Constantine Samuel Rafinesque

Constantine Samuel Rafinesque was a French 19th-century polymath who made significant contributions to botany and zoology. He was born in Galata, a suburb of Constantinople, in 1783. His father was a French merchant and his mother was of German descent. He was mostly self-educated and learned many languages, including Greek, Latin, Arabic, and Turkish. He also developed a passion for natural history and collected plants and animals from an early age. He moved to Philadelphia in 1802 and traveled extensively in the United States, studying the flora and fauna of the new country. He also met Thomas Jefferson and other prominent American naturalists. He returned to Europe in 1805 and settled in Palermo, Sicily, where he worked as a secretary to the American consul and continued his research on plants and fishes. He published many books and papers on various topics, such as anthropology, linguistics, geology, and mythology. He also proposed some controversial theories, such as the migration of Native Americans from Asia, the existence of black indigenous peoples in America, and the ancient civilization of Atlantis. He came back to the United States in 1815 and became a professor of botany at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky. He also explored the western regions of the country and discovered many new species of plants and animals, especially in the fields of orchids, grasses, and fishes. He named more than 6,700 new species and genera, many of which are still valid today. He also studied the prehistoric earthworks and mounds of North America and tried to decipher the ancient languages of the Mesoamerican cultures. He was a prolific and eccentric writer, who often used his own system of spelling and classification. He was also an autodidact, who did not follow the established rules and methods of science. He was often criticized and rejected by his peers, who considered him a charlatan and a plagiarist. He died of tuberculosis in Philadelphia in 1840, at the age of 56. He was buried in Ronaldson's Cemetery, where his grave was later lost and forgotten. He was not recognized for his achievements during his lifetime, but later generations of scientists have acknowledged his contributions and originality. He is considered one of the founding fathers of American botany and zoology.