296 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 



it; in 1825 he set out for Washington in order to se 

 his patent rights, but his journey and idea never broi 

 him any returns. On the contrary, the incident mai 

 the culmination of his troubles with the president of 

 University and its governing board, whom he seem 

 have constantly nettled by his independent ways 

 roaming habits. Upon returning from Washingtoi 

 found that Dr. Holley, who, he said, "hated and 

 spised the natural sciences" and wished to drive him 

 altogether, had broken into his rooms during his 

 sence, and had "given one to the students, and thr 

 all my effects, books and collections in a heap in 

 other," besides depriving him of certain other p] 

 leges. "I took lodgings," he continued, "in town 

 carried there all my effects ; thus leaving the college i 

 curses on it and Holley; who were both reached by tl 

 soon after, since he died next year at sea of the ye] 

 fever, caught at New Orleans ; having been driven f : 

 Lexington by public opinion; and the College has I 

 burnt in 1828 with all its contents." 



After this unpleasant experience Rafinesque 

 turned to Philadelphia, where he spent the last 

 saddest part of his checkered career. His insisl 

 ideas, which were undoubtedly the index of an un 

 anced mind, increased, especially his mania for desc 

 ing "new species" of animals and plants; this im 

 perverted everything that he wrote, especially tow 

 the end of his life, and made him a thorn in the sid< 

 every naturalist who tried to verify his work. A n 

 conformist and a respecter of no authority but his c 

 is never popular, though a part of the antagonism wl 

 Rafinesque aroused was due to the conservatism of 

 age. He boldly advocated organic evolution when 

 most the whole world believed that species were fi: 



