LATREILLE, PIERRE ANDRÉ (1762-1833), French naturalist, was born in humble circumstances at Brives-la-Gaillarde (Corrèze), on the 20th of November 1762. In 1778 he entered the collège Lemoine at Paris, and on his admission to priestly orders in 1786 he retired to Brives, where he devoted all the leisure which the discharge of his professional duties allowed to the study of entomology. In 1788 he returned to Paris and found means of making himself known to the leading naturalists there. His “Mémoire sur les mutilles découvertes en France,” contributed to the Proceedings of the Society of Natural History in Paris, procured for him admission to that body. At the Revolution he was compelled to quit Paris, and as a priest of conservative sympathies suffered considerable hardship, being imprisoned for some time at Bordeaux. His Précis des caractères génériques des insectes, disposés dans un ordre naturel, appeared at Brives in 1796. In 1798 he became a corresponding member of the Institute, and at the same time was entrusted with the task of arranging the entomological collection at the recently organized Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle (Jardin des Plantes); in 1814 he succeeded G. A. Olivier as member of the Académie des Sciences, and in 1821 he was made a chevalier of the Legion of Honour. For some time he acted as professor of zoology in the veterinary school at Alfort near Paris, and in 1830, when the chair of zoology of invertebrates at the Muséum was divided after the death of Lamarck, Latreille was appointed professor of zoology of crustaceans, arachnids and insects, the chair of molluscs, worms and zoophytes being assigned to H. M. D. de Blainville. “On me donne du pain quand je n’ai plus de dents,” said Latreille, who was then in his sixty-eighth year. He died in Paris on the 6th of February 1833.
In addition to the works already mentioned, the numerous works of Latreille include: Histoire naturelle générale et particulière des crustacés et insectes (14 vols., 1802-1805), forming part of C. N. S. Sonnini’s edition of Buffon; Genera crustaceorum et insectorum, secundum ordinem naturalem in familias disposita (4 vols., 1806-1807); Considérations générales sur l’ordre naturel des animaux composant les classes des crustacés, des arachnides, et des insectes (1810); Familles naturelles du règne animal, exposées succinctement et dans un ordre analytique (1825); Cours d’entomologie (of which only the first volume appeared, 1831); the whole of the section “Crustacés, Arachnides, Insectes,” in G. Cuvier’s Règne animal; besides many papers in the Annales du Muséum, the Encyclopédie méthodique, the Dictionnaire classique d’histoire naturelle and elsewhere.
LA TRÉMOILLE, an old French family which derives its name from a village (the modern La Trimouille) in the department of Vienne. The family has been known since the middle of the 11th century, and since the 14th century its members have been conspicuous in French history. Guy, sire de la Trémoille, standard-bearer of France, was taken prisoner at the battle of Nicopolis (1396), and Georges, the favourite of King Charles VII., was captured at Agincourt (1415). Louis (2), called the chevalier sans reproche, defeated and captured the duke of Orleans at the battle of Saint Aubin-du-Cormier (1488), distinguished himself in the wars in Italy, and was killed at Pavia (1525). In 1521 François (2) acquired a claim on the kingdom of Naples by his marriage with Anne de Laval, daughter of Charlotte of Aragon. Louis (3) became duke of Thouars in 1563, and his son Claude turned Protestant, was created a peer of France in 1595, and married a daughter of William the Silent in 1598. To this family belonged the lines of the counts of Joigny, the marquises of Royan and counts of Olonne, and the marquises and dukes of Noirmoutier.
LATROBE, CHARLES JOSEPH (1801-1875), Australian governor, was born in London on the 20th of March 1801. The Latrobes were of Huguenot extraction, and belonged to the Moravian community, of which the father and grandfather of C. J. Latrobe were ministers. His father, Christian Ignatius Latrobe (1758-1836), a musician of some note, did good service in the direction of popularizing classical music in England by his Selection of Sacred Music from the Works of the most Eminent Composers of Germany and Italy (6 vols., 1806-1825). C. J. Latrobe was an excellent mountaineer, and made some important ascents in Switzerland in 1824-1826. In 1832 he went to America with Count Albert Pourtales, and in 1834 crossed the prairies from New Orleans to Mexico with Washington Irving. In 1837 he was invested with a government commission in the West Indies, and two years later was made superintendent of the Port Philip district of New South Wales. When Port Philip was erected into a separate colony as Victoria in 1851, Latrobe became lieutenant-governor. The discovery of gold in that year attracted enormous numbers of immigrants annually. Latrobe discharged the difficult duties of government at this critical period with tact and success. He retired in 1854, became C.B. in 1858 and died in London on the 2nd of December 1875. Beside some volumes of travel he published a volume of poems, The Solace of Song (1837).
See Brief Notices of the Latrobe Family (1864), a privately printed translation of an article revised by members of the family in the Moravian Brüderbote (November 1864).