The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1886-06-25
STORY OF A BEETLE.

How 1t Secured Freedom and Life to an
Eminent French scientist.
One day, nesrly hundred years ago,
in the old French seaport town of Bor-
deaux, there was a little stir in a GER
tain dark corner, and beetle walked
out to take its first look at the world.
1t was not a specially handsome or re-
markable beetle in appearance, and
yet it had quite a work to do. Not the
ordinary work of such insects, howev-
er; though that is an important one,
the beetles of this family being scav-
engers, but the principal life-work of
this beetle was to save man from
death. Perhaps when King David in
his Psalm called upon all creeping
things ito praise the Lord from the
earth, he may not have thought espe-
cially of beetles, yet this little insect
was to be the cause of much thanksgiv-
ing.
The house under which this beetle
had its home was a prison, known as
the Grande Seminaire, and in one of
the cells of the prison was the man that
was to be rescued by the beetle His
name was Pierre Latreille. Little
had he dreamed, as the cart that
bore him and his companions to
prison creaked along the road TO Bor-
deaux, that he should ever live to be
free again in his native land. For
those were evil days in France. Even
the good-natured, honest King himself,
poor Louis XVI, was powerless to
shield his wife and children from the
fury of the French people. The royal
family were already in danger, and the
iniquities of the two previous Louis
were being visited on their compare
lively innocent descendants. All of
the nobility and clergy who refused to
take their oath on the new constitution
were thrown into prison, and it was
for this reason that Pierre Latreille and
his companions had been imprisoned
at Bordeaux.
1t is small wonder that Pierre was
sad as he. sat in his prison cell with no
one to keep him company but an old
sick Bishop. No doubt Latreille often
thought, during the dreary prison days,
of his past life, his young boyhood in
his native town of Brive. in the rich
plain by the river Correze. His family
had been poor, though distinguished,
and Pierre himself owed his education
to the kindness of friends. One of
these, a merchant, lent him some
books on natural history, and it was
from reading these that Pierre first
came to love the study of insects.
When he was sixteen he was sent to
Paris, and there studied theology, but
upon his return to his native town he
began the study of insects again with
great zeal. He had even published
some of his discoveries about insects,
and now, to all appearance, this study
must come to an end.
Out in the barber of Bordeaux ships
were making ready to take the prison
ers away from France. They were
condemned to exile in South America
Still the prisons were emptied slowly,
and although it was June when La
treble was first taken to Bordeaux, yet
the days and months crept by and still
he lived within the Grande Seminaire.
The little beetle lived there, too, al
though the prisoners did not know it.
One day a surgeon came to see the
old Bishop in Latreille's cell The
prison authorities had allowed the sur
geon to come daily and dress the
wounds of this aged man. This par
ticular day, while the surgeon was in
the cell, the little beetle came out of a
crack in the boards and crawlcd into
the room. LatreiIle, looking around,
spied the beetle, caught it and began
to examine it. He seemed so happy
over his discovery thai the surgeon
looked up and said: 'Is it rare in
sect?"
Eyes" said Latreille, who knew,
from his previous studies, that it must
be so.
ain that case you should give it to
me, said the surgeon; and he went on
to explain to Latreille that ne had a
friend who had a fine collection of in
sects, and whowould probably be much
pleased to receive a rare one. ,.s
{ So Latreille gave up his beetle to the
surgeon, and told him to carry it to his
friend, and to be sure and ask him the
name OF it.
But when, the next day, the surgeon
made his visit to the cell, he brought
the news that his friend had looked at
the beetle, and had given it as his
opinion that this was new kind of in
sect that had never been described.
Latreille rejoiced at this answer, notso
much because of the discovery of new
beetle. as because the word brought
back showed that the surgeons friend
was indeed learned man.
''ln that case" thought Latreille to
himself, she has probably read my
book, and will be friendly toward me. "
So, as Latreille had neither pen nor
paper to write note, he begged the
surgeon to go once more to his friend,
whose name was Bory de Saint Vincent,
and tell him who the prisoner who had
sent the beetle was, and say that this
prisoner was about to be sent to Guiana
to die there as convict.
The surgeon faithfully delivered the
message, and as soon as his friend heard
it he Immediately set about trying to
have Latreille released, for he recog-
nized his name rs one of the scientific
names of France.
Meantime the prison-ship was max
ing ready in the harbor. The prison
ers went on board, but Lstreille was
not among them, for vigorous efforts
were being made in his behalf. The
ship at last set sail, but it was never to
reach the South American coast The
vessel foundered before it was out of
the Bay of Biscay, and every prisoner
on board was drowned. No wonder
that Latreille afterwards, in one of his
great chronological works, when de-
scribing the kind of beetle that he found
in his cell, and speaking of it under its
scientific name of NecrobiG rufcolIis,
calls it San insect very dear to me, for
in those disastrous times, when France
groaned TREMENDOUSLY under the weight
of endless calamities, this little animal
was the miraculous cause of my liberty
and safety"
After this proVidential escape, Lat
relies friends were so far successful
that he vas perm tied to come out of