Andrew wrote:

>        By this time, Rafinesque was unpopular among his fellow naturalists in
>America, and he complained vociferously that they were ignoring his work,
>and moreover doing bad science. This was true, but saying so in print did
>not help his case; indeed, he was having a hard time finding a journal that
>would publish his work, and so had to publish it himself. "Mr. Say is,
>above all, inexcusable. I had respectfully noticed, in 1820, his previous
>labors; but he has never mentioned mine, and knows so little of the animals
>of these shells, as to have mistaken their mouth for their tail, and their
>anterior for the posterior part of the shells! If he had seen these animals
>alive, feeding, moving, and watched their habits as I have done repeatedly,
>he would not have fallen into such a blunder" (p. 1).


Rafinesque shouldn't talk! He named the unionid genus Proptera, meaning
"wing before (anterior)." The wing actually is posterior, and when Rafy
discovered this he hurried to rename the genus Metaptera - wing behind.
Sorry, too late, the earliest name stands. Rafinesque condemned Say for the
same mistake that he himself had made.

G. Thomas Watters
Ohio Biological Survey &
Aquatic Ecology Laboratory
Ohio State University
1315 Kinnear Road
Columbus, OH  USA
v: 614-292-6170
f: 614-292-0181