AN ECCENTRIC NATURALIST. 155 
well as the Hebrew, Sanskrit, Chinese, and fifty 
other languages, as I felt the need or inclination to 
study them.” At the age of twelve he published 
his first scientific paper, “Notes on the Apen- 
nines,” as seen from the back of a mule on a jour- 
ney from Leghorn to Genoa. Rafinesque was now 
old enough to choose his calling in life. He de- 
cided to become a merchant; for, said he, “com- 
merce and travel are linked.” At this time came 
the first outbreaks of the French Revolution, when 
the peasants of Provence began to dream of “ cas- 
tles on fire and castles combustible ;” so Rafinesque’s 
prudent father sent his money out of France and 
his two sons to America. 
In Philadelphia, Constantine Rafinesque became 
a merchant’s clerk, and his spare time was devoted 
to the study of botany. He tried also to study 
the birds; but he says, “ The first bird I shot was a 
poor chickadee, whose death appeared a cruelty, 
and I never became much of a hunter.” During 
his vacations Rafinesque travelled on foot over 
parts of Pennsylvania and Virginia. He visited 
President Jefferson, who, he tells us, asked him to 
call again. In 1805, receiving an offer of business 
in Sicily, Rafinesque returned to Europe. He 
spent ten years in Sicily, — the land, as he sums it 
‘up, “of fruitful soil, delightful climate, excellent 
productions, perfidious men, and deceitful women.” 
Here in Sicily he discovered the medicinal squill, 
which, aided by the equally medicinal paregoric, 
was once a great specific for all childish ailments. 
He commenced gathering this in large quantities 
for shipment to England and Russia. The Sici- 
