Biographical Memoir of M*. DaubefUoUt . 9J 



net, there to preside over the arrangement of the minerals, the 

 only part that remained to liini in the new orgaqiiJation of the 

 establishment. 



Thus it is chiefly to Daubenton that France is indebted for 

 that temple so worthy of the goddess to whom it is consecrated, 

 and where one knows not whether to admire most, the astonishing 

 fecundity of nature which has produced so many different be- 

 ings, or the unconquerable patience of man who has collected all 

 these beings, named them, classed them, assigned them their 

 relations, described their parts, and explained their properties. 



.The second monument which Daubenton left, was, according 

 to his original plan, to have been a complete description of the 

 Cabinet ; but circumstances, which we shall presently point out, 

 prevented him from extending this description beyond the qua- 

 drupeds. 



rvfiThis is not the place for analyzing the descriptive part of the 

 " Histoire Naturelle *,'' a work as immense in its details, as it is 

 astonishing in the boldness of its plan, — or for unfolding all that 

 it contains of what is new and important to the naturalist. To 

 give some idea of the work, it is only necessary to state, that it 

 contains the description, internal as well as external, of a hun- 

 dred and eighty-two species of quadrupeds, of which fifty-eight 

 had never been dissected, and of which thirteen had not even 

 been externally described. It contains, moreover, the external 

 description alone of twenty-two species, of which five were pre- 

 viously unknown. The number of entirely new species is there- 

 fore eighteen ; but the new facts relative to those which were 

 already more or less superficially known, are innumerable. The 

 greatest merit of the work, however, is the order and spirit with 

 which these descriptions are given, and which is the same with 

 regard to all the species. The author has been heard to say 

 repeatedly, that he was the first who had established a true 

 comparative anatomy ; and the assertion was true in this respect, 

 that all his observations being disposed according to the same 

 plan, and their number being the §ame with regard to the 

 smallest animal as with regard to the largest, it is extremely 



• The first three volumes, in quarto, appeared in 1749 ; the tvrelve fol- 

 lowing succeeded each other from that period to 1767- 



