LATHAM, JOHN, M.D., one of the most zealous and successful of English ornithologists, was born June 27, 1737, at Eltham, in Kent, where his father was a respectable general medical practitioner. He received his elementary education in the Merchant Tailors' School in London, whence he was removed, at the age of fifteen, to commence his medical studies under Dr William Hunter, and the other teachers in the London schools, and in the hospitals of the capital. At the age of twenty-six he was established at Dartford, to follow his father's profession; but he had early devoted his leisure hours to the study of natural history, and especially to ornithology; for, in 1771, he was a valued correspondent of Pennant, and assisted Sir Ashton Lever in the arrangement of his noble museum.
In 1781 appeared the first volume of Latham's most valuable Synopsis of Birds, which continued to be published in successive parts to 1785. In his title-pages, this work is stated to be in three volumes; but the second and third volumes are each divided into two parts, so that the Synopsis makes really six quarto volumes, to which two supplemental volumes appeared in 1787. In this work he adopts the two great divisions of his countryman Ray, into land and water birds, as more natural than the six orders of Linnæus, who has introduced the water birds between the pies and the waders, and before the gallinaceæ and the passeres. Latham, however, has retained the Linnæan genera, with a few exceptions; for which deviations he assigns sufficient reasons. The descriptions of individual birds in this work have never been exceeded in clearness and fidelity; and although the modern ornithologist may consider the Linnæan arrangement and generic distinctions now rather antiquated, the work of Latham has no rival in the English language for accuracy of detail, or the ease with which the young ornithologist can name, and refer to its place in the system, any bird he examines. The figures given in this work are all etched by the author's own hand, from specimens in his possession, prepared and stuffed by himself, and are excellent representations of the birds. Gmelin's edition of the Systema Naturæ appeared in 1788; and any one who consults it will find how largely the labours of Latham have contributed to the Linnæan ornithology.
In 1791 Latham published his capital Index Ornithologicus, an admirable book of reference, in which many new species are introduced, and prove how sedulously the author cultivated this branch of natural history.
He had become a member of the Royal Society in 1775, corresponding member of the London Medical Society in 1778, and was one of the founders of the Linnæan Society. His fame as an ornithologist was firmly established, and honours flowed in on him; he received the honorary degree of M.D. from the University of Erlangen, and was elected a corresponding member of the Natural History Society of Berlin, and of the Royal Society of Stockholm.
In 1796 Dr Latham retired from medical practice, and took up his abode at Romsey, in Hampshire. There he lived for some years, still cultivating his favourite study, when a severe reverse of fortune overtook him, and he retired to the house of his son-in-law, Mr N. Wickham, at Winchester, in 1819. There he began to prepare for publication his great work, entitled General History of Birds; and even in his old age, retouched the plates that had suffered from the many impressions thrown off. The first volume of this work appeared in 1821, and was followed by the sequel, until it reached ten quarto volumes, all equally clear and accurate with his former works. It is perhaps, however, to be regretted that he still followed the Linnæan system, instead of adopting one more adapted to modern discoveries, as that of Temminck, or of Cuvier.
Besides these valuable works on natural history, Dr Laticlave Latham published only a few medical tracts and some contributions to societies of which he was a member.
After a short illness, he died on 4th February 1837, in the ninety-seventh year of his age, and was buried in the abbey church of Romsey. (T. S. T.)