Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 29.djvu/228

 Rafinesque soon left New Harmony, and became Professor of Natural History and the Modern Languages in Transylvania University, at Lexington, Kentucky. He was, I believe, the very first teacher of natural history in the West, and his experiences were not more cheerful than those of most pioneers. They would not give him at Lexington the degree of Master of Arts, he says, "because I had not studied Greek in a college, although I knew more languages than all the American colleges united, but it was granted at last; but that of Doctor of Medicine was not granted, because I would not superintend anatomical dissections.

"Mr. Holley, the president of the university, despised and hated the natural sciences, and he wished to drive me out altogether. To evince his hatred against science and its discoveries, he had broken open my rooms in my absence, given one to the students, and thrown all my effects, books, and collections, into the other. He had deprived me of my situation as librarian, and tried to turn me out of the college. I took lodgings in town," said he, "and carried there all my effects, leaving the college with curses both on it and Holley, which reached them both soon after, for Holley died of the yellow fever in New Orleans, and the college was burned with all its contents."

In one of his summer trips Rafinesque became acquainted with Audubon, who was then painting birds and keeping a little "grocery-store" down the river, at Hendersonville, Kentucky. Rafinesque reached Hendersonville in a boat, carrying on his back a bundle of plants which resembled dried clover. He accidentally met Audubon, and asked him to tell him where the naturalist lived. The ornithologist introduced himself, and Rafinesque handed him a letter from a friend in the East, commending him to Audubon as an "odd fish, which might not be described in the published treatises." The story of the interview is thus described by Audubon: "His attire struck me as exceedingly remarkable. A long, loose coat of yellow nankeen, much the worse for the many rubs it had got in its time, hung about him loosely, like a sack. A waistcoat of the same, with enormous pockets and buttoned up to the chin, reached below over a pair of tight pantaloons, the lower part of which was buttoned down over his ankles. His beard was long, and his lank black hair hung loosely over his shoulders. His forehead was broad and prominent, indicating a mind of strong power. His words impressed an assurance of rigid truth, and as he directed the conversation to the natural sciences, I listened to him with great delight.

"That night, after we were all abed, I heard of a sudden a great uproar in the naturalist's room. I got up and opened the door, when to my astonishment I saw my guest running naked, holding the handle of my favorite violin, the body of which he had battered to pieces in attempting to kill the bats which had entered the open window! I stood amazed, but he continued jumping and running around and