APPENDIX. 49 



opossum's tooth, (No. 1), which Prof. Owen now republishes 

 as the tooth of a monkey, and of which he thus speaks : 



No. 28. 



" This tooth was one of the mammiferous remains from the Lon- 

 don-clay formation at Kyson, which was submitted to my examina- 

 tion by Mr. Lyell, and the one which, after a cursory comparison, I 

 observed to present a considerable resemblance with the molar of an 

 opossum. / should not, however, have presumed to have published 

 a statement of its affinity to, much less its identity ivith the genus 

 Didelphis, without testing the fossil by a more extended and rigour- 

 ous comparison." 



On the 14th of November (letter 38), Prof. Owen states 

 that he could not have communicated to me before he left 

 London for Birmingham, an intention to re-compare the sup- 

 posed opossum's tooth with the teeth of the monkeys, because 

 his first comparison made him feel confident that the tooth in 

 question was that of a Didelphis, and as such he allowed 

 Mr. Lyell to publish it before the members of the British 

 Association ; yet, only fourteen days previously to his writing 

 this letter. Prof Owen had declared in print, that his first 

 examination of this same tooth was so cursory, that he would 

 not have felt justified in publishing its aflinitiesto, and much 

 less its identity with the genus Didelphis. The argument, 

 therefore, with which Prof Owen opposes my statement, is 

 completely falsified by his own words. 



How Prof Owen, when at the Birmingham Meeting, could 

 authorize Mr. Lyell to publish that which, by his own volun- 

 tary admission, he (Prof. Owen) would not have " presumed" 

 to have published himself, is a matter for him, and not for 

 me to explain. 



Mr. Lyell who had so committed himself in this matter as 

 probably to feel that he must, if necessary, go any lengths in 

 making out some case against me, comes forward with a state- 

 ment, which for the boldness displayed in its concoction,- 

 could not well be exceeded. In the letter, No. 35, dated 

 Nov. 1st, he deposes as follows : — 



No. 29. 



" Mr. Lyell had conversed at Birmingham with Prof. Owen, on the 

 subject of the opossum's tooth, both before reading his paper to the 

 British Association and afterwards, and then again in September, at 

 the College of Surgeons in London. It was not until three weeks ago 

 that Prof. Owen first called on Mr. Lyell to say that he began to en- 

 tertain doubts, and to invite Mr. Lyell to accompany him to the Col- 

 lege of Surgeons, where, after a careful comparison, it was decided 

 that the tooth was not marsupial, but the molar of a Macacus." 



