MEMOIR OF DAUBENTON. 201 



self, but also by his own example ; the only rule he had 

 ventured to establish, that of the number of cervical 

 vertebrae in quadrupeds, having been disproved towards 

 the close of his life.* 



He has also been blamed for having restricted his 

 anatomical investigations, limiting them to the descrip- 

 tion of the skeleton and viscera, without treating of the 

 muscles, vessels, nerves, and exterior organs of the 

 senses : but it cannot be proved that it was possible for 

 him to avoid this accusation, until we have done better 

 than he, in the same time, and with the same means. 

 It is certain at least, that one of his pupils, who wished 

 to supply these defects, has, for the most part, given us 

 nothing but compilations, too often insignificant. 



Accordingly, as soon as his great work appeared, 

 Daubenton did not fail to obtain the usual recompense 

 of all great undertakings ; glory and honour ; criticism 

 and irritability ; for, in the career of the sciences, as in 

 all others, it is less difficult to attain to glory and even 

 fortune, than to preserve tranquillity when one has 

 attained to them. 



Reaumer at that time held the sceptre of Natural 

 History. No one had shown greater sagacity in obser- 

 vation,, no one had rendered Nature more interesting 

 by the wisdom and species of foresight of details, the 

 proofs of which he had found in the history of the smal- 

 lest animals. His memoirs on insects, although diffuse, 



* There are, in general, seven: the Three Fingered Sloths, 

 or the animals named Ai, have nine. 



