Leonard Warren - Constantine Samuel Rafinesque: A Voice in the American Wilderness

CONSTANTINE
SAMUEL
RAFINESQUE

A Voice in the American Wilderness

LEONARD WARREN

Publication of this volume was made possible in part
by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Copyright 2004 by The University Press of Kentucky

Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth,
serving Bellarmine University, Berea College, Centre
College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University,
The Filson Historical Society, Georgetown College,
Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University,
Morehead State University, Murray State University,
Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania University,
University of Kentucky, University of Louisville,
and Western Kentucky University.
All rights reserved.

Editorial and Sales Offices: The University Press of Kentucky
663 South Limestone Street, Lexington, Kentucky 405084008
www.kentuckypress.com

Frontispiece: Miniature portrait of Rafinesque
in enamel, possibly by William Birch.
Transylvania University Library, Lexington, Kentucky

08 07 06 05 04 1 2 3 4 5

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Warren, Leonard, 1924
Constantine Samuel Rafinesque : a voice in the
American wilderness / Leonard Warren.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8131-2316-X (alk. paper)

1. Rafinesque, C.S. (Constantine Samuel), 17831840.

2. NaturalistsUnited StatesBiography. I. Title.
QH31.R13W37 2003
508'.092dc22
2003024567

This book is printed on acid-free recycled paper meeting
the requirements of the American National Standard
for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library Materials.

Manufactured in the United States of America.

To see, to know, to publish, became with him a ruling passion.

Fitzpatrick

For those who have shaped me
Charles H. Best, Zelma B. Miller,
John M. Buchanan, Herbert Tabor,
Seymour S. Cohen, Hilary Koprowski.

Illustrations follow

ANSAcademy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia

APSAmerican Philosophical Society

BPLBoston Public Library

CPCollege of Physicians of Philadelphia

HSPHistorical Society of Pennsylvania

LCLibrary Company of Philadelphia

VPVan Pelt Library of the University of Pennsylvania

WFIWagner Free Institute of Science of Philadelphia

1783Born in Constantinople, October 22; brought to Marseille, where he was reared.

1792Family flees to Livorno (Leghorn), Italy, to escape the French Revolution.

1793Father, a merchant trader, dies of Yellow Fever in an epidemic in Philadelphia.

1797Family returns to Marseille. Irregular education.

1802Arrives in Philadelphia. Works in a counting house and begins his botanical expeditions on foot. Advocates the new Natural system of classification, which gains slow acceptance in America. Unable to find a position in a university. Begins to write papers and booksone thousand over his lifetime.

1805Moves to Sicily where he spends ten years in business as a trader in natural products and secretary to the American Consul. Befriends the natural historian William Swainson with whom he explores Sicily. Publishes extensively, including the journal, The Mirror of Science, which existed for only one year, and Fundamental Principles of Somiology, dealing with classification of plants and animals.

1809Marries Josephine Vaccaro. Daughter born in 1811; infant son dies in 1814.

1815Publishes Analyse de la Nature ou Tableau de lUnivers.
Unable to find a position in Italy. Returns to the United States. Shipwrecked off Long Island with the loss of almost all his collections and notes. Settles in New York City. Tours the Hudson River Valley and the Northeast. Helps found the Lyceum of Natural History of New York, the precursor of the New York Academy of Sciences.

1816Publishes Circular Address on Botany and Zoology.

1817Publishes Florula Ludoviciana; or A Flora of the State of Louisiana.

1818Without prospects in New York. Leaves for Philadelphia and travels along the Ohio River to the Mississippi River. Visits Audubon and his friend and patron, John D. Clifford, in Lexington, Kentucky. Maps and describes Native American mounds.

1819A busy winter in Philadelphia. Returns to Lexington as a Professor of Natural History at Transylvania University where he botanizes extensively, writes many papers, publishes the Western Minerva, and teaches natural history and several languages. Becomes interested in the history, languages, and archaeology of Native and Mexican Americans.

1820Clifford dies. Rafinesques position becomes increasingly difficult without protector. Several attempts to find new position meet with failure. Passed over by Jeffersons newly founded University of Virginia.
Publishes Ichthyologia Ohiensis, or Natural History of the Fishes Inhabiting the Ohio River.

1824Engaged in historical and language studies of Native Americans. Attempts to establish a grand Public Garden in Lexington. Publishes Ancient History or Annals of Kentucky.

1825Patents a Divitial System of banking and travels to major cities promoting his invention.

1826Professorship at Transylvania University terminated; leaves Lexington and settles in Philadelphia, where he teaches and writes. Numerous travels on foot through the Northeast, collecting plants. In all names 6,700 kinds of plants.

1827Announces the discovery and manufacture of Pulmel, which prevents and cures tuberculosis. Establishes a clinical practice as a Pulmist, carried out by mail.

1828Publishes Medical Flora of the United States.

1829Publishes The Pulmist; or Introduction to the Art of Curing and Preventing the Consumption or Chronic Phthisis.

1830Publishes American Manual of the Grape Vines and the Art of Making Wine

1832Publishes Atlantic Journal, and Friend of Knowledge.

1836Publishes The Life, Travels and Researches of C.S. Rafinesque.

1836Publishes The American Nations; or Outlines of their General
History, Ancient and Modern.
Publishes The World or Instability, A Poem.
Publishes New Flora of North America.
Publishes Flora Telluriana, in 4 Parts.
Publishes the Walam Olum, the purported account of the wanderings of the Lenni Lenape or Delaware Indians from Asia to the shores of the Delaware River.

1837Publishes Safe Banking Including The Principles of Wealth.

1838Publishes Genius and Spirit of the Hebrew Bible.
Publishes Ancient Monuments of North and South America.
Publishes Celestial Wonders and Philosophy, or the Structure of the Visible Heavens.
Publishes Alsographia Americana; or an American Grove of Trees and Shrubs