DINOSA URS. 89 



while gratefully acknowledging the debt we all owe to the great 

 naturalist — who has gone to his rest since our first edition ap- 

 peared — not attribute to him impossible things. Nor can it be 

 denied that even he sometimes fell into error, or drew con- 

 clusions not borne out by later discoveries. It must also be con- 

 fessed that in some respects he lagged behind in the march of 

 scientific progress. While on this subject we cannot do better 

 than quote some remarks of our friend, Mr. A. Smith Woodward, 

 of the Natural History Museum, in an able review of Sir Richard's 

 work on vertebrates.^ He says, " Owen, in fact, was Cuvier's 

 direct successor, and, apart from his striking hypotheses . . ., it 

 is in this character that he has left the deepest impression upon 

 biological science. Extending and elaborating comparative 

 anatomy as understood by Cuvier, Owen concentrated his efforts 

 on utilising the results for the interpretation of the fossil remains 

 — even isolated bones and teeth — of extinct animals. He never 

 hesitated to deal with the most fragmentary evidence, having 

 complete faith in the principles established by Cuvier ; and it is 

 particularly interesting, in the light of present knowledge, to study 

 the long series of successes and failures that characterise his 

 work. However, unwittingly, Owen may be said to have con- 

 tributed most to the demolition of the narrow Cuvierian views. 

 When dealing with animals closely related to those now living, 

 his correctness of interpretation was usually assured ; when treating 

 of more remote types, he could do little more than guess, unless 

 tolerably complete skeletons happened to be at his disposal. . . . 



"In short, Owen's work on fragmentary fossils has demon- 

 strated that the principles of comparative anatomy are very 

 different from those inferred by Cuvier from his limited field of 

 observation, and the discoveries of Leidy, Marsh, Cope, Scott, 

 and Osborn, in America, have finally led to a new era that Owen 

 only began to foresee clearly in his later days." 



The first specimens of teeth of the Iguanodon were found by 

 ' Natural Science, ii. p. 130. (Feb. 1893.) 



