Constantine Rafinesque - Definition and Overview

Constantine Samuel Rafinesque was a nineteenth-century polymath. Born to a French father in Constantinople in 1783, he spent much of his adult life in North America, where he wrote on such diverse topics as anthropology, biology, geology, and linguistics. Although not known as a careful scholar, he is credited with describing many species for the first time, especially fish. He died in Philadelphia in 1840.

External link

• Smithsonian Magazine article (http://www.smithsonianmag.si.edu/smithsonian/issues99/jan99/rafin.html)