38 Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society Vol. IX 



giving a couple of types to Dr. Horn in 1890. La Ferte had atone 

 time possession of the Elateridse, and Spinola the StaphyHnidse. 

 The fate of the Rhynchophora cannot be learned from the avail- 

 able records. The water beetles, including all American types, be- 

 long to M. Oberthiir. 



His collection dispersed, this poor soldier and statesman found 

 time heavy on his hands. He had his name proposed for mem- 

 bership in the Entomological Society, something which he had 

 refused for five years. He attended meetings and published a 

 few unimportant papers in the annals. The first coleopterist of 

 the world was nothing without his collection. He watched the 

 world progress beyond his reach and died in 1845. 



Another gentleman has left his mark on the page of history, 

 who can only be considered by himself, rather than a member of 

 a body of science. The work of Ambroise M. F. J. Palisot de 

 Beauvois seems to have been done largely aloof from the other 

 coleopterists of the time. It covers his own collection, acquired 

 from 1781 to 1797 from Africa, San Domingo and other West 

 Indies, and the United States. Publication of the folio describ- 

 ing it was begun in 1805. His death in 1820 left it incomplete, 

 and it was finished in the following year by Audinet-Serville. 

 This elaborate work had only 267 pages of text but had 90 

 colored plates done with as much skill as the mechanical ability 

 of the day afforded. His American species still in the check-list 

 are thirty-one. 



The Museum of Paris, which missed the chance of becoming 

 the first in the world in importance by acquiring the Dejean col- 

 lection, was nevertheless second only to that of Berlin. Its earlier 

 collections of insects were disgracefully neglected. M. Lamarck, 

 an eminent scientist, was for many years the Director, but he 

 was no Entomologist. Tens of thousands of insects remained 

 for years in their original alcohol bottles. It had the whole col- 

 lection of Dubosc, with the original labels of Fabricius. It had 

 all the insects of Olivier from Persia and nearby Eastern Asia. 

 When Lamarck died in 1830, Latreille was his successor. He, in 

 turn, suffered under two great handicaps. " Facile Princeps " 

 was the title given to him by acclaim on all sides, but old age was 

 upon him, and, moreover, his was that retiring disposition which 



