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MEMOIR OP DAEBENTON. 
These numerous labours would have exhausted a 
bustling activity, but they were insufficient for the 
peaceable love of a regulated occupation, which formed 
part of Daubenton’s character. 
It had been for a long time a subject of regret, that 
in France there were no public lectures on Natural 
History. He managed, in 1773, that one of the chairs of 
Practical Medicine, in the College of France, should be 
changed into a chair of Natural History, and undertook, 
in 1775, to fill it. The intendant of Paris, Berthier, 
engaged him, in 1783, to give lectures on Rural Economy 
in the Veterinary School of Alford, at the same time that 
Vicq. d’Azyr gave lectures on Comparative Anatomy and 
Fourcroy on Chemistry. 
He likewise desired to give lectures in the cabinet of 
Paris, where the objects themselves would have spoken 
even more distinctly than the professor ; and not having 
been able to accomplish this under the old regime, he 
united with the other individuals of the Jardin des 
Plantes, in requesting the Convention to convert this 
establishment into a special school of Natural History. 
Daubenton was nominated Professor of Mineralogy 
in this establishment, and he fulfilled the duties of that 
office till his death, with the same care that he bestow- 
ed on every thing he undertook. 
It was indeed an affecting sight to observe the old 
man, surrounded by his pupils, who listened with reli- 
gious attention to his words, which, in their estimation, 
were like the responses of an oracle ; to hear his feeble 
