MEMOIR OP DAUBENTON. 
199 
This is not the place to analyze the, descriptive part 
of the Natural History ,* a work as immense in its de- 
tails as it is astonishing from the boldness of its plan, 
nor to point out all that it contains new and important 
for naturalists. It will he sufficient to give an idea of 
it, to mention, that it contains the description, exterior 
as well as interior, of a hundred and eighty-two species 
of quadrupeds, fifty-two of which had never before 
been dissected, and thirteen of which had not even 
been described externally. It also contains the descrip- 
tion, exterior only, of twenty-six species, five of which 
were not known. The number of species entirely new 
is therefore eighteen; but the new facts, relating to 
such as were already known more or less superficially, 
are innumerable. The greatest merit of the work, how- 
ever, is the order and spirit in which these descriptions 
are drawn up, and which is the same in regard to all 
the species. The author is pleased to repeat, that he 
was the first who had established a comparative ana- 
tomy; and that was true in this sense, that all his 
observations were arranged on the same plan, and 
their number being the same for the smallest animal 
and the largest, it is extremely easy to seize all the 
relations; not being confined to any system, he has 
bestowed equal attention on all the facts; and he 
never could be tempted to neglect or disguise what 
* The three first volumes in 4to appeared in 1749; the 
twelve following succeeded each other from that period up 
to 1767. 
