Sketch of the Life of Rafinesque 



The author of the Ichthyologia Ohiensis, Constantine 

 Samuel Rafinesque, was born in Galata, a suburb of 

 Constantinople, October 22, 1783. His father was a 

 French merchant of Marseilles, and his mother, 

 Grecian born, of German parentage, from Saxony. 

 Very little is known of the antecedents of Rafinesque, 

 and the family name is now extinct. The early life 

 of the lad was not dissimilar from that of his asso- 

 ciates, save in the one respect that he early developed 

 a love for Nature and the thousand varied ways in 

 which her life laws were exemplified around him. 

 The birds, plants, insects, and fish of his various 

 homes — for his family frequently changed its resi- 

 dence, owing to the business necessities of his 

 father — early attracted his attention, and became 

 the objects of his curious study. He seems to have 

 been allowed full liberty in these matters, his scho- 

 lastic training suffering to some extent through his 

 great love of outdoor life. His father died when 

 the lad was about eleven years of age, after which 

 time his mother had the sole direction of his train- 

 ing. His early reading was characterized by inor- 

 dinate love of books of travel and adventure, further 

 fostered, perhaps, by his father's accounts of his 

 travels, upon mercantile expeditions to foreign lands. 

 At a very early period Rafinesque determined to 

 become ' ' a great traveler, ' ' and for some years of 



