164 The Life and Writings of 



89. On the different Lightnings observed in the western states, by 

 C. S. Rafinesque, Professor of Botany and Natural History in 

 Transylvania University. ( Western Review and Miscellaneous 

 Magazine, Vol. I, No. i, August, pp. 60-63. Lexington, 1819.) 



This paper describes ten species or varieties of light 

 ning in a style which some suppose closely approaches 

 the formal modes of plant description. It has subjected 

 its unfortunate author to remarkably severe criticisms, 

 but mainly from those who never have seen the paper 

 itself. I have read the paper with the greatest care, 

 more than once, but I fail to find in it more than an 

 attempt to describe the various phenomena connected 

 with electrical displays. In no case has a name of a 

 binomial character, either Latinized or not, been bestowed 

 upon a single variety said by Rafinesque to have been 

 observed by him. So many misleading things have been 

 said about this paper, some of them copied by interested 

 persons, that justice requires the truth to be told. I 

 have seen no mention of this paper by the critics save 

 where introduced by the explanatory remark, &quot;said to 

 have described in natural history style&quot;. It is time 

 this fiction was destroyed. Nearly all the remarks 

 which Rafinesque makes have reference solely to the 

 direction of the discharge and to the character of the 

 spark, whether deflected or straight or bent or forked. 



