DAUBENTON, LOUIS-JEAN-MARIE, a distinguished naturalist, was born at Montbar, in the department of the Côte d'Or, in France, May 29, 1716. His father, Jean Daubenton, was a notary in that place; his mother's name was Marie Pichenot. In his youth he was distinguished for 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, Martineng, 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 his degree at Rheims in 1741, and returned to his native town with the intention of following the practice of medicine. But fortune destined him for a more brilliant career.
Buffon, also a native of Montbar, had at this time formed the bold plan of giving life to the dry and sterile study of natural history. Too ardent and impatient to brook the tedium of minute and prolonged investigation, he looked around for a man of sufficient patience and sagacity to act a secondary part in the undertaking. Such a man he found 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 into which Buffon's great work on natural history is divided.
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 carry out the views of his benefactor. The cabinet of natural history, which was arranged, and in a great measure collected, by his 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 great 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 Réaumur, who at that time considered himself as at the head of natural history in France. But the credit and reputation of Buffon were 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, the physiology of vegetables, and different departments 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 which they had procured for him among the people.
By his lectures, as well as by his publications, Daubenton greatly promoted the cause of science. 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 Jardin du Roi, and he gave lectures at the Normal School during the ephemeral existence of that institution. He was likewise one of the editors of the Journal des Savans, and contributed to both the Encyclopedias. As a lecturer he was extremely popular, and, what is uncommon, he retained his popularity to the last.
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 he was restored to consciousness. With the utmost calmness he pointed out with his fingers the progress of the paralysis in different parts of his body. After a short illness he died Jan. 1, 1800.