ad =z 
ee 
47 4 
tions,sbut we fhall briefly point out the 
principal difcoveries which he has made in 
certain branches of {fcience. 
In zoology he has difcovered five {pecies 
of bats,* and one of the threw-moufe,+ 
none of which, though very common, had. 
Mg previoufly. noticed by any natura- 
lit. 
He has not only given a full defeription 
of the mufk deer, but added many curious 
remarks refpeéting its organization. f 
_ He has defcribed a fingular conforma. 
tion in the organs of voice of fome foreign 
birds. § . 
To him we are folely indebted for ap- 
plying the knowledge of comparative ana- 
tomy to the determination of thofe fpecies 
of quadrupeds, whofe foffil remains ftill 
exift ; andalthough not always uniformly 
happy in his conjectures, he has yet opened 
an imporvant field for geologifts, and has 
fully exploded the abfurd notions prevalent 
re{pecting giants. 
One of the molt ftriking inftances of his 
fagacity, in this way, was that which he 
evinced refpecting a bone, that had been 
jong confidered as belonging to the leg of 
a giant. He readily difcovered, by the 
help of comparative anatomy, that this 
bone was the radius of a giraffe (Came- 
lopard), although he had never feen the 
animal, or any figure of its fkeleton. 
This conjeéture, he had the pleafure of 
verifying himfelf, thirty years afterwards, 
upon there being brought to the mufeum 
of natural hiftory a fkeleton of that ani- 
mal, which is ftill preferved in it. . 
Before his time no precife ideas had 
been formed refpeéting the difference be- 
tween man and the orang-outang ; for 
whilft fome regarded the latter as man in 
afavage ftate, others did not hefitate to 
maintain it was man who haddegenerated, 
and that nature intended him to walk on 
all-fours. Daubenton, however, proved 
by many obfervations drawn from an 
anatomical examination of the articulation 
of the head, that an erect gait was not 
Jefs conformable to the nature of man, 
than incompatible with the phyfical ftruc- 
tore of the orang-outang. 
In vegetable phyfiology, he is the firft 
who remarked that the augmentation of 
the fize of trees is not always produced by 
the addition of ‘external and concentric 
* Memoires de l’Academie des Sciences, 
Bour 17545 p. 237. | ; 
“+ Ibid, pour 1756, p. 203. 
+ Ibid, pour 1772, feconde partie, p. 215. 
§ Ibid, pour 1781, p. 369. 
layers. 
Memoirs of M. Daubenton, 
{ June 7, 
layers. Having obferved that the trunk 
of a palm-tree, which he examined, dif- 
played none of thefe circles, his ‘attention 
was aroufed by this circumftanee, and led 
him to a further inveftigation of the fub-* 
ject ; in confequencze of which he difco« 
vered, that the increafe of this tree depends 
on the prolongation of the fibres of thecen- 
ter which fhoot out intoleaves. It was 
thus he explained why the trunk of the 
palm-tree does not inereafe in proportion 
to its age, and why itis nearly of the fame 
fize throughout its’ whole iength.* Citi- 
zen Desfontaines, who, long before, ob- 
ferved the fame thing, has fully proved 
that thefe two modes of growth charac- 
terize the trees having feeds furnifhed 
with two cotyledons, or feed-lobes, from ~ 
thofe which have only one, and eftablithed 
upon this important difcovery, a divifion 
which muft henceforth be confidered as a 
fundamenta! principle in botany. 
- Daubenton is likewife the firit who de- 
tected, in the bark, the prefence of trachea, 
orair veflels, which former phytologifishad 
only difcovered in the wood. . 
From therapid advancement of minera- 
logical knowledge, at the prefent day, the 
labours of Daubenton are now almoft for- 
gotten ; but there fill remains to him the 
glory of having been the inftruétor of 
Hatiy, who has fo much contributed to 
bring that {cience to perfection. He pub- 
lifhed however fome ingenious obfervations 
refpecting the formation of alabafter and 
Hlalaétites tT, on the caufes of herborization 
in ftones, on figured marbles, and alfo 
defcribed feveral minerals which were but | 
little known at the period when he wrote. 
It muft indeed be admitted that his diftri- 
bution of precious ftones is not conforma- 
ble to their real nature, but it tended at 
leaft to give a greater degree of precifion 
to the nomenclature of their colours. 
The works of Daubenton aie all more 
or lefs characterized by that accuracy of 
inveftigation for which he was fo eminently 
diftinguifhed. Not prefuming, all at once, 
to penetrate into efficient caufes, he pati- 
ently purfued the flow,- but certain, me- 
thod of obfervation and experiment; 
whilft at the fame time, he dilplayed an ~ 
aftonifhing fagacity in feizing on the molt 
minute circumftances that could facilitate 
his progrefs, or fmooth the difficulties of 
* Legons de Ecole Normale. 
+ Memoiresdel’Inftitut National, claffede 
pbyfique, t. 1. 
x Mémoires de V Academie, pour 1754, pe © 
2376 
a 
the. | 
