Constantine Samuel Rafinesqtte. 87 



The circle of acquaintance with men of science, which 

 Rafinesque assiduously sought ever to widen, included 

 very many of the foremost naturalists of Hurope. Dur 

 ing his Sicilian residence he corresponded with very 

 many of the men who have been famous in French 

 annals of science; his acquaintance with the naturalists 

 of Italy appears also to have been cordial, and quite 

 complete. Wherever he could get a new plant, find a 

 new shell, obtain new information, there Rafinesque 

 sought and made acquaintances. In this way it hap 

 pens that so many of the names of men who have 

 achieved renown in the annals of European science 

 during the earlier portions of this century find a place 

 in the personal memoirs of Rafinesque. That, in after 

 years, they withdrew from these relations finds an 

 explanation solely in the fact that in his published 

 writings he was not always careful to give proper 

 credit for information so derived, or in the fact that 

 these relations became strained from the attempt to 

 turn them to purely personal ends. Whatever may 

 have been the real cause, but few of all the scientific 

 men with whom Rafinesque corresponded, during his 

 Sicilian residence, remained to him in the role of true 

 friends. Swainson alone, in Bngland, defended him to 

 the last ; on the Continent there was left not one. 



