A 5A HISTORY OF ENTOMOLOGY. 
observed, that the series of his genera is often altogether 
artificial; as where he separates and places far asunder the 
Saprophagous and Thalerophagous Petalocerous beetles. 
Entomology,’ however, in other respects was deeply 
indebted to this great man. He first, as was lately ob- 
served, directed the attention of her votaries to parts 
which enabled them better to follow the chain of affini- 
ties, and to trace out natural groups. In his Philosophia 
Entomologica, drawn up on the plan of Linné’s Philoso- 
phia Botanica, he bequeathed to the science a standard 
work that ought to be studied by every Entomologist. 
His incredible labours in defining new genera and de- 
scribing new species, with which view he travelled into 
various parts of Europe, and seven times into Britain, 
have been of infinite service?, and placed the science 
upon a footing much nearer to that of Botany than it 
had ever before attained. 
6. Era of Latreille, or of the Eclectic System. The 
system of Fabricius, though generally adopted in Ger- 
many and Switzerland, did not meet with a unzversal 
reception. It seems to have gained no permanent foot- 
ing in the North of Europe, Britain, or France. In the 
latter country the Linnean phraseology and characters of 
the Orders were retained by the celebrated Olivier ; while 
at the same time his definitions of genera were construct- 
ed, after the Fabrician model, upon the antennz and the 
oral organs. But a new and brilliant genius had now 
appeared in France, whose indefatigable labours and 
singular talents have thrown more light over entomolo- 
gical science than those of all his predecessors. In 1796 
“Fab. Entomotog. Syst. em. et ayct. i. Pref. iv. 
