who share in our grief, or who can at least understand it.
"On the occasion of the bust of M. Latreille being presented to you, I again congratulate myself on the honour of having been elected to preside at your meetings for the ensuing year, since I am thereby called upon to express, in your name, the satisfaction we all enjoy in contemplating the likeness of that individual whose works gave such an impulse to the science you cultivate. For the same reason I likewise become the medium of expressing your gratitude to the gentleman whose affectionate regard has enriched the place of your meeting with so precious an ornament.
"The sight of it reminds me of the well merited eulogium the individual it represents received from his associates in the Academy of Sciences, as well as from many of yourselves, and intimates to me in particular to be cautious how I add my own, which can neither possess the same authority nor be expressed with the same eloquence.
"But it may be affirmed that the highest panegyrics on M. Latreille, the most beautiful flowers that can surround his bust, or can be placed on his tomb, are those which it is in your power, gentlemen, to offer. It is your labours in the branch of human knowledge to which he owed his celebrity; it is your successful efforts daily to extend its boundaries, which confer more honour on the name and memory of this illustrious man than can be done by the best expressed eulogies.
