UI DAUBENY, CHARLES GILES BRIDLE, M.D., F.R.S. 



D-AVENANT, CHARLES. 



MO 



of the discoveries which he had made. Hii valuable labours 

 adorned the 6nt fifteen volumes of liuDbu'i great work in 4to ; anil 

 the ediiioDs in which this essential part of the publication U wantimr, 

 an justly considered as deprived of their fairest proportion!. But 

 Buff'n in ail evil hour listened to the suggestions of flatterers, and 

 published an edition in 1-mo, of which Daubentons labours fonne.l 

 no part. The hint was more than sufficient for the modest Daubenton, 

 and from that time the assistance of Uuuneau de Moutbeillard and of 

 Bezon 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 Jardin du Koi. For fifty yean, 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 

 in 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 Rot 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 as he lived. In 1783 he became Professor of 

 Rural 'Economy at Alfort, and gave letsons 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 wai nearly eighty-four years of age. 



Daubenton's life, with the exception of the cloud that came between 

 him and Bufibn, raised 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 

 natural weakness of constitution, a long life. Daubenton was married 

 to the authoress of ' ZtSlie dans le Desert,' and though his union was 

 in other respects most happy, he 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 ' 11 emoires de I'Academie des Science*,' from 

 1754 to 1764. 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. 

 His ' Initruutiou pour lea Bergers," 1 vol., 8vo, Paris, 1782, his 

 'Tableau Mltbodique des Miner.iux,' 1784, 8vo, and hia 'Mdinoire 

 sur le premier drap de laine superfine du cru de France,' which also 

 appeared in 8vo, in 1784, must not be forgotten in a recollection of 

 bis works. 



(O. Cuvirr, Notice tar la Vie et la Outrage! de J)aubenton, in the 

 ifimotrn de I'Jnttilut, v. iii. ; Sioy. Univ. <tc.) 



DAUBENY, CHARLES GILES BRIDLE, M.D., F.R.a, and 

 Professor of botany and Chemistry in the University of Oxford. He 

 is distinguished as a cbemut, geologUt, and physiological botanist. 

 Dr. Daubeny's labours have inoatly been directed to the explanation 

 of natural phenomena by the oid of the facts and principles of 

 chemical science. On of his earliest publications was, ' An E-say on 

 the Otology and Chemical Phenomena of Volcanoes,' which wan 

 published at Oxford in 1824. This early direction of hi* at trillion to 

 the chemistry of volcanic action resulted in the publication of his 

 great work entitled 'A Description of active and extinct Vulcanites;' 

 a second edition of which was published in 1848. This work is 

 remarkable for the application of chemical principles to the expla- 

 nation of the phenomena of one of the mot active agent* in the 

 production of g>ol<>gioal changes upon the earth's surf ice. The 

 connection between the chemistry of volcanoes and that of mineral 

 waten U evident, aud to thi< Milject l>r. D.iul>-iiy h paid a large 

 share of att>nt:n. He has not ouly analysed many mineral waters, 

 but in hii ' K-p..rt on the state of our knowledge with respect to 

 Mia nd and Thermal Waters,' given to the British Amocutiou for 

 1836, ha* ihuwn the importance of a knowledge of the composition ol 

 mineral water* to the txplnnution of many geological phenomena. In 

 1887, Dr. Daub- ny visited the United States of America, and made a 

 series of observations on the geology of the New World. Thew he 

 has publish*! in various papers, of which the principal are the 

 following : 1, Notice of the Th. nnal Springs of North America,' read 

 bcf..r the Asbmolesn Society io 1888. 2, 'Sketch of the Geology 

 of North America, being the substance of a Memoir read before tho 

 A.limoleun Society of Oxford.' 8, On tho Geology and Thrrnml 

 Spring* of North America,' read at the British Association for 1888. 



The volcanic phenomena of Italy have naturally attract..! lir. 

 Daubray's attention, an 1 he has published the following papers on 

 this subject : 1, 'On the Kriiptton of Vesuvius which occurred in 

 the month of August 1894' ( Philosophical Transactions/ cxxv.); 

 2, 'On the Volcanic Strata exposed by a Section made in the Site of 



the new Thermal Spring discovered near the town of Torre dell' 

 Annunziata, in the Bay of Naples,' published in the ' Proceedings of 

 the Geological Society,' vol. n. ; ;), -On the Site of the Ancient 

 of the Auruuci, and on the i'lienomona which it exhibits, 



with some remarks on Craters of Elevation, on the distinction between 

 Plutonic aud Volcanic Rocks, and on the theories of Volcanic Action 

 which are most in repute,' published in the ' Transactions of the 

 Ashmolean Society,' 1846. The interesting volc.tuic district of 

 Auvergne in France has also been investigated by Dr. Daubeuy, and 

 he has published two papers on its geology, one, ' On the Volcanoes of 

 Auvergne,' and the other, ' On the Origin of the Valleys of Auvergne.' 

 These papers were published in tho third aud tenth volumes of the 

 ' Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal' He ha* published several 

 other papers on allied subjects iu the ' Transactions' of our scientific 

 societies. 



Dr. Daubeny has also written many papers on purely chemical 

 subjects. Iu 1831 he published ' An Introduction to the Atomic 

 Theory,' to which was added a supplement in 1840, and a new 

 edition appeared in 1860. Various other chemical papers I . 

 D.iubeny are scattered iu the ' Transactions ' of the scientific societies. 

 Many of them have reference to the chemical phenomena of vegetable 

 life. Amongst them may be enumerated hia experiments on the influence 

 of carbonic acid, and of colour on the growth of plants, published in 

 the 'Transactions of the British Association.' His ' Lectures on Agri- 

 culture,' published in 1841, are an exposition of the chemical laws 

 which regulate the life of plants. 



Dr. Daubeuy is remarkable aa one of the few men who have culti- 

 vated the natural sciences amidst their almost entire neglect in the 

 University of Oxford. To him the British Association was in 

 for an invitation to hold its second meeting within the walls of that 

 ancient seat of learning, and this Association, iu having elected him a.< 

 its president for this year (1856), has recognised the claim he has 

 upon their admiration and gratitude. 



D'AUBIGNfi, JKAN HENRI MERLE, Church historian and 

 theologian, was born at Geneva io Switzerland in 1794, the third son 

 of Louis Merle, a merchant of that city, who again was the grandson 

 of Aime Merle, who had marrud a Mademoiselle D'Aubigne', of a 

 distinguished French Protestant family. Tiie historian's name there- 

 fore is Merle; D'Aubignd being an addition of honour from the 

 grandmother's side, assumed according to a not uncommon Swiss 

 custom. Educated first at Geneva and then at Berlin, where he 

 attended the lectures of Neander on Church History, 1>'A ; : 

 settled for a time as pastor of a French church in Hamburg. '1 

 he removed to Brussels, where he was very popular as a preacher. In 

 1830 he returned to Geneva, where he has resided since HB Professor 

 of Church History in a theological college founded by the ' Evangelical 

 Society of Geneva.' Of D'Aubigne"s great work, the 'History of the 

 Reformation of the 16th Century,' the first portion appeared in Paris 

 in 18S5; the other volumes have appeared at intervals since that 

 time. The work achieved an immediate and immense p 

 Britain aud America, chiefly on account of blending its French 

 vivacity and picturesquenesa of style with evangelical religious senti- 

 ments ; and several English translations of it have appeared on 

 both sides of the Atlantic. Hia subsequent works, among which mny 

 be mentioned ' The Protector (Cromwill); a Vindication,' 1817. and 

 a volume entiled 'Germany, England, and Scotland : Recoil 

 of a Swiss Minuter,' 1818, hava also, for the same rioson, been more 

 popular among British and American Protestants than o.i the Conti- 

 nent Dr. D'Aubigue' is also the author of many theological and 

 ecclesiastical tracts, which have been translated into English. His 

 sympathies with British, aud especially with Scottish Evangelical 

 Protestantism, have, led him to pay frequent visits to thia country ; 

 and during his last visit (1856) he received the freedom of the city 

 of Kdinburgh. 



DAUD1N, FRANCOIS MAKIE, tho son of a receiver-general of 

 finani-e, was born at I'aris in May 1774. Nearly deprived of the use 

 of his limb by natural infirmity, he early devoted hi : 



I the sci'-ncus, and more particularly to natural history. Hi.* 

 memoirs soon found their way into the ' Mogain Eucjcl 

 and the 'Aunal'S du Mu-euui il'lli-toire Naturelle,' and he < 

 bute I some articles to the ' D.ctionuaire des Science Nntine ! ' His 

 two principal works an- bis ' Traitd d'Ornitboloffie,' which wax i 

 finished, and hia ' I listoire Naturelle des K <>r the first much 



cannot be said : it U on the second that lii< fame will rest. ( 

 speak* of the latter as the most complete work on that class of animal!) 

 which had hitherto appeared. His wife, who i represented as 

 amiable both in mind mid per- on, and as having actively aaaUted in 

 the compofition ami prepared the illustrations of his works, di d of 

 cousumptiou ; and poor Daudin, whose life, aa well as that of his 

 purtii'-r, had been long embittered tiy the deranged state of his affairs, 

 followed her in a few diiyn, before he had attained thirty year ' of ago. 

 He ditd in 1804, :rn. (' Biogr. Univcrselle,' Ac.) 



D'AVENANT, CIIAUU.S, a writer on politics, political economy, 

 and finance, was born in 1656, mi i wan the client son of Sir William 

 D'Avenaut, the poet. He studied at Balliol College, Oxford, and first 

 mado himself known by a dramatic piece, entitled 'Circe, a Tra 

 to which Dryden wrote a prologue aud Lord I. <>gue, 



and which was brought out in 1675, but not printed till 1677. It was 



