1805.] 
the way. All his writings on agricultu- 
rai {ubje&ts moreover difplay a philofophy 
1ubfervient to public utility, and an ardent 
defire to prove praétically ufeful. What 
he has done to improve the wool of our 
fheep, mut for ever merit the gratitude of 
the ttate, to which he has imparted a new 
fource of wealth. His experiments on this 
fubjeét were begun in 1766, and indefa- 
tigably purfued to the period of his death. 
Patronized by Trudaine, he received en- 
couragement from all the adminiftrators 
who facceeded that enlightened and patri- 
otic man, and an{wered their expeétations 
in a manner worthy of bimfelf. 
To demonftrate the bad effects of con- 
fining fheep in ftables during the night, 
and the utility of allowing them to range 
at large; to attempt different means of 
improving their breed ; to point out how 
to determine the different qualities of the 
wool; to difcover the mechanifm of rumi- 
nation, and thence to deduce fome ufeful 
conclufions refpecting the temperament of 
wool-bearing animals, as well as with re- 
gard to the mode of rearing and feeding 
them ; to difleminate the produce of his 
fheep-fold throughout every province; to 
diftribute his rams to all the proprietors 
of flocks ; to manufaéture woollen-cloth 
from hisown raw material, with the view 
of convincing the moft prejudiced of iis 
- fuperiority ; to form intelligent fhepherds 
in order that they might propagate his me- 
thod, and to render his inftruétions intelli- 
gible to all clafles of agriculturifts ; fuch 
in fhort are the outlines of Daubenton’s 
labours on this very important fubjedt. 
Almoft at every public fitting of the Aca- 
demy, he gave an account of his labours, 
and obtained, frequently, more applaufe 
from the gratitude of the aflembly, than 
his colleagues received of admiration for 
difcoveries more dificult, but of which 
the utility was lefs evident. His fuccefs 
has fince indeed been furpaffed, for entire 
flocks have been, upon the requeft of M. 
Teflier, imported from Spain, befides thofe 
recently introduced by Gilbert, which muft 
diffule that fine breed more rapidly than 
Daubenton could effect by his exertions 
alone; but the public are not lefs indebted 
to him for having originated thefé improve- 
ments, and puriued them as far as it was 
poflible with his limited means. 
He had acquired by his labours a kind 
of popularity which proved very ufeful to 
him in a dangerous. crifis. During the 
year fecond, wheff by a revolution of fen- 
timents, which mult be ever remembered 
in hiftory, it was left for an ignorant mul- 
titude to decide on the fate of the moft in. 
° « 
wa 
Memoirs of M. Daubenton. 
473 
telligent and virtuous of men, the vene- 
rable ogtegenarian Daubenton found it ne- 
ceflary, inorder to preferve the fituation | 
which he had filled with fo much credit to 
himfelf during a period of fifty years, to 
folicit from the feétion of Sans Culottes a 
certificate of bis civifm. It was then 
fcarcely poflible for a profeffor, or an aca- 
demician, to obtain one ; but fome fenfible 
perfons, who intermingled with the popu- 
lace in the hope of moderating their fury, 
prefented him under the appellation of the 
Shepherd 5, and it was thus the fhepherd 
Daubenton precured the neceflary cer- 
tiftcate * as director of the Mufeum of 
Natural Hiftory. This paper is ftiil pre- 
ferved, and may ferve as an ufeful docu- 
ment not only to the biographer of Dau- 
benton, but to the hiftoriographer of that 
calamitous period. , 
Thefe multifarious labours might have 
even fufficed to employ an active mind, 
but they were not fufficient to occupy the 
whole attention of Daubenton, the prin- 
cipal feature of whofe chara¢ter was an 
unwearied love of ftudy. 
For a long period it had been lamented 
that no public leétures were given in 
France on natural hiftory ; through his in- 
fluence one of the profefforfhips of the 
practice of medicine was changed into 
that of natural hiftory, and he was him» 
felf appointed in 1775 to fill this fituation. 
He was alfo induced in 1783, at the foli- 
citations of Berthier, the intendant of Pa- 
ris, to deliver a courfe of JeGtures on ru- 
ral economy, in the veterinary fchool at 
Alfort, during the fame period when Vic. 
d’Azyr taught comparative anatomy and 
Fourcroy chemiftry. 
* Copy of the certificate of Daubenton’s 
civifm. 
Se€tion of Sans Culottes. 
Copy of the Extraét of the deliberations of 
the General Afflembly convened on the 5th of 
the 1ft decade, in the third month of the fe- 
cond year of the French Republic, one and 
indivifible. 
‘¢ As it appears from the report made bythe 
fraternal fociety of the fe&tion of Sans Cu- 
lottes, that the Shepherd Daubenton has al- 
ways conduéted himfelf as a worthy and good 
citizen, the General Affembly unanimoufly 
decree, that he fhall receive a certificate of 
civifm, and that the prefident, attended by fe- 
veral members of the aforefaid afiembly, fhall 
give him the fraternal embrace, with every 
mark of honopr due to that yirtuous and hue. 
mane conduét, which he has difplayed on vae_ 
rious occafions. 
(Signed) « R. G.Darver, Prefident.” - 
Atruecopy, (Signed) ‘* Duatont. Sec.’ 
3P 2x ~ He’ 
