Constantine Samuel Rafinesque. 75 



by a few years residence in the United States, during 

 which period he was associated with onr earliest natu 

 ralists, who had, at least, that enthusiasm which always 

 results from work in a virgin field. His new surround 

 ings were full of incentives to work ; his early training 

 had disposed him to wide observation; successful busi 

 ness ventures had provided means for travel and collec 

 tion; a famous naturalist, Swainson, was with him, to 

 encourage and to help. Add to these the fact that the 

 fishes and shells, the plants and the animals of the land 

 were unknown, or, if known, were not fully understood, 

 and the extraordinary character of much of Rafinesque s 

 work will be explained. In the midst of a profligate 

 Nature he saw, on every hand, subjects for note and 

 formal memoir. During this period of his scientific life 

 those discursive habits of thought, which must result 

 from a training such as he had received, rendered less 

 exact a pen that otherwise might have done valuable 

 service in the cause of original human knowledge. 



The published work of Rafinesque on the Sicilian 

 fishes departed widely from the accustomed methods of 

 study and classification, which had obtained in Kurope, 

 and especially among the French savants. He made 

 careful notes, that is as careful as Rafinesque ever made, 

 of the objects he described, from the fresh and living 



