BIOGRAPHIC SKETCH 23 



in the closet," had their influence in undermining 

 the once strong and vigorous mind ; and the close of 

 the Lexington residence marks the beginning of the 

 decadence of the mental clearness of Rafinesque, 

 who, henceforth, met with naught but misfortune. 

 But the important pages of the Ichthyologia Ohiensis 

 had been prepared and published, the other numer- 

 ous biologic papers had found their way to the world 

 of science, and the Rafinesque of succeeding years 

 has little or nothing of value to the man of science, 

 and particularly none to the ichthyologist. 



Rafinesque left Lexington, in anger and haste, in 

 the year 1825, to become again a citizen of Philadel- 

 phia. After fifteen long years of further unequal 

 and lonely struggle, after all but complete mental 

 wreck, after the loss of mercantile emoluments, after 

 bitter personal animosities with scientific men, after 

 untoward experiences with the publishers of his 

 numerous books and pamphlets, Rafinesque surren- 

 dered to his last visitor. Death. Life closed in a lonely 

 garret, amid filth and poverty, at Philadelphia, in 

 the year 1 840. He lies buried in an unmarked grave 

 in Ronaldson's Cemetery, Philadelphia, Ninth and 

 Catherine streets. Peace came at last to him who in 

 life knew none ! 



