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, afterwards 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 1791, 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 'cariete des organs de la louche des 
tiques^ appeared in 1795 in the Magazin Encyclop. 
(vol. iv. p. 15) ; and another, entitled Memoir sur 
lapkalene caliciforme de Veclaire^ in the same volume 
of that work. But it was not till 1 796 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 afterw^ards acquired. This 
was the Precis des Caracteres generiqms des In^ 
