AN ECCENTRIC NATURALIST. 163 
jected by him, as well as “ steam ploughs,” “ aquatic 
railroads,” fire-proof houses, and other contrivances 
which he was unable to perfect. He took much 
delight in the study of the customs and languages 
of the Indians. In so doing, if the stories are 
true, he became, in a way, associated with the ori- 
gin of Mormonism; for it is said that his theory 
that the Indians came from Asia by way of Siberia, 
and were perhaps the descendants of the ten lost 
tribes of Israel, gave the first suggestion to Solo- 
mon Spaulding for his book of the prophet Mor- 
mon. In any case, whether this be true or not, 
it is certain that Rafinesque is still cited as high 
authority by the Latter-Day Saints when the gen- 
uineness of the book of Mormon is questioned. 
Rafinesque now returned to Philadelphia, and 
published “The Atlantic Journal and Friend of 
Knowledge,” “ Annals of Nature,” and other seri- 
als, of which he was editor, publisher, and usually 
sole contributor. After a time he became sole sub- 
scriber, also, —a condition of affairs which greatly 
exasperated him against the Americans and their 
want of appreciation of science. He published 
several historical treatises, and contemplated a 
“Complete History of the Globe,” with all its con- 
tents. An elaborate poem of his, dreary enough, 
is entitled ‘‘“ The World; or, Instability.” He made 
many enemies among the American botanists of 
his time by his overbearing ways, his scorn of 
their customs and traditions, and especially by his 
advocacy of crude and undigested though neces- 
sary reforms, so that at last most of them decided 
to ignore his very existence. In those days, in 
