120 The Life and Writings of 



that accomplished it. In such frame of mind as this 

 Rafinesque passed the last fifteen years of his life, and 

 under such an incubus of distrust did he prepare and 

 print his later works. It is little wonder, therefore, that 

 they are now sought after, not for any scientific value 

 which they may possess, but for the fact that they are 

 really literary curiosities. One alone of all his works, 

 published during those fifteen years, has in it the ele 

 ments of perpetuity, and that is the &quot;Medical Flora&quot;. 

 This work of two volumes possesses real value, and 

 stands as his best monument for all this period. His 

 literary work was never entirely abandoned, though it 

 was seriously interfered with by business ventures of one 

 or another sort; with these were entangled several patent 

 schemes relating to steam-plows, incombustible dwellings, 

 sub-marine steamboats, and the like, which, of late years, 

 have been realized by other and competent inventors. 



What the real nature of the literary work of this 

 period was, a glance at the appended bibliography will 

 disclose. It covered the usual wide scope of subjects, 

 and was characterized by the usual looseness of style 

 and piece-meal ensemble. Perhaps the best illustration 

 of the valueless work of this latest period is &quot;The 

 Genius and Spirit of the Hebrew Bible&quot; , a book without 

 a single redeeming literary feature. 



