CU ■ I'KOOKEDINGS OV THE 



according to the old style of the Oxford examinations. In 1815 

 . he won the Chancellor's Prize for a Latin Essay on a subject in 

 Moral Philosophy, the prize for the English Essay in the same 

 year being gained by Arnold. 



His subsequent studies, which were directed towards the medical 

 profession, were pursued in London and Edinburgh. Whilst 

 there, his earnest attention was attracted by the Lectures of 

 Professor Jameson in Geology and Mineralogy ; and the desire to 

 cultivate natural science, which had been first awakened by the 

 teaching of Dr. Kidd at Oxford, became predominant in his mind. 

 " The change," as is observed by the author of the obituary notice 

 read to the Aslimolcan Society, to which I am mainly indebted 

 for what 1 luive to say concerning Dr. Daubeny, " from thoughtful 

 Oxford to active Edinburgh was the crisis in Daubeny's career. 

 The fight was then raging between Plutonists and Neptunists, 

 Huttonians and Wernerians; and the possesssion of Arthur's 

 Seat and Salisbury Crags was sternly debated by the rival wor- 

 shippers of fire and water." Daubeny entered keenly into this 

 discussion, and, on quitting the University of Edinburgh, pro- 

 ceeded in 1819 on a tour through Erance, everywhere collecting 

 evidence on the geological and chemical history of the globe, 

 and sent to Professor Jameson the earliest notices which had 

 appeared in England of the remarkable volcanic region of Auvergne. 

 These Letters may be regarded therefore as Dr. Daubeny's earliest 

 contribution to science, whilst it is interesting to notice that his 

 last, or one of his last, was on the same subject, in a communication 

 to the ' Quarterly Journal of Science ' in 1866, in which he defends 

 with m\ich force the prehistoric antiquity of the volcanos, which 

 had been questioned within a few years. 



The subject of volcanic phenomena, in fact, may be said to 

 have constantly occupied his attention from the beginning to 

 the end of his scientific career; and iu search of information 

 respecting it he made frequent journeys through Italy, Sicily, 

 Erance, Germany, Hungary, and Transylvania. The result of 

 these labours was given to the world in 1826, in liis great work 

 on Volcanos, in which are contained careful descriptions of all 

 known volcanic regions ; and a consistent hypothesis of the cause 

 of the thermic disturbance, in accordance with the view first 

 proposed by Gay-Lussac and Davy, viz. that water admitted to 

 the uncombined bases of the earths and alkalies existing below 

 the oxidized crust of the globe,- was an efficient cause of local 



