236 Annual Report of tJie Council. 



Owen's hands for dissection, and led to the publication of a 

 memoir, the reputation of which associated itself with 

 the name of Owen to the end of his life. The next 

 event that influenced Owen's further career was his 

 introduction to George Cuvier, followed soon afterwards 

 by a visit to Paris. At that time the French Naturalists 

 were in advance of our countrymen in their researches 

 amongst the extinct vertebrate animals. Cuvier had pub- 

 lished the first part of his celebrated " Recherches sur les 

 Ossemens Fossiles des Quadrupedes " as early as 1812. This 

 was succeeded by other parts, the concluding one appearing 

 in 1824. The treasures obtained from the Gypseous 

 quarries of Montmartre,thus, for the first time, made English 

 geologists acquainted with the fact that such extinct forms 

 as the PalcBotherium and Anoplotheriuvi had existed so 

 recently as the period in which the superficial deposits, now 

 known as the Tertiary strata, had been accumulated. To 

 understand the significance of this in its relation to English 

 naturalists we must remember that Buckland's Reliquiie 

 DiluviancB only appeared in 1826, the discovery of the 

 Kirkdale cave having been made but a short time previously. 

 Under these circumstances we can well understand the 

 impressions which contact with such rich stores of extinct 

 vertebrates would produce upon the receptive mind of 

 our young anatomist. There can be no doubt that this 

 visit stimulated some of the most important of Owen's 

 researches in future years. In December, 1834, Owen 

 being then but 30 years of age, he was elected a fellow 

 of the Royal Society. He was appointed lecturer on 

 Comparative Anatomy at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, 

 and about the same time he married. This last event 

 grew out of those temporary labours at the College 

 of Surgeons which were destined so materially to 

 influence his future life. At the time in question, he was 

 necessarily thrown much into association with the family of 



