed mostly in small and 

 cheap editions, and none of them may be regarded justly 

 as fair exhibitions of the book-maker s art. 



Rafinesque s literary activity began in 1803, when 

 he published his first paper, a work devoted to notes 

 on certain birds, which he had seen in Peale s Museum, 



