1805. | 
guace and fublime flights of his affeciate 
did not eperate to his advantage ; and the 
trifling details of meainres and defcrip- 
_ tions into which he entered, could not 
compenfate in the opinion of fuch judges 
for the tedium with which they were ac- 
- Compénied. 
Thus when ali the naturali#sof Europe 
received with a mixtureof gratitude, and 
admiration: the refuits of the immenfe 
labours. of Daubenton, when they hailed 
the work which contained them, as a pro- 
du@tion truly claffical, the author’s praife 
was chanted at Paris; and fome of thofe 
parafites who fervilely cringe before fame 
as before power, fucceeded in perfuading 
Buffon, that it would redound greatly to 
his honour to difmifs his. troublefome co- 
affociate. The-fecretary of an illuftrious 
academy has even .been heard to affirm, 
_that the only perfons who regretted he 
fhould have followed this advice were the 
_Naturalifis. 
Operated on by fuch means, Buffsn 
_publithed a new edition ef his Natural 
Hiftory, in 13 volumes, 12mo. in which 
are omitted not only the anatomy, but 
_eyen the external characters, of the anj- 
mals which Daubenton had-furnithed for 
the large edition; and as nothing was 
fubftituted in their ftead, the work exhibits 
.no.idea of the form, colour, or difiin¢ctive 
attributes of the animals; fo that fhould 
the {mall edition be handed down to pofte-. 
rity, as the multitude of. pirated copies 
may induce us to fear, it cannot fupp!y 
-eny data whereby to afcertain the animals 
to which the autior allud:s, efpecially as 
they are not to be found either in Pliny, 
-or Atiftotle, who likewife, as is well 
known, neglected the defcriptive de- 
‘tails, 
Buffon moreover determined not to 
avail himfelf of his aid in the werks he 
had projected on ornithology and minera- 
logy.» Independently of the infulr, Dau- 
benton fuftained a lofs of. 12,000 francs, 
yearly. He might indeed have compliain- 
ed, but it would r-ceflarily have em- 
broiled him with the intendant of the 
-king’s garden, and forced him to refign 
the fuperintendance of the cabinet he hid 
formed, and to which he was as much at- 
stached as to life; overlooking therefore 
this injurious treatment, he centinued to 
.perfue his former occupations. 
The regret which all naturalifts teftified 
“when the firkt part of his Ornithology made 
its appearance, without being accompanied 
“by 'thole accurate defeiipticns and anato- 
mical details which they eltimated {9 
ighly, ferved however to confole him, 
Montusy Maa, No, 129. 
s 
Memairs of Mf, Daubenton, 
475 
He would ftill ‘have felt more chagrin, 
if his attachment for the great man who 
neglected him had not yielded to his felf- 
love, when he beheid the firft volumes, to 
which Gueneau de Montbeliard did not 
contribute, filled with inaccuracies, and 
deftitu:e of all thofe particulars which 
it wasimpoffible tor Buffon to furply 
Thefe imperfections were tti)) more ma 
carried his injuftice fo far as to employ a 
_ common draughtiman, for the part which 
Daubenton had fo well executed in the fore 
mer volumes. Hence many naturalifis have 
endeavoured to fupply this. void; and 
among others, the ceebrated Pallas took 
Daubenton fora model in his Mitceilanies 
and Zoological Gleanings, as well as in his 
Hiftory of Rodentia ;—works which mutt 
be confidered as real fupplementsto Buffcn; 
-and, next to his large work, the belt on 
quadrupeds. 
It js well known how fuccefsfully La 
Cepede, toe illuftrious continuater of Baf- 
fon, and who was alfo the friend and col- 
league of Daubenton, whofe lofs he equally 
bewails with ourfefves, has united im his 
works on ichthyology and reptiles a rich 
and brilhant ftyle with the moft fcrupu- 
lous accuracy of defcription; and how well 
he has fupplied the province of his two 
predecefiors. , 
Daubenton, befides, fo far forgot the 
injurious treatment he had received from 
-Buffon, that he afterwards contributed to 
feveral parts of the natural hiftory, al- 
though his name does not appear; and 
there exift proofs that when Buffon com- 
pofed his Hiftory cf Minerals, he derived 
much affiftance from'the manufcript of his 
lefQures delivered in-the French coliege. 
Their intimacy, notwithftanding the inter- 
ruption from the cireumftance before men- 
tioned, was even fully re-eftablifhed, and 
‘continued to be maintained to thedeath of 
Beffon. ; \ 
It was not in the power of Daubenton 
to furnifh many memoirs tothe Academy 
of Sciences, during the eighteen years in 
which the fifteen volumes in quarto of the 
Hiftory cf Quadrupeds fucceflively ap- 
peared; but he afterwards fully compen- 
jated for this, by fupplying not only the 
Academy, but alto the medical and agricul- 
‘tural focteties, and the National Inititute, 
with a great number of papers, ail of 
which contain, as well as the werks he 
publithed feparately, many intereflling 
facts and original obfervations. | 
Our limits de not here permit us to enu- 
merate even the titles of ali his produc- 
3P 10NS, 
—----_- * 
