New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1897-01-06

SOME OF THE QUEER CHARACTERS
AMONG AMERICAN NATURALIsTS.

Sketches Of Their Lives and Scientific Work
s sspr1seq Mc %,ss and
PIP. wifi. 50S d. Appleton & Co.
This book is a record Of high achievement and.
IN addition to that. it reflects great deal OF hu-
man nature. In these brief memoirs the SOBER
dignified respectable parsonage. Plato IN SCI
enoo stands side by side with the unkempt Dog
enes, and ACKNOWLEDGMENT apart-Dogenes
Is the more interesting character OF the two The
volume opens with character in which dignity
and genial eccentricity were happily blended
Few men that ever lived better exemplihed the
maxim about being all things to all men than
Franklin did, With him American science took
that practical turn which has distinguished 1t
since in the work done by Rittenhouse. Silliman.
Espy, Bond. Morse. Hitchcock. Schoolcraft'
Henry, Mather. Walker. Bache, Maury and
others He improved street lamps and street
nayements and invented stove. knowledge
was valued by him only so far as 1t contributed
to the well-being Of man. A discovery. even the
most remote 81 is discoveries. that OF the identl-
~ Of lightning with electricity. must immediate
ly be mad, useful by the invention OF the ieht-
ming rod. He devised cure FOR smoky cnim-
news urged the need of ventilation In houses ana
hospitals presaged the modern theory OF storms
observed the effect of oil on waves. There is
hardly a subject of knowledge art. life. and econ
omy" as w. H. Larrabee says in the essay which
he has written for DR.. Youmans's volume. (which
is not touched upon and illuminated In Frank
Inns letters
American science would have belied its origin
had II been less sane. on the whole IN us per-
sonnet than II was at the outset But the most
dignified history has it's drol figures, and Ameri-
can science has it's Wilson. its Say. Its Ram
oil ito
were men Of gigantic achievement. but all OF
whom were oddities difficult to classify. Per-
haps there never was a more enthusiastic man
I'm his sanguine moments than Alexander Will
son. He pictured to himself, and really planned
after his vague fashion, the travels that won him
lasting renown at a time when ali the money ne
had in the world counted up to not more tnan
75 cents OF course he knew how to be content
ed WI little and cantie WI mair. He couio
hardly have been Scotch pedler and wayside
poet without learning that art. And ne was
very good poet. Burns himself said he would
have been glad TO be the author OF Wilson'S
"Watty and Meg" But poetry and the flute maze
him melancholy, and so he was urged 10 take up
drawing. Thus unconsciously he prepared Mini
Golf for his work on American ORTHODOXY"
The ignorance Of other people, including pro-
fessed naturasts. on this subject stimulated
his purpose When he found that President JEFF
ferson. who had some aspirations as naturalist,
considered the wood robin an unknown. I'M
annroac liable bird and that the professor OF nat
ural history at Princeton hardly knew sparrow
from a woodpecker, he concluded that his work
WAS needed His plea for rambling life as the
only one that kept him in health was justihed by
the event. for he died at forty-seven. worn out
by one summer of hard work In the city al ME
book His great rival. Audubon. sportsman
and an artist even more than man or SCIENCE
had certain peculiarties which showed breeding
rather than eccentrcity. AS youth ne loVeo
TO shoot in black satin breeches. pumps. ana the
finest rufned shirts he could obtain from france
But later he kept his f1nery for society," and on
his hunting tours wore the backwoodsman's
leather dress.
Then we have Rafnesque, native OF Constan-
tinople the son Of a Frenchman and OF German
woman who was born in Greece. He began MS
travels in infancy. and rarely interrupted tnem
unt,, his death. Owing to poverty and hardships.
his attire for many years was little better than
that OF a tramp His compassion for animals
was such that he could not bear to kill birds,
and 40 one department Of science was practically
closed TO him. However, he had no mercy on
hats and this accounts for puzzling chapter IN
American ichthyology. Once in Audubon's mouse
he demolished a fine violin In the effort to XIII
or CAPTURE some Of these creatures DR.. YOU
mans following Agassiz. has given Rannesque
high place as ichthyologist He anticipated
in some degree the later theory OF evolution APP
parently his greatest defect as scientinc ex-
plorer was that he must have novelties II ne nad
to make them. and writer. that ne trusted
too much to his memory. He always traVeheo
on foot Horses do not suit botanists." was one
1A
FOR none. To most Of his contemporaries. even
men OF science, he an odd fish," or an IN
.n,red idiot" or "a literary mailman" He re-
he,,ed against the authority Of Linnaeus. and
svn,nathized with the attempt Of Jussieu to make
a natural classification of plants. He condemned
other botanists and they gave him scorn Tor
acorn while his hasty methods gave them ample
occasion for criticism. But tramp as ne was
and cynic, the verdict upon him now seems 10 De
only that "he lived century too soon.
Asan oddity he was fairly matched by Thomas
Nuttall. an Englshman. who was at one time
curator Of the botanic garden OF Harvard COL
leee. Nuttali had an inveterate dislike 70 meet
ing other people Unexpectedly. His STUDY ana
hi. bedroom were connected by ladder ana
,r.ndoor 40 that he could avoid the use OF the
stairway. and a flap In the door between MS
study and the kitchen allowed his meals to be
set In without his being seen. He was ap)ectiy
afraid of Indians yet his fame was earned by
botanizing in the wilds Of Arkansas. on the Co.
lumbia River. and in the Sandwich ISLANDS. Ihe
only time a battle with savages was looked. Tor,
his gun was found plugged up with dirt He had
used 1t in digging plants
poet like Wilson, hasty Judge in scien-
tinc matters like Rahnesque. Timothy Aonot
Conrad the paleontoogist. left his friends WIN
many "reminiscences Of his queer ways He was
dropped by the Quakers because ne would walk
in the fields when he should have oeen III
church When the poetical mood was on MIN
he moped. and when. as usual. everybody agreed
NOT TO admire his verses. he went back to his