Ixxviii 



amidst numerous friends, who caused a medal to be struck in his honour — 

 the only occurrence of this kind in the annals of the Association. 



The same earnest spirit was manifested in all his academic life. No pro- 

 ject of change, no scheme of improvement in University Examinations, no 

 modification in the system of his own college, ever found him indifferent, 

 prejudiced, or unprepared. On almost every such question his opinion was 

 formed with rare impartiality, and expressed with as rare intrepidity. Firm 

 and gentle, prudent and generous, cheerful and sympathetic, pursuing no 

 private ends, calm amid jarring creeds and contending parties — the personal 

 influence of such a man on his contemporaries for half a century of active 

 and thoughtful life fully matched the effect of his published works. His 

 latest labour was to gather his f Miscellaneous Essays ' into two very inter- 

 esting volumes, and then, after patiently enduring severe illness for a few 

 weeks, he sank to that rest which, often in his thoughts, had ever been 

 expected, with the calmness of the philosopher and the hopefulness of the 

 Christian. He died at five minutes past twelve a.m., December 13, 1867, 

 in his 73rd year. 



His remains were laid in a vault adjoining the walls of Magdalen Col- 

 lege Chapel, in accordance with his own expressed wish " that he might 

 not be separated in death from a society w r ith which he had been connected 

 for the greater part of his life, and to which he was so deeply indebted, 

 not only for the kind countenance and support ever afforded him, but also 

 for supplying him with the means of indulging in a career of life at once 

 so congenial to his taste and the best calculated to render him a useful 

 member of the community." 



In the preceding brief notices no mention has been made of Dr. Dau- 

 beny's short career as a medical man, for which he had prepared himself 

 by professional study in Edinburgh and London. In Oxford he justified 

 his title of M.D. and his Fellowship with the College of Physicians 

 by attaching himself to the Radcliffe Infirmary. In this capacity, how- 

 ever, he did not long remain ; nor did he continue his medical practice, 

 though during all his life the progress of medical science was much at 

 his heart, as may be seen in the Harveian Oration which he delivered 

 before the College of Physicians in 1845. In that elegant address he 

 speaks of himself as " . . . quern, a medicinae castris tanquam profugum, 

 Physicarum Scientiarum amor, aut Otii Literati dulcedo, ad aliam vitae 

 normam jam tot per annos transtulit, ut ne inter commiiitones vestros 

 recenseri merear." 



In these words we have the key to the valuable life which was passed so 

 busily and so gracefully among his academic brethren, and to the works of 

 scientific and literary interest which are all that now remain to us of Charles 

 Daubeny. What he has said of these works is perhaps the truest and most 

 modest comment that will ever be made on them and on the circumstances 

 under which they were produced. For they are " some of the fruits of a 



