AUDUBON AND RAFINESQUE 297 



and unchangeable things, and in many other respects 

 was fifty years ahead of his time ; but nothing was ever 

 carefully worked out in his fertile mind, with the conse- 

 quence that the world paid no heed to his crude and 

 undigested ideas. 



The great mass of Rafinesque's books and mono- 

 graphs, his ''tracts," broadsides, and ephemeral papers 

 of all sorts, extending to nearly a thousand titles, must 

 have gone into paper rags, when not used to kindle 

 fires, for he was generous in their distribution, and they 

 are now exceedingly rare. He touched nearly every- 

 thing, it is true, but little that he touched, especially 

 in this later period of his life, did he ever truly orna- 

 ment. His best pioneer work, in the opinion of com- 

 petent students, was that done upon the fishes of Sicily 

 and the natural history of the Ohio Valley ; his Medical 

 Flora, in two volumes (1828 and 1830) , is also admitted 

 to have possessed real value; but his writings are now 

 sought after as literary or scientific curiosities, and as 

 such they are unique. 



No doubt Rafinesque was often treated unjustly, 

 either through ignorance or intent, while many natural- 

 ists were exasperated by the barbed arrows which he 

 shot into the air or direct at the mark. Others through 

 sheer inability to follow him gave up the attempt, one 

 writer 10 saying that such an attitude was justified when 

 it appeared that he had made six species out of one, 

 not to speak of several different genera and two sub- 

 families. If anyone still believes that Rafinesque has 

 been misjudged, says Giinther, 11 let him read his letters 

 to Swainson, from 1809 to 1840, fifty-three in number, 



10 Isaac Lea, in A Synopsis of the Family of Xaiades, pp. 8-9 (Phila- 

 delphia, 1836). 



"See Bibliography, No. 204. 



