SKETCH OF PROFESSOR RICHARD OWEN, F.R.S. 113 



Geographical Distribution of Mammals,' 1859 ; a ' Manual of Pale- 

 ontology.' The long list of papers published in the ' proceedings ' of 

 learned societies, to be found in the Royal Society's invaluable cata- 

 logue (numbering over three hundred and sixty), includes many the 

 scientific value of most of which would have given an abiding fame 

 to their author." 



Professor Owen was a member of the commission to inquire into 

 the health of towns, in 1843 and 1846 ; was one of the commissioners 

 on the health of the metropolis, in 1846 and 1848 ; and was a mem- 

 ber of the commission on the meat-supply in 1849. In 1848 he pub- 

 lished a special report on the sanitary condition of his native town 

 of Lancaster, which was followed by the introduction of an improved 

 sewerage and a new water-supply. He was one of the commissioners 

 for the Great Exhibition of 1851, and was chairman of two of the ju- 

 ries in the Great Exhibition of Paris in 1855. 



In the way of honors, Professor Owen received the Royal Medal 

 from the Royal Society in 1842, and the Copley Medal in 1846 ; the 

 " Ordre pour le Merite," from the King of Portugal, in 1851, and the 

 Cross of the Legion of Honor from Napoleon III in 1855 ; degrees 

 from the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Dublin ; and an 

 honorary Fellowship in the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland. In 

 1858 he was elected one of the eight foreign associates of the Insti- 

 tute of France, in place of the botanist, Robert Brown. Prussia gave 

 him its order of merit, and Italy its order of St. Maurice and St. La- 

 zare ; the Emperor of Brazil, the Imperial Order of the Rose ; the 

 Queen of England, the order of the Bath. He was President of the 

 British Association in 1857, and his name is on the lists of honorary or 

 corresponding members of most of the learned societies of Europe and 

 America. In 1874 he gave new evidence of the extent and com- 

 prehensiveness of his researches by presenting to the Anthropolog- 

 ical Institute an interesting paper on the races of ancient Egypt, as 

 depicted in the sculptures. Continuing his studies in this direction, 

 as well as in the whole field of anthropology, he made before the In- 

 ternational Congress of Orientalists in the same year, as president 

 of its ethnological section, the most remarkable address of the meet- 

 ing, in which he recommended adherence to the scientific method in 

 the study of ethnology, and particularly of ancient Egyptian and 

 Oriental history. 



In 1880 " Nature " reported Professor Owen as still active in labor 

 at an age when most men have to cease from their work ; and added 

 that no better proof could be given of a spirit still young, than to wit- 

 ness the energy with which he had entered upon the occupation of the 

 new home for natural history at South Kensington. Still, in the pres- 

 ent year, by the latest accounts received from him, though he is 

 seventy-nine years old, he was in good health, and publishing important 

 papers. 



TOL. XXIII. 8 



