Constantine Samuel Rafinesgue. 95 



&quot;And yet, for my part, I have always looked upon the resto 

 ration of Rafinesque s genera and species as highly desirable, as 

 soon as they had once been proposed and introduced into science 

 as names. But in order to do justice to the scheme, it was neces 

 sary to the undertaking that one should go to the very ground 

 covered by Rafinesque himself during all seasons of the year, to 

 enable us to discriminate between that which Rafinesque really 

 observed and that which is imaginary.&quot; 



The most serious, and at trie same time most suc 

 cessful, attempt to ascertain precisely what fishes Rafin 

 esque had before him in making his descriptions is that 

 of President David S. Jordan in his &quot; Review of Rafin 

 esque s Memoirs on North American Fishes&quot;,* in which 

 will be found a careful and well-considered attempt to 

 settle these important matters. While later the results 

 were modified slightly, this work stands as a faithful 

 and judicious attempt to place Rafinesque in his proper 

 relation to the work of his contemporaries and succes 

 sors. It was the first, and, so far as our information 

 extends, the only attempt at identification which has 

 been made from personal study within the region in 

 which Rafinesque had fished. All the rest, or nearly 

 all, were attempts made to understand, from alcoholic 

 materials, descriptions which were originally drawn from 

 fresh specimens personally taken by Rafinesque, or 



* Bulletin U. S. National Museum, No. IX, 1877. 



