The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 88, July 1984 - April, 1985 Page: 40
476 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
Thomas Freeman was awarded lucrative positions by the Jefferson,
Madison, and Monroe administrations, but it must have been dis-
couraging to Custis when his own work went unrecognized and un-
rewarded. Within two years of the exploration he had turned exclu-
sively to medical work, eventually settling down to the life of a gentle-
man physician in New Bern, North Carolina. Indeed, Custis's failure to
continue active work in natural history further contributed to the
obscurity of his accomplishments as a Jeffersonian explorer; had
Rafinesque or Wilson been the naturalist of the Red River expedi-
tion instead, no doubt the southwestern examination would be well
known to us. As early as 1817, when Rafinesque reworked and pub-
lished C. C. Robin's Florula Ludoviciana; or, A Flora of the State of
Louisiana, even a naturalist so wide-ranging as he did not know of
Custis's work.76
Dr. Peter Custis died on May 1, 1842, in New Bern, outliving all
the other early American explorers by a considerable margin and no
doubt convinced that the work he had done as naturalist of the Red
River expedition had been a futile exercise. Only after the passage of
more than a century and a half has the modern blending of historical
and ecological interests resulted in the discovery and analysis of his
design of converting it to his own use." His publication of the description of the am-
phiuma may have estranged Custis, for after 18o8 they ceased corresponding.
What Custis had seen was actually a member of an undiscovered family, designated
two decades later as Amphiumidae by Baron Georges Cuvier. Cuvier named Custis's
specific animal Amphiuma tridactylum; today it is know as the three-toed amphiuma.
Custis's work ought now to be honored by granting him partial credit for this species
under Article 23, Section B (Rule iii) of the International Code of Zoological Nomen-
clature, a3. It is proposed that the three-toed amphiuma be renamed Amphibium
quadrupeda (Custis) Cuvier, citing [King], An Account of the Red Rver, in Louisiana,
6o. The author wishes to thank Robert Owen of the Texas Tech Museum for his assis-
tance with this footnote.
Nuttall's work in Philadelphia is covered in the editor's introduction to Thomas
Nuttall, A Journal of Travels into the Arkansas Territory during the Year 1819, ed.
Savoie Lottinville (Norman, 1979).
76Coursey to D. L. F., Apr. 25, 1979.
Freeman stayed in the border country to try to explore the Arkansas River in 1807,
but this exploration was canceled in March, 1807, because there were no funds for it.
Dearborn to Dunbar, Mar. 28, 1807, Rowland, William Dunbar, 197-198. In 181o Presi-
dent James Madison made Freeman surveyor general of the lands south of Tennessee.
Freeman held this post until his death in 1821. Seth Pease to James Madison, July 23,
181o, Clarence Carter and John Porter Bloom (comps. and eds.), The Territorial Papers
of the United States (28 vols.; Washington, D.C., 1934-1973), Vol. VI, The Territory of
Mississippi, 18o09-817, p. 84; Freeman to Albert Gallatin, Aug. 8, 181o, ibid., 95-96;
Johnson and Malone (eds.), Dictionary of American Biography, VII, 13-14; Mississippi
Gazette, Nov. 24, 1826.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 88, July 1984 - April, 1985, periodical, 1984/1985; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101210/m1/62/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.