24 
MEMOm OP LATREILLE. 
now become general among naturalists, that this 
was the only way in which the study of natural 
objects could he prosecuted with advantage. “ The 
road, it is true," says Latreille himself, * speaking 
in reference to the natural arrangement of insects, 
“ had already been traced by great masters, and the 
series of principal groups had been tolerably well 
established; but they had neglected the study of 
those relations of affinity by which these groups 
are connected ; they had never compared the cha- 
racters of the one with those of the other. Struck 
with this deficiency, I conceived the idea of uniting 
the genera into families, a project which I first car- 
ried into effect in my ‘ Precis des Caracteres,’ &c. 
That was only a mere sketch, and I again took up 
the subject in a more extensive sense, and accom- 
panied with all the details of which it was suscep- 
tible.” But the conception which our author had 
formed, even at the early period of which we speak, 
was a very accurate one ; and although in several 
respects it was afterwards modified, some parts of it 
required nothing more than to be fully developed 
and applied. A pretty close resemblance can be 
traced to the Linnean system ; and the Crustacea, 
Arachnides, and Myriapodes are included, as in the 
latter, among insects. The most important change 
minimi discriminis diligent iss' nm observation’ Intro, ad Hist. 
Nat., 1775, p. 401. 
* Considerations Gdmfrales sur l'Ordre Naturel des Animaux 
composant les Classes des Crustaces, des Arachnides, et des 
lnsectes. Paris 1810, 8vo. 
