MEMOIR OF LATREILLE. 21 



In 1788 he visited Paris, where he formed a 

 friendship with many individuals of similar tastes 

 with himself, of whom the most eminent were Fa- 

 bricius, Olivier, and Bosc, afterw r ards his associates 

 in the Academy of Sciences. The presentation of a 

 few rare flowers to M. Lamarck was the means of 

 introducing him to that eminent naturalist, and the 

 warmest friendship ever after subsisted between 

 them ; so much so, indeed, that Latreille was in 

 the habit of calling Lamarck his adopted father. 

 The entomological memoir above mentioned, and 

 his devotion to the science, which was now becom- 

 ing known, procured him the honour, in 1>91, of 

 being elected a corresponding member of the Society 

 of Natural History of Paris, and a short time after- 

 wards, a similar mark of approbation was conferred 

 on him by the Linnean Society of London. 



About this time he was employed in drawing up 

 various articles on entomology for that voluminous 

 and valuable work, the Encyclopedie Methodique. 

 An article Sur la variete des organs de la boucke des 

 tiques, appeared in 1795 in the Magazin Encyclop. 

 (vol. iv. p. 15); and another, entitled Memoir sur 

 laphalene caliciforme de I'eclaire, in the same volume 

 of that work. But it was not till 1 790 that his inde- 

 pendent career of authorship can be said fairly to 

 have commenced, by the publication of a work which 

 formed the basis, if we may so speak, of his future 

 operations, and at the same time laid the founda- 

 tion of the great fame he afterwards acquired. This 

 was the Precis des Caracteres generiques des In- 



