I 9 2 



PIONEERS OF SCIENCE IN AMERICA. 



had collected a vast amount of information from all parts of 

 the States upon a variety of subjects then entirely new to sci- 

 ence."* 



Prof. Herbert E. Copeland has said : 



" To many of our untiring naturalists, who sixty years ago 

 accepted the perils and privations of the far West to collect 

 and describe its animals and plants, we have given the only 

 reward they sought a grateful remembrance of their work. 

 Audubon died full of riches and honour, with the knowledge 

 that his memory would be cherished as long as birds should 

 sing. Wilson is the * father of American ornithology,' and his 

 mistakes and faults are forgotten in our admiration of his 

 great achievements. Lesueur is remembered as the 'first to 

 explore, the ichthyology of the great American lakes.' La- 

 bouring with these, and greatest of them all in respect to the 

 extent and range of his accomplishments, is one whose name 

 has been nearly forgotten, and who is oftenest mentioned in 

 the field of his best labours with pity and contempt." 



Dr. Goode, still later, has said : " Perhaps the time has not 

 yet come when full justice can be done to the memory of Con- 

 stantine Rafinesque, but his name seems yearly to grow more 

 prominent in the history of American zoology. He was in 

 many respects the most gifted man who ever stood in our 

 ranks. When in his prime, he far surpassed his American con- 

 temporaries in versatility and comprehensiveness of grasp. 

 He lived a century too soon. His spirit was that of the pres- 

 ent period. In the latter years of his life, soured by disap- 

 pointments, he seemed to become unsettled in his mind ; but 

 as I read the story of his life his eccentricities seem to me the 

 outcome of a boundless enthusiasm for the study of Nature." 



"I have often been discouraged," Rafinesque says, "but I 

 have never despaired long. I have lived to serve mankind, 

 but have often met with ungrateful returns. I have tried to 

 enlarge the limits of knowledge, but have often met with jeal- 

 ous rivals instead of friends. With a greater fortune, I might 

 have imitated Humboldt or Linnaeus." 



It is doubtless true that while, as Prof. Agassiz has said, 

 Rafinesque "was a better man than he appeared," and while 

 he was undoubtedly a man of great learning and of greater 



* Agassiz, American Journal of Science and Arts, 1854, p. 354. 



