SOME NEW BOOKS. 



" The British Cuvier." 



The Life of Richard Owen. By his grandson the Rev. Richard Owen. With 

 the scientific portions revised by C. Davies Sherborn. Also an essay on 

 " Owen's Position in Anatomical Science." By the Right Hon. T. H. Huxley, 

 F.R.S. Portraits and illustrations. 8vo. Pp. 409 and 392. Two vols. 

 London : John Murray, 1894. Price 24s. 

 The Rev. Richard Owen is greatly to be congratulated upon these 

 excellent volumes, which deal fully with the life of his illustrious 

 grandfather. His task was rendered both easier and more difficult by 

 the fact that Owen had a habit of keeping letters. The amount of 

 material therefore permitted of an almost exhaustive analysis of the 

 life of the great anatomist, but an embavras dc richesses must have 

 presented hindrances. Mrs. Owen's careful diary also facilitated the 

 work of her grandson ; this diary is indeed the principal feature of the 

 book ; for everything, serious and frivolous, is jotted down. We find 

 there the jokes of Sidney Smith cheek by jowl with accounts of 

 lectures at the Royal Institution. It carries one back far into the 

 past to read about conversations with Abernethy, Dean Buckland, 

 Cuvier and Oken. Nearly all the heroes of science of this century 

 figure in the interesting pages before us. We begin with Sir Astley 

 Cooper and Sir Everard Home, who signed Owen's certificate from 

 the College of Surgeons, and come down to eminent living persons 

 such as Sir Henry Acland. Owen's acquaintances and friends were 

 many and different ; he by no means restricted himself to those who 

 followed the same paths ; Dickens was one of his chief friends, and got 

 him to contribute to " All the Year Round " a series of papers upon Zoo- 

 logical Gardens, aptly entitled, " The Private Lives of Public Charac- 

 ters." Sidney Smith cut jokes at him, speaking of the bones of the 

 Dinornis as Owen's magnum bonum; while Carlyle wrote him characteris- 

 tic epistles. We have dealt so fully with Owen's position in science in 

 previous numbers of this Journal that it is unnecessary to recapitulate 

 here the admirable accounts given by Dr. St. George Mivart and 

 Mr. Smith Woodward which are duly quoted from in the two volumes 

 before us. We shall endeavour rather to present the reader with 

 samples of the lighter matters in these volumes. Much pleasant 

 gossip has found its way into the Rev. Richard Owen's biography ; 

 and we confess to being interested in anecdotes of great men, even 

 those that are not germane to their life work. The following is a 

 characteristic specimen of Mrs. Owen's diary : — 



" March 14. — R. at the day meeting of the Royal Society. 

 Enlivened the evening when he returned by reading Chadwick's 

 ' Report on Burials.' 



" April 4. — Miss Edgeworth came to take leave before going 

 back to Ireland. R. was making ready to go in to lecture when she 

 came in, but had time to stop and have a talk with her. She admired 

 greatly the professorial gown with its red silk. 



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