Elliott Coues: Naturalist and Frontier Historian by Paul Russell Cutright; Michael J. BrodheadReview by: Keir B. SterlingIsis, Vol. 74, No. 2 (Jun., 1983), pp. 290-291Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The History of Science SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/233148 .

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BOOK REVIEWS-ISIS, 74: 2: 272 (1983)

* Nineteenth Century

Paul Russell Cutright; Michael J. Brod- head. Elliott Coues: Naturalist and Frontier Historian. xv + 509 pp., figs., apps., bibl., index. Urbana/Chicago: University of Il- linois Press, 1981. $28.50.

Elliott Coues (1842-1899) was a brilliant and temperamental physician-naturalist, bib- liographer of natural history, editor, en- cyclopedist, and dabbler in theosophy who enlivened the American natural history scene for a third of a century. A graduate of the medical department of Columbian University (now George Washington Uni- versity) during the Civil War, Coues spent nearly twenty years as an army physician, much of it in the Western territories. A good deal of his time was spent on de- tached service as a naturalist for the Northern Boundary Survey and with the geographical and geological survey led by Ferdinand V. Hayden, during which period Coues published the works in ornithology and mammalogy for which he is best known.

Coues's writing style was forceful, liter- ate, and eminently readable, but he carried on running vendettas with certain of his fellow naturalists for years. His most fa- mous battle was the so-called "Sparrow War" with the Boston physician-naturalist Thomas Mayo Brewer. Coues became convinced by the mid 1870s that the En- glish sparrow, introduced into the United States in the 1850s, had been an ecological disaster. Brewer and his supporters argued that Coues was irresponsibly castigating an exotic likely to make a useful addition to the North American fauna. Coues intem- perately heaped calumny on Brewer's head, even after the latter's death in 1880, angering many bird lovers by his manner, if not his logic. While his judgment was ulti- mately sustained, his actions in this case left lasting scars upon his personal and professional reputation. Indeed, his lack of self-control at many critical junctures of his life probably prevented his achieving a number of his professional goals.

In 1881 Coues left the Army when his superiors transferred him to an isolated post in the Southwest, far from his favorite scientific haunts. He soon became a lead- ing force among the triumvirate of or- nithologists, the others being William Brew- ster and Joel A. Allen, who founded the

American Ornithologists' Union in 1883. Coues, the most determined of the three, saw to it that the new organization was structured largely as he wished it. Allen be- came the first president, however, an honor which did not come to Coues for nearly a decade. The authors conclude that Coues's controversies with his fellow theosophists and his strained relations with other or- nithologists were responsible. He was, however, a leading member of the commit- tee which produced the first AOU Check- list of North American Birds in 1886.

Coues hoped to be named head of the agency which later became the U.S. Biological Survey when it was created in 1885. He was certainly much better known than the younger man largely responsible for its creation, C. Hart Merriam, and had a longer and more distinguished record of achievement. Yet Merriam had the backing of Spencer F. Baird, then head of the Smithsonian and the nation's leading or- nithologist. No one, it seemed, wanted to have this enfant terrible entrenched in the small scientific establishment in Washing- ton. Coues briefly turned on Baird, his long-time mentor, and never did receive the scientific post with the government that he had wanted so long. Without a secure base, he had no chance to complete the projected multivolume study of North American mammals he had begun, and leadership in this field passed to Merriam for several decades.

Coues turned to other pursuits, teaching anatomy at his alma mater, serving as sci- entific editor for the Century Dictionary, contributing to the Encyclopedia Britan- nica, and editing fifteen volumes of jour- nals, diaries, and other manuscripts left by Western explorers and naturalists. Briefly active in the American section of Mme Elena Blavatsky's Theosophical Society, he quarrelled with its leaders and broke with the movement after failing of election as its president. For years he was notorious for his petty disputes with other naturalists over questions of nomenclature in natural science. His private life was often stormy. Two unhappy marriages caused him much difficulty, though his third union appears to have been harmonious.

Brodhead, a historian, and Cutright, a former professor of biology and a veteran biographer, have written a full and bal- anced account of Coues's vigorous life. Their book appears just at the time when

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BOOK REVIEWS-ISIS, 74: 2: 272 (1983) BOOK REVIEWS-ISIS, 74: 2: 272 (1983) BOOK REVIEWS-ISIS, 74: 2: 272 (1983)

the American Ornithologists' Union, the oldest of this country's taxonomically oriented scientific societies, is preparing to celebrate its centennial. This biography of a founder should be on the shelves of all historians of late nineteenth-century Amer- ican ornithology. The work Coues did in avian nomenclature provided the basis for much of the scientific research done in the field since his day, and contributed much to the development of professionalism in avian biology.

KEIR B. STERLING

Martin Fichman. Alfred Russel Wallace. (Twayne's English Authors Series, 305.) 188 pp., illus., bibl., index. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1981. $12.95.

Alfred Russel Wallace has hardly been forgotten by historians and biologists, but remarkably little has been written about his life and thought. Wallace's autobiography, My Life, published in 1905 when he was eighty-two, and J. Marchant's Alfred Rus- sel Wallace, Letters and Reminiscences, published in 1916 three years after Wal- lace's death, remain the most useful sources concerning Wallace's life. Fifty more years passed before the publication of the first biography of Wallace with any scholarly standing, Wilma George's Biologist Philos- opher, a Study of the Life and Writings of Alfred Russel Wallace (1964). Since then only a small number of articles (I count about a dozen in my own file) and one short book about Wallace before 1858 have been published.

Martin Fichman's book is 305th in the Twayne's English Authors Series. After an introduction consisting of a very brief bio- graphical sketch, there are four chapters presenting Wallace's biological and so- ciopolitical ideas. Fichman deals with the early period of Wallace's life as a natu- ralist, culminating in his formulation of a principle of natural selection in 1858; his important study of biogeography; Wal- lace's views on the origin of man; and his "social and political concerns," in partic- ular his adherence to spiritualism, land nationalization, and socialism. This book is an adequate introduction to Wallace, but Fichman has added very little new to our understanding of Wallace. What we really need is an edition of Wallace's notebooks from the Malay Archipelago, as well as a

the American Ornithologists' Union, the oldest of this country's taxonomically oriented scientific societies, is preparing to celebrate its centennial. This biography of a founder should be on the shelves of all historians of late nineteenth-century Amer- ican ornithology. The work Coues did in avian nomenclature provided the basis for much of the scientific research done in the field since his day, and contributed much to the development of professionalism in avian biology.

KEIR B. STERLING

Martin Fichman. Alfred Russel Wallace. (Twayne's English Authors Series, 305.) 188 pp., illus., bibl., index. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1981. $12.95.

Alfred Russel Wallace has hardly been forgotten by historians and biologists, but remarkably little has been written about his life and thought. Wallace's autobiography, My Life, published in 1905 when he was eighty-two, and J. Marchant's Alfred Rus- sel Wallace, Letters and Reminiscences, published in 1916 three years after Wal- lace's death, remain the most useful sources concerning Wallace's life. Fifty more years passed before the publication of the first biography of Wallace with any scholarly standing, Wilma George's Biologist Philos- opher, a Study of the Life and Writings of Alfred Russel Wallace (1964). Since then only a small number of articles (I count about a dozen in my own file) and one short book about Wallace before 1858 have been published.

Martin Fichman's book is 305th in the Twayne's English Authors Series. After an introduction consisting of a very brief bio- graphical sketch, there are four chapters presenting Wallace's biological and so- ciopolitical ideas. Fichman deals with the early period of Wallace's life as a natu- ralist, culminating in his formulation of a principle of natural selection in 1858; his important study of biogeography; Wal- lace's views on the origin of man; and his "social and political concerns," in partic- ular his adherence to spiritualism, land nationalization, and socialism. This book is an adequate introduction to Wallace, but Fichman has added very little new to our understanding of Wallace. What we really need is an edition of Wallace's notebooks from the Malay Archipelago, as well as a

the American Ornithologists' Union, the oldest of this country's taxonomically oriented scientific societies, is preparing to celebrate its centennial. This biography of a founder should be on the shelves of all historians of late nineteenth-century Amer- ican ornithology. The work Coues did in avian nomenclature provided the basis for much of the scientific research done in the field since his day, and contributed much to the development of professionalism in avian biology.

KEIR B. STERLING

Martin Fichman. Alfred Russel Wallace. (Twayne's English Authors Series, 305.) 188 pp., illus., bibl., index. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1981. $12.95.

Alfred Russel Wallace has hardly been forgotten by historians and biologists, but remarkably little has been written about his life and thought. Wallace's autobiography, My Life, published in 1905 when he was eighty-two, and J. Marchant's Alfred Rus- sel Wallace, Letters and Reminiscences, published in 1916 three years after Wal- lace's death, remain the most useful sources concerning Wallace's life. Fifty more years passed before the publication of the first biography of Wallace with any scholarly standing, Wilma George's Biologist Philos- opher, a Study of the Life and Writings of Alfred Russel Wallace (1964). Since then only a small number of articles (I count about a dozen in my own file) and one short book about Wallace before 1858 have been published.

Martin Fichman's book is 305th in the Twayne's English Authors Series. After an introduction consisting of a very brief bio- graphical sketch, there are four chapters presenting Wallace's biological and so- ciopolitical ideas. Fichman deals with the early period of Wallace's life as a natu- ralist, culminating in his formulation of a principle of natural selection in 1858; his important study of biogeography; Wal- lace's views on the origin of man; and his "social and political concerns," in partic- ular his adherence to spiritualism, land nationalization, and socialism. This book is an adequate introduction to Wallace, but Fichman has added very little new to our understanding of Wallace. What we really need is an edition of Wallace's notebooks from the Malay Archipelago, as well as a

comprehensive analysis of Wallace's evo- lutionary thought, on the model of Michael Ghiselin's analysis of Darwin's thought in his book The Triumph of the Darwinian Method (1969).

MALCOLM JAY KOTTLER

Thomas Jefferson Fitzpatrick. Rafinesque: A Sketch of His Life with Bibliography. Revised and enlarged by Charles Boewe. vi + 360 pp., illus., bibl. Weston, Mass.: M & S Press, 1982. $30.

In 1836, C. S. Rafinesque (1784-1840) urged those few readers who still regarded his books worthy of purchase to "imitate my zeal, And be happy in the lovely study of flowers." This exhortation was not on his own example wise advice for would-be students of natural history. The Turkish- born naturalist moved permanently to the United States in 1815. For the next twenty- five years, he traveled the country exten- sively on foot and managed to find pub- lishers (mostly private printers) for many thousands of highly opinionated pages de- voted to everything from Indian antiqui- ties, roses, and mollusks to pulmonary cures, investment schemes, and poetry. His correspondents included Thomas Jeffer- son, Benjamin Silliman, and John Torrey.

Rafinesque was by his own account pug- nacious, and his severe criticism of col- leagues quickly denied him the high esteem that he had enjoyed prior to 1819. For the rest of his life he was forced to work out- side the established circles of science, with the result that his most interesting ideas- the permutation of species and Walum olum (the migration myth of the Lenni Lenape Indians)-remained virtually unknown until after his death. His papers were so scattered and his books so neglected that despite the attempts of Asa Gray and others to discredit him during the nineteenth century, no fair review of his thought was really possible. Indeed, it has required over seventy years and the combined energies of three unusual men-T. J. Fitzpatrick, E. D. Merrill, and Charles Boewe-to locate, identify, and catalogue Rafinesque's corpus of publi- cations.

The present volume represents a small triumph of the Baconian method. Boewe has enlarged and revised Fitzpatrick's clas- sic sketch of Rafinesque's life. He has added sixty bibliographic entries and tire- lessly corrected a number of others. He has

comprehensive analysis of Wallace's evo- lutionary thought, on the model of Michael Ghiselin's analysis of Darwin's thought in his book The Triumph of the Darwinian Method (1969).

MALCOLM JAY KOTTLER

Thomas Jefferson Fitzpatrick. Rafinesque: A Sketch of His Life with Bibliography. Revised and enlarged by Charles Boewe. vi + 360 pp., illus., bibl. Weston, Mass.: M & S Press, 1982. $30.

In 1836, C. S. Rafinesque (1784-1840) urged those few readers who still regarded his books worthy of purchase to "imitate my zeal, And be happy in the lovely study of flowers." This exhortation was not on his own example wise advice for would-be students of natural history. The Turkish- born naturalist moved permanently to the United States in 1815. For the next twenty- five years, he traveled the country exten- sively on foot and managed to find pub- lishers (mostly private printers) for many thousands of highly opinionated pages de- voted to everything from Indian antiqui- ties, roses, and mollusks to pulmonary cures, investment schemes, and poetry. His correspondents included Thomas Jeffer- son, Benjamin Silliman, and John Torrey.

Rafinesque was by his own account pug- nacious, and his severe criticism of col- leagues quickly denied him the high esteem that he had enjoyed prior to 1819. For the rest of his life he was forced to work out- side the established circles of science, with the result that his most interesting ideas- the permutation of species and Walum olum (the migration myth of the Lenni Lenape Indians)-remained virtually unknown until after his death. His papers were so scattered and his books so neglected that despite the attempts of Asa Gray and others to discredit him during the nineteenth century, no fair review of his thought was really possible. Indeed, it has required over seventy years and the combined energies of three unusual men-T. J. Fitzpatrick, E. D. Merrill, and Charles Boewe-to locate, identify, and catalogue Rafinesque's corpus of publi- cations.

The present volume represents a small triumph of the Baconian method. Boewe has enlarged and revised Fitzpatrick's clas- sic sketch of Rafinesque's life. He has added sixty bibliographic entries and tire- lessly corrected a number of others. He has

comprehensive analysis of Wallace's evo- lutionary thought, on the model of Michael Ghiselin's analysis of Darwin's thought in his book The Triumph of the Darwinian Method (1969).

MALCOLM JAY KOTTLER

Thomas Jefferson Fitzpatrick. Rafinesque: A Sketch of His Life with Bibliography. Revised and enlarged by Charles Boewe. vi + 360 pp., illus., bibl. Weston, Mass.: M & S Press, 1982. $30.

In 1836, C. S. Rafinesque (1784-1840) urged those few readers who still regarded his books worthy of purchase to "imitate my zeal, And be happy in the lovely study of flowers." This exhortation was not on his own example wise advice for would-be students of natural history. The Turkish- born naturalist moved permanently to the United States in 1815. For the next twenty- five years, he traveled the country exten- sively on foot and managed to find pub- lishers (mostly private printers) for many thousands of highly opinionated pages de- voted to everything from Indian antiqui- ties, roses, and mollusks to pulmonary cures, investment schemes, and poetry. His correspondents included Thomas Jeffer- son, Benjamin Silliman, and John Torrey.

Rafinesque was by his own account pug- nacious, and his severe criticism of col- leagues quickly denied him the high esteem that he had enjoyed prior to 1819. For the rest of his life he was forced to work out- side the established circles of science, with the result that his most interesting ideas- the permutation of species and Walum olum (the migration myth of the Lenni Lenape Indians)-remained virtually unknown until after his death. His papers were so scattered and his books so neglected that despite the attempts of Asa Gray and others to discredit him during the nineteenth century, no fair review of his thought was really possible. Indeed, it has required over seventy years and the combined energies of three unusual men-T. J. Fitzpatrick, E. D. Merrill, and Charles Boewe-to locate, identify, and catalogue Rafinesque's corpus of publi- cations.

The present volume represents a small triumph of the Baconian method. Boewe has enlarged and revised Fitzpatrick's clas- sic sketch of Rafinesque's life. He has added sixty bibliographic entries and tire- lessly corrected a number of others. He has

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