Profession: comparative anatomist

Though less renowned than Buffon (a childhood friend and professional colleague, who got him in because of his own distaste for anatomy and dissection), Daubenton was a significant naturalist and a pioneer of comparative anatomy. He contributed to Diderot’s encyclopaedia, wrote a preface for Lamarck, taught and inspired Haüy, and knew Banks. He recommended Geoffroy — who had attended his lectures and was also supported by another of Daubenton’s protégés, Vicq d’Azyr — to an important first job. After a decade working together, Buffon excised his contribution to the ‘Histoire Naturelle’ (to its detriment), though they later made up.

Grant was a close friend and correspondent of Geoffroy, whom he’d met in France. Darwin met Grant while he was studying medicine in Edinburgh, becoming an enthusiastic student of the free-thinking biologist/anatomist. Grant took him to a talk by Audubon, whose wife had known Darwin’s grandfather Erasmus, but there is no record of a direct personal connection. Darwin’s close friendship with Grant ended when Grant felt that his student’s discoveries threatened his own. It seems likely that Grant as a student in Paris met Lamarck, whose ideas he keenly espoused, but it is unclear. Faraday advised Grant on public speaking.