Editing Louis Jean-Marie Daubenton

{{Short description|18th century French naturalist}}
{{Redirect|Daubenton|}}
{{more citations needed|date=September 2021}}
{{Infobox scientist
|name              = Louis Jean-Marie Daubenton
|image             = Louis Jean-Marie Daubenton - Alexander Roslin.jpg
|image_size        = 230px
|caption           = Daubenton in 1791
|birth_date        = {{birth-date|29 May 1716}}
|birth_place       = [[Montbard, Côte-d'Or]], [[Kingdom of France]]
|death_date        = {{death date and age|1800|01|01|1716|5|29|df=y}}
|death_place       = [[Paris]], [[First French Republic|France]]
|field             = [[natural history|naturalist]]
|signature         = 
}}

'''Louis Jean-Marie Daubenton''' ({{IPA|fr|lwi ʒɑ̃ maʁi dobɑ̃tɔ̃}}; 29 May 1716 – 1 January 1800) was a French [[natural history|naturalist]] and contributor to the ''[[Encyclopédie|Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers]]''.<ref>[http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/rde_0769-0886_1989_num_7_1_1036  Frank A. Kafker: ''Notices sur les auteurs des dix-sept volumes de « discours » de l'Encyclopédie. Recherches sur Diderot et sur l'Encyclopédie.'' 1989, Volume 7, Numéro 7, S.&nbsp;136]</ref>

==Biography==
[[File:Daubenton.JPG|thumb|right|240px|Daubenton's grave in the gardens of the Museum of Natural History]]
Daubenton was born at [[Montbard, Côte-d'Or]]. His father, Jean Daubenton, a [[Civil law notary|notary]], intended him for the church, and sent him to [[Paris, France|Paris]] to study [[theology]], but Louis-Jean-Marie was more interested in [[medicine]].  Jean's death in 1736 set his son free to choose his own career, and in 1741 he graduated in medicine at [[Reims]] and returned to his hometown, planning to practice as a [[physician]]. At about this time, [[Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon|Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon]], also a native of Montbard, was preparing to bring out a multi-volume work on [[natural history]], the ''[[Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière]]'', and in 1742 he invited Daubenton to assist him by providing anatomical descriptions. In many respects, the two men were complete opposites, but they worked well in partnership. In 1744, Daubenton became a member of the [[French Academy of Sciences]] as an adjunct botanist, and Buffon appointed him keeper and demonstrator of the king's cabinet in the [[Jardin des Plantes|Jardin du Roi]].

In the first section of the ''Histoire naturelle'', Daubenton gave descriptions and details of the dissection of 182 species of [[quadruped]]s, thus securing himself a high reputation as a comparative anatomist. Concerned about the readability and profitability of the ''Histoire naturelle'', Buffon dropped Daubenton's anatomical descriptions from later editions as well as from the series on birds, but Daubenton continued to work closely with Buffon at the [[Jardin des Plantes|Jardin du Roi]].

Daubenton published many articles in the memoirs of the Parisian [[Académie Royale des Sciences]], presenting his research on animals, the [[comparative anatomy]] of extant and [[fossil]] [[animal]]s, [[vegetable]] [[physiology]], [[mineralogy]], [[agriculture]], and the [[merino sheep]] that he successfully introduced into France. He was elected as a member to the [[American Philosophical Society]] in 1775.<ref>{{Citation |title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Daubenton+&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=2021-05-28|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref> From 1775 onwards, Daubenton lectured on natural history in the College of Medicine, and in 1783 on rural economy at the [[École nationale vétérinaire d'Alfort|Alfort school]]. He was also professor of mineralogy at the [[Jardin des Plantes|Jardin du Roi]]. As a lecturer he was in high repute, and to the last retained his popularity. In December 1799 he was appointed a member of the [[Sénat conservateur|senate]], but at the first meeting which he attended he fell from his seat in an apoplectic fit and, after a short illness, died at Paris.

Daubenton's name is commemorated in several species names, most notably the lemur the [[aye-aye]] (''Daubentonia madagascariensis''), [[Daubenton's bat]] (''Myotis daubentoni'') and a kale known as {{ill|Daubenton's kale|fr|Chou Daubenton}}.<ref>https://backyardlarder.co.uk/plants/daubenton-kale/</ref>

==Relatives==
He is not to be confused with his cousin [[Edmé-Louis Daubenton]], who was also a naturalist.

==See also==
*[[Society of the Friends of Truth]]

==Notes==
{{More footnotes needed|date=April 2009}}
{{Reflist}}

==References==
*{{Citation
|pmid= 122116
|last=Gysel
|first=C
|publication-date=1979
|year=1979
|title=[Daubenton (1716–1800) and his research on the occipital foramen]
|volume=50
|issue=
|periodical=L' Orthodontie française
|pages=377–92
}}
*{{Citation
|pmid= 1100562
|last=Farber
|first=P L
|publication-date=March 1975
|year=1975
|title=Buffon and Daubenton: divergent traditions within the Histoire naturelle.
|volume=66
|issue=231
|periodical=Isis; an International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences
|pages=63–74
|doi=10.1086/351376
|s2cid=18201479
}}

;Attribution
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Daubenton, Louis-Jean-Marie}}

==External links==
*{{Commons-inline}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Daubenton, Louis Jean-Marie}}
[[Category:1716 births]]
[[Category:1799 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Montbard]]
[[Category:18th-century French physicians]]
[[Category:French zoologists]]
[[Category:French mineralogists]]
[[Category:Contributors to the Encyclopédie (1751–1772)]]
[[Category:Members of the French Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Members of the Sénat conservateur]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the Collège de France]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:French male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:18th-century French male writers]]
[[Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society]]