Rafinesque-Schmaltz, Constantine Samuel (1783-1840)

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz, as he is known in Europe, (October 22, 1783-September 18, 1840) was a nineteenth-century polymath who made notable contributions to the study of prehistoric earthworks in North America, Mesoamerican ancient linguistics, and botany and zoology. His personal life was erratic.

Many have called him a genius; he was also an eccentric autodidact. He was very successful in various fields of knowledge, as a zoologist, botanist, malacologist, meteorologist, writer, evolutionist, polyglot, and translator. He wrote prolifically on such diverse topics as anthropology, biology, geology, and linguistics; but was honored in none during his lifetime. Today, scholars agree that he was far ahead of his time in many of these fields.

TAXONOMIC PUBLICATIONS

 * Rafinesque, C. S. 1815. Analyse de la nature, ou tableau de l'univers et des corps organisés. Palermo: J. Barravecchia, 224 pp.

REFERENCE

 * Hagen, V.W. von 1947. Natural History 56: 296-303, portrait.