Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 1374

CONSTANTINE SAMUEL RAFINESQUE (1783-1840) Medical flora; or, Manual of the medical botany of the United States of North America. Atkinson & Alexander 1828-1830 Vol. I: [4] xii, 268 pp., 52 col. plates; Vol. II: 276 pp., 48 col. plates. 17.4 cm.

Rafinesque's father was a French merchant who traveled widely and Rafinesque was born in Constantinople. He was largely educated by his mother and private tutors while living chiefly in France and Italy. He had an early and active interest in the sciences and corresponded widely with many European scientists. He came to Philadelphia in 1802, worked in the banking industry, and also found time to travel widely on the east coast pursuing his scientific interests and meeting many prominent individuals. Rafinesque returned to Sicily in 1805 and lived there ten years before relocating in New York and then to Lexington, Kentucky in 1819 to became professor of botany at Transylvania. He returned to Philadelphia in 1825 because of friction between himself and Transylvania's president. He taught natural history and served as professor of geography at the Franklin Institute and ended his days in poverty and destitution. In many ways he was ahead of his time, for he espoused ideas that were often in opposition to the scientific thought and practice of his day. He recognized that the Linnaean system of classification would fail but received no support for his natural method. A foremost authority on conchology, Rafinesque also had ideas on evolution that foreshadowed those of Darwin. He spent over fifteen years gathering the material for his medical botany, traveling over 8000 miles and visiting over fourteen of the then twenty-four states. It was his aim to provide an accurate, cheap, and portable manual for anyone interested in medical botany. His work became quite successful and was widely used in teaching, which he notes in the introduction to Volume II. He selected 105 of the most medically active and efficacious plants from the nearly 600 plants then being used medicinally in the United States. Arranged alphabetically by their Latin botanical names, the entries also include: the plant's English, French, German, and common names; the botanical and medical authorities in which it is cited; a botanical description of the plant and its habitat; the chemical constituents of the plant, its medical uses including doses and preparations; and other plants that served as acceptable substitutes.

Cited references: Cushing R9; Garrison-Morton 1849; Waller 7722 (Vol. I only)

Gift of John Martin, M.D.