DAUBENTON, Louis-Jean-Marie, a distinguished naturalist, was born at Montbar, in the department of the Côte d’Or, in France, on the 29th of May 1716. His father, Jean Dauben ton, was a notary in that place, and his mother’s name was Marie Pichenot. In his youth he distinguished himself by the sweetness of his temper, and by his diligent application to his studies. The Jesuits of Dijon, under whose tuition he was first placed, noticed him in a peculiar manner. Having gone through a course of what was called philosophy, under the Dominicans of Dijon, his father, who destined him for the church, and who had made him assume the ecclesiastical dress at the age of twelve, sent him to Paris to study theology. But his predilection for natural history induced him privately to study medicine. Accordingly he attended the lectures of Baron, Martinenq, and Col de Villars, and likewise those of Winslow, Hunault, and Antoine de Jussieu, in the botanic garden. The death of his father in 1736 enabled him to follow his inclination without constraint. Accordingly he took a degree at Rheims in 1741, and returned to his own country with the intention of following the practice of medicine. But fortune destined him for a more brilliant career.

Montbar had given birth, about the same time, to another man of a very different character, who, though possessed of an independent fortune, a robust constitution, and actuated by a violent passion for pleasure, had determined notwithstanding to devote himself to the cultivation of the sciences. This man was Buffon. Hesitating for some time what branch of physics he should make his peculiar study, he tried by turns geometry, mechanical philosophy, and agriculture. At last his friend Dufay, who during his short superintendence had raised the botanic garden from that state of neglect in which former naturalists had left it, and who had procured for Buffon the reversion of his office, dying, and leaving him his place, Buffon’s choice was fixed on natural history, and he saw before him that wide field which he afterwards traversed with so much reputation.

Natural history was at that time little else than a dry catalogue of names, destitute of that methodical arrangement, of that precision, and of those interesting details, which have since distinguished it. It occupied a very low station among the sciences, and instead of being a fashionable study, was degraded into the drudge of medicine and surgery. Buffon formed the bold plan of giving life to this dry and apparently sterile mass, of painting nature as she is, always young, always active; of pointing out the harmony of all her parts, and the laws by which they are combined into one system, and of giving his picture all the glow, freshness, and charms of nature herself. But, to secure success, it was necessary to make truth the basis of his system. Every thing must be collected, revised, and examined. The forms and dimensions of animals must be compared, and their internal structure ascertained. The ardent and impatient spirit of Buffon could ill brook a task so tedious and painful, and the imperfection of his sight rendered him unqualified for it. He looked about, therefore, for a man possessed of sufficient judgment, patience, and neatness of hand for his purpose, and at the same time modest enough to submit willingly to act a secondary part. He found such a man in Daubenton, the companion of his infancy.

The character of these two philosophers was almost opposite in every respect. Buffon was violent, impatient, and rash; Daubenton was all gentleness, patience, and caution: Buffon wished to divine the truth rather than to discover it; Daubenton believed nothing which he had not himself seen and ascertained: Buffon suffered his imagination to lead him from nature; Daubenton, on the contrary, discarded from his writings every expression which was calculated to mislead. They were thus happily fitted to correct each other’s faults; and accordingly the history of quadrupeds, which appeared whilst they thus laboured together, is the most exempt from error of any of the divisions or departments which constitute Buffon’s great work on natural history.

Buffon drew Daubenton to Paris about 1742, and procured for him the place of demonstrator of the cabinet of natural history, at first with a salary of only 500 francs, but which was gradually increased to 2000. He furnished him likewise with a lodging, and neglected nothing to secure his comfort and convenience. Daubenton, on his side, devoted himself to second the views of his benefactor. The cabinet of natural history, which was arranged, and in a great measure collected, by bis means, proved of immense service. In the history of quadrupeds, he gave the description and dissection of a hundred and eighty-two species of quadrupeds. These details contained a vast number of new facts, arranged in such a manner that the most curious results are often obtained merely by comparing them together. This work procured for Daubenton a very high reputation, and drew upon him the envy of Reaumur, who at that time considered himself as at the head of natural history. But the credit and reputation of Buffon was sufficient to prevent his friend from falling a victim to the attack of this formidable antagonist.

In the subsequent parts of his natural history, Buffon was persuaded to separate himself from Daubenton. This injured the precision and value of these parts excessively, whilst it deprived Daubenton of 12,000 francs a year. Afterwards the intimacy between them revived, and continued till the death of Buffon.

• The number of dissertations on natural history which Daubenton -published in the Memoirs of the French Academy is so great that even a list of them would be too long for this place. Descriptions of different animals, dissections, comparisons between the forms of ^different animals, anatomical examinations of fossil bones, in order to determine the animals to which they had belonged, ⅛e physiology of vegetables, and different parts of mineralogy, successively occupied him; not to mention his experiments on agriculture and rural economy, which, however, were of more service to him afterwards than all the rest of his labours, on account of the reputation among the populace which they had procured him.

Besides his publications, Daubenton was of great service to science as a lecturer. From 1775 he gave lectures on natural history in the college of medicine. In 1783 he lectured on rural economy. He was appointed professor of mineralogy by the convention at the Garden of Plants, and he gave lectures during the ephemeral existence of the Normal School. He was likewise one of the editors of the Journal des Sçavans, and contributed to both the Encyclopaedias. As a lecturer he was extremely popular, and, what is uncommon, he retained his popularity to the last.

Notwithstanding the feebleness of his constitution, he arrived at a very advanced age without much disease or loss of his faculties. This may in some measure be ascribed to the gentleness of his temper, and his remarkable resignation. He was temperate and moderate even in his [7:7:634]studies. Part of his time was spent in reading romances with his wife.

In the year 1799 he was appointed one of the members of the conservative senate, and he resolved to attend the meeting of it. This obliged him to alter his regimen. The season was severe. At the first meeting which he attended he fell from his seat in an apoplectic fit. The most speedy assistance was procured, and by its means he was restored to his senses. With the utmost calmness he pointed out with his fingers the progress of the paralysis in different parts of his body, and died without a struggle on the first of January 1800.