studies. Thus, he investigated the chemical nature of mineral and thermal waters, the distribution of potash and phosphates in leaves and fruits, the conservability of seeds, the effect of varied proportions of carbonic acid on plants analogous to those of the coal measures, the phosphatic deposits of Estremadura. One of his more important papers was ‘On the Action of Light upon Plants, and of Plants upon the Atmosphere’ (Phil. Trans. 1836). His ‘Sketch of the Writings and Philosophical Character of A. P. De Candolle,’ whom he knew intimately, is one of the best accounts of that eminent botanist which have appeared in English (Edin. New Phil. Journ. 1843). Perhaps Daubeny's discernment is best displayed in his paper ‘On the Influence of the Lower Vegetable Organisms in the Production of Epidemic Diseases’ (ib. new ser. vol. ii. 1855), in which he adopts and supports with great acuteness the fungus theory of epidemics, giving reasons for believing that the organisms concerned are extremely minute. Soon after Darwin's ‘Origin of Species’ was published, Daubeny gave it strong support in a paper ‘On the Sexuality of Plants,’ read before the British Association in 1860, and published in his ‘Miscellanies,’ vol. ii.
Professor Phillips says of Daubeny (loc. cit.): ‘He was rich in chemical knowledge … always prompt and sagacious in fixing upon the main argument and the right plan for following up successful experiment or retrieving occasional failure.’ In his public relations he was always enlightened and inclined to progress. He was one of the first members, and took part in the first meeting, of the British Association in 1831; in 1856 he was its president at Cheltenham. His address on that occasion, like his address in 1865 to the Devonshire Association, is of considerable value. His earnest spirit gained him great influence in the Oxford of his time. No project of change ever found him indifferent, prejudiced, or unprepared. His opinions were impartial and unflinchingly expressed. Firm and gentle, prudent and generous, cheerful and sympathetic, pursuing no private ends, calm amid contending parties, he was in many ways a model scientific man in a university town.
Daubeny published, besides his principal work on volcanoes: 1. ‘A Tabular View of Volcanic Phenomena,’ folio, 1828. 2. ‘An Introduction to the Atomic Theory,’ 1831; 2nd edition 1850. 3. ‘Notes of a Tour in North America’ (privately printed), 1838. 4. ‘Lectures on Roman Husbandry,’ 1857. 5. ‘Lectures on Climate,’ 1863. 6. ‘Essay on the Trees and Shrubs of the Ancients,’ 1865. 7. ‘Miscellanies on Scientific and Literary Subjects,’ 2 vols. 1867. Eighty-one scientific papers by him are enumerated in the Royal Society's ‘Catalogue of Scientific Papers,’ vols. ii. and vii. A volume of fugitive poems, connected with natural history and physical science, by Conybeare, Whately, Edward Forbes, Whewell, Sir J. Herschel, Daubeny, and others, collected by Daubeny, was published in 1869.
[Obituary Notice by Professor J. Phillips, in Proc. Royal Society, xvii. pp. lxxiv–lxxx; Gent. Mag. January 1868, p. 108; Devon. Assoc. Trans. vol. ii. 1868.]
DAUBUZ, CHARLES (1673–1717), divine, was born in the province of Guienne in France, in July 1673, being son of Isaïe d'Aubus, protestant pastor at Nérac. On the revocation of the edict of Nantes, the father obtained from Louis XIV a document, still preserved in the family archives, authorising him to leave France with his wife, Julie, and four children. He started for England, but on reaching Calais he died at an inn, and was privately buried in the garden, the innkeeper helping his widow, during the night, to dig the grave. She was afterwards joined at Calais by her husband's brother, who held some ecclesiastical preferment in the north of England, and he succeeded in bringing the widow and her children over to this country, and settling them in Yorkshire. Charles Daubuz was admitted into Merchant Taylors' School, London, on 11 Sept. 1686 (ROBINSON, Register of Merchant Taylors' School, i. 317). He was admitted a sizar of Queens' College, Cambridge, 10 Jan. 1689. He graduated B.A. 13 Jan. 1693, was appointed librarian of his college on 21 March in the same year, and continued in that employment till 10 Aug. 1695. In the following year he succeeded Thomas Balguy in the mastership of the grammar school of Sheffield, and he was the early tutor of his predecessor's son, John Balguy [q. v.] He commenced M.A. at Cambridge in 1697 (Cantabrigienses Graduati, ed. 1787, p. 110). He left Sheffield in 1699, on being presented by the dean and chapter of York to the vicarage of Brotherton, a small village near Ferrybridge in the West Riding of Yorkshire. This vicarage, of the annual value of 60l. or 70l., was all the preferment he ever enjoyed, and in order to support a numerous family he was obliged to undertake the education of the sons of several gentlemen in the neighbourhood. He devoted his leisure to the composition of his bulky commentary on the ‘Apocalypse,’ which was eventually published by his widow. It is stated in a manuscript note by the Rev.
