In 1788 he visited Paris, where he formed a friendship with many individuals of similar tastes with himself, of whom the most eminent were Fabricius, 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 becoming 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 afterwards, 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 Encyclopédie Méthodique. An article Sur la variété des organs de la bouche des tiques, appeared in 1795 in the Magazin Encyclop. (vol. iv. p. 15); and another, entitled Mémoir sur la phalène caliciforme de l'eclaire, in the same volume of that work. But it was not till 1790 that his independent 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 foundation of the great fame he afterwards acquired. This was the Precis des Caractères génériques des In-
