18T 
Natural History.-^Zoohgy. 
a series of years in habits of intimate correspondence with all the 
chief naturalists of Europe. He has made a most useful study 
of the great collections in Germany, and has been particularly 
careful in ascertaining correctly the synonyms of the species. 
His travels in that country, through the Austrian states, in Rus- 
sia, Spain, Portugal, France, &c. have enriched his cabinet with 
a prodigious number of insects, of which many are inedited. He 
possesses nearly 7000 Coleoptera, a number superior to the 
whole species of that order as described by Fabricius. Ail the 
collections in Paris, and particularly that in the Garden of Plants, 
which contains the insects collected by Olivier in the Morea, the 
Archipelago, and the Levant, have been laid open to him. M. 
Latreille, who himself possesses a vast number of rare insects of 
the south of Europe, will direct the work ; he will mark out the 
great divisions, verify all the new genera, and afford every assis- 
tance to M. Dejean in the specific parts, with which the latter is 
more particularly engaged. Under such an arrangement success 
is certain. It is not commenced, like too many works, with 
feeble supports, in the hope of obtaining, through lapse of time, 
more effectual aids, and of satisfying the public with numerous 
supplements. All the materials are collected, and put in order. 
By means of future researches, these may no doubt be encreased ; 
but in comparison with the great mass of objects now in hand, 
such acquisitions will always be inconsiderable, and will never 
effect any essential change on the methodical distribution adopt- 
ed by M. Latreille. — When vve consider that the number of Co- 
leopterous insects described by Linnaeus, scarcely amount to one 
thousand species, and that we are now acquainted with nearly 
ten times that number, we shall be forced to admit, that the ge- 
nera established by that great naturalist ought now to be form- 
ed into families, and that it is impossible, without retarding the 
progress of the science, to adhere to the simplicity of the old 
method. A brief summary of the most cuiious and best authen- 
ticated particulars will be prefixed to the exposition of each fa- 
mily. The groups will be arranged as much as possible accord- 
ing to their natural affinities, and distinguished, as well as the 
species, by apposite characters, ^founded on the comparative exa- 
mination of the most apparent organs. To the specific name 
will succeed the synonyms, taken from the works of Linnaeus, 
