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,[1] 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 characters 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 carried 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 accompanied with all the details of which it was susceptible." 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
- ↑ Considérations Générales sur l'Ordre Naturel des Animaux composant les Classes des Crustacés, des Arachnides, et des Insectes. Paris 1810, 8vo.
minimi discriminis diligentissima observatio." Intro. ad Hist. Nat., 1775, p. 401.
