Author Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1841. Excerpt:... MEMOIR OF LATREILLE. As the names of Swammerdam, Linnaeus, and Fabricius, have been respectively used to indicate particular epochs in the earlier stages of Entomology, so may that of Latreille be employed to signalize the most flourishing period of the science in more recent times. Almost from the date of his first publication till his death, his superiority in this department of Natural History seems to have been admitted by the general consent of all competent judges; every student was accustomed to look to him as a guide and instructor; and the most skilful, as well as the most inexperienced, have every where united in doing him homage as the "facile princeps entomologorum." It is much to be regretted that no detailed biography of an individual so celebrated for his attainments in the branch of study to which he devoted himself, has yet been laid before the public. M. Audouin, an eminent student in the same department of science, has promised a historical notice B of Latreille for the Annals of the Entomological Society of France, of which he was the honorary president, but we are not aware that this has yet made its appearance. The following sketch will, therefore, be deficient in regard to the less important incidents of his life, which, in such cases, are seldom considered destitute of interest, although they have no immediate connexion with the causes of the individual's celebrity. Latreille lived in most eventful times, and it is not to be supposed but that many occurrences affecting his interests and the tenor of his life befell him besides those with which we have had an opportunity of becoming acquainted, and which might be well worthy of relation. Pierre-Andre Latreille was born on the 29th November 1762, at Brives, a small town on the river...