190 
MEMOIR or DAUBENTON. 
After having completed, under the Dominicans of that 
same town, what was then called a course of philosophy, 
his parents, who intended him for the church, and made 
him assume the ecclesiastical dress at twelve years of 
age, sent him to Paris to be initiated in theology ; but, 
inspired perhaps by a presentiment of what he would 
one day become, young Daubenton secretly devoted 
himself to the study of medicine. At the schools of the 
faculty he attended the prelections of Baron, Martineux, 
and Col de Yillars ; and, in the same Jardin des Plantes 
which he was afterwards so largely to benefit, those of 
Winslow, Hunauld, and Antoine de Jussieu. The death 
of his father, which happened in 1736, having left him 
at liberty to follow the bent of his inclinations, he took 
his degrees at Rkeims in 1740 and 1741, and then re- 
turned to his native place, where he limited his ambi- 
tion to the exercise of his profession. But destiny re- 
served him for a more brilliant theatre. 
The little town where he first saw the light, had 
likewise produced an individual of independent fortune, 
whose bodily and mental cpialifications, and ardent 
taste for pleasures, seemed to destine him for any other 
career than that of the sciences, yet who found himself 
attracted to them by an irresistible inclination, which 
is almost a certain indication of extraordinary talents. 
Button (for it was that individual), for a long tune 
uncertain to what object he should apply his genius, 
tried, in turns, geometry, physics, and agriculture. At 
last, Dufay, his friend, who was called upon, during his 
