A perturbation theory is employed to construct a free-energy functional capable of describing the isotropic and nematic phases of attractive rod-like particles. An algebraic van der Waals-Onsager equation of state is then developed to determine the global phase behaviour of prolate particles for various aspect ratios and strengths of the attractive potential. Compared with the phase diagram of their athermal analogues, the incorporation of an attractive potential is seen to stabilize the nematic state leading to an increase in the degree of orientational order of the system at high densities. The most salient feature of these fluids is the existence of regions of nematic-nematic phase separation. The simple model is used to describe the phase behaviour of solutions of a relatively rigid polypeptide, poly-(γ -benzyl-L-glutamate) (PBLG), in dimethylformamide (DMF); this system exhibits a unique phase separation between two liquidcrystalline states. The coarse-grained representation of the mesogen employed herein * To whom correspondence should be addressed 1 is a hard spherocylinder decorated with an attractive square-well potential which acts at the center of mass of the particle. A quantitative description of the experimental isotropic-nematic phase behaviour of the PBLG solutions can be achieved from the proposed model with the use of just two temperature-dependent parameters.