DAUBENTON, LOUIS JEAN MARIE, a celebrated naturalist and zootomist, was burn at Montbard in Burgundy, on the 29th of May 1716. The church was his destination, and he was sent to Paris to study theology ; but he gave iu secret those hours to medi cine and anatomy which. his father hoped he was devoting to ecclesiastical reading. The death of his father in 1736 left him at liberty to follow tho path he loved : and, having taken his degrees at Rheims, be returned to Montbard, for the purpose of exercising his profession. There he found a kindred spirit who, happily for zoology, had been counected from infancy with Daubenton. The Comte de Buffon, born at the same place, knew him well in youth, and when, in after life, Buffon was appointed intendant of the Jardin du Roi, his thoughts reverted to Daubenton as the person of all others qualified by his zeal and ability to prosecute those anatomical inquiries, the details of which, his own feebleness of eight prevented him from investigating. The count drew Daubenton to Paris in 1742, and iu 1745 the office of Curator and Demonstrator of the Cabinet of Natural History was conferred upon a man eminently fitted by his quick discernment, his untiring diligence, and hie inexhaustible patience, to fill the situation with the greatest possible advantage to the public. No one can open the Histoire Naturelle des Animaux' without being struck by the multitude and justness of the facts (for he carefully avoided all theory) with which Daubentou enriched that work, and in some degree corrected the fervid imagination of his brilliant coadjutor. But he did this without presuming in the least to draw general inferences; he confined himself strictly to facts ; and such was his modesty, that Camper used to say of him that he himself was not aware of the discoveries which he had made. His valuable labours adorned the first fifteen volumes of Buffou's great work in 4to; and the editions in which this essential part of the publication is wanting, are justly considered as deprived of their fairest proportions. But Buffet) in an evil hour listened to the suggestions of flatterers, and published an edition in 12mo, of which Daubenton's labours formed no part. The hint was more than sufficient for the modest Danbeuton, and from that time the assiatance of Gueneau de Moutbeillard and of Bexon in the ornithological department but ill supplied the exquisite dissections and demonstrations which had rendered the former part of the work so highly valuable to the physiologist.
Daubenton now gave himself up more than ever to the duties of his office in the Jardiu du Roi. For fifty years, indeed, did Daubenton labour without cessation in enriching and arranging the magnificent collection committed to his charge. Ho is said to have been the first
professor of natural history who gave lectures by public authority an France, one of the chairs of the College of Medicine having been converted into a chair of natural history at his request; it was conferred on him in 1778. The Convention having elevated the Jardin du Rol Into a public school, under the title of the Museum of Natural History, ho was named Professor of Mineralogy, and retained the professorship as long aa he lived. In 1783 he became Professor of Rural 'Economy at Alfort, and gave lessons in natural history at the normal school in 1795. To him France in a great measure owes the introduction and successful propagation of the breed of Spanish sheep. In 1799 he was elected a member of the senate, and the alteration in his habits caused by this new dignity is supposed to have hastened his death, which took place after an apoplectic) attack of four days' duration in the night of the 31st December and 1st January 1799 and 1800, when he was nearly eighty-four years of age.
Daubenton's life, with the exception of the cloud that came between him and Bunn, rsiaed by the weakness of the latter, was a happy one. His hours were spent in pursuits that were dear to him ; he was universally respected and beloved, for he was as amiable as he was learned; and his simple habits gave him, notwithstanding his uatural weakness of constitution, a long life. Daubenton was married to the authoress of Zelie daus he Desert,' and though his union was In other respects most happy, be left no children.
Notwithstanding his incessant occupation at the 'Museum, he found time to publish much in addition to his writings in the Histoire Naturelle: He was a contributor to the first Encyclopedic, and many of his papers on the natural history of animals and on minerals are to be found in the '316moirea de l'Academia des Sciences,' from 1751 to 1761. Two of his most interesting papers (though all are good) are those of 1762, on fossil bones pretended to be those of a giant, but which Daubenton referred to their true species ; and of 1764, on the essential differences between man and the orang-outang. Ilia 'Instruction pour lea Bergers,' 1 vol., 8vo, Paris, .1782, his 'Tableau Methodique des Mineraux,' 1784, 8vo, and his 'Memoire am to premier drop de laine superfine du ern de Franco,' which also appeared in 8vo, in 1784, must not be forgotten in a recollection of his works.
(G. Cuvicr, Notice sur la Vie et let Ouerages de.Dsubenton, in the Nenfonw de Clastitul, v. iii.; Biog. Univ. etc.)