12 Biographical Memoir of M, Daubenton. 



curacies, and destitute of all those details, which it was physi- 

 cally and morally impossible for BufFon to furnish. 



These imperfections were still more obvious in the supple- 

 ments, works composed by Buffon in his old age •, in which that 

 great writer carried his injustice so far, as to entrust to a mere 

 painter the part which Daubenton had so well executed in the 

 first volumes. 



Several naturalists endeavoured to supply the defect, and, 

 among others, the celebrated Pallas took Daubenton for his mo- 

 del in his Miscellanea and Zoological Gleanijigs, as well as 

 in his History of the Glires; works which ought to be considered 

 as the true supplements of Buffon, and as the best accounts that 

 have appeared of quadrupeds, next to his great work. 



Every body knows with what success, in the departments of 

 Fishes and Reptiles, the illustrious continuator of Buffon, De 

 La Cepede, who was also the friend and colleague of Daubenton, 

 and who still laments him with us, has employed in his writings 

 the double advantage of a flowery and figurative style, and a 

 scrupulous accuracy in the details ; and how he has equally rival 

 led his two predecessors in their pecular excellencies. 



Daubenton, however, so far forgot the little injuries of his 

 old friend, that he afterwards contributed to several parts of the 

 Histoire Naturelle, although his name was no longer attached 

 to it ; and we have evidence that Buffon had consulted the 

 whole manuscript of his lectures in the College of France, when 

 he wrote his Histoire des Mineraux-f. Their intimacy was 

 even perfectly re-established, and continued until Buffon's 

 death. 



During the eighteen years which the fifteen quarto volumes 

 of the Histoire des Quadrupedes took in appearing, Daubenton 

 was only able to give a few memoirs to the Academy of Sciences; 

 but he subsequently indemnified it ; for we find, in the collection 

 of the Academy, as also in that of the Medical and Agricultu- 

 ral Societies ctf the National Institute, a considerable number, 

 all of which contain, as well as the works which he published se- 

 parately, interesting facts or new views. 



• The third volume, published in 1776, and the sixth in 1782, treat of 

 quadrupeds, and would have had great need of Daubenton's assistance, as well 

 as the seventh, which is posthumous, and was published in 1789. 



t Published 1783 to 1788. 



