ROOM III. DISCOVERT OF THE IGUANODON. 229 



I had previously taken this tooth, and some other speci- 

 mens, to a meeting of the Geological Society in London, and 

 showed them to Dr. Buckland, Mr. Conybeare, Mr. Clift, and 

 other eminent men who were present, but without any satisfac- 

 tory result ; in fact I was discouraged by the remark, that the 

 teeth were of no particular interest, as there could be little 

 doubt they belonged either to some large fish allied to the 

 Anarhicas lupus, or wolf-fish, the crowns of whose incisors are 

 of a prismatic form, or were mammalian teeth obtained from 

 a diluvial deposit. Dr. Wollaston alone supported my opinion 

 that I had discovered the teeth of an unknown herbivorous 

 reptile, and encouraged me to continue my researches. 1 



jet qu'il a de donner bientot au public une description detaillee et des 

 figures de ces tresors geologiques. 



" La premiere place pour la singularity y appartiendra, sans doute, a 

 des dents (PL XXL fig. 28, 32), dont il a Men voulu me communiquer 

 quelques-unes, et dont je ne puis m'empe'cher de dire ici quelques mots, 

 d'autant que si elles peuvent venir d'un poisson, comme on le soupconne, 

 il n'est pas impossible qu'elles provienneut aussi d'un saurien ; mais d'un 

 saurien encore plus extraordinaire que tous ceux dont nous avons con- 

 naissance. 



" Ce qui leur donne un caractere unique, c'est d'user leur pointe et leur 

 fust transversalement, comme les quadrupedes herbivores, et tellement, 

 que la premiere qui me fut presentee s'etant trouvee dans cet e"tat de 

 detrition, je ne doutai nullement qu'elle ne vint d'un mammifere ; il me 

 sembloit me'me quelle ressembloit beaucoup & une mdcheliere de rhino- 

 ceros, ce qui vu son gisement, auroit derange toutes mes idees sur les rap- 

 ports des os avec les conches, au moins, autant qu'auroit pu le faire le petit 

 carnassier de Stonesfield : ce n'est que depuis que M. Afantell mi! en a. 

 envoyS une serie d'entieres et de plus ou moins usees, que je me suis 

 entierement convaincu de mon erreur." JRechercJies sur les Ossemens 

 Fossiles, tome v. pp. 350, 351. 



1 " The genuine worker and searcher after truth may conceive the 

 feelings with which I find myself misrepresented," * and my labours and 

 discoveries disparaged in the Palseontographical Society's publication, 

 and will, therefore, not impute to egotism the insertion of extracts cor- 

 roborative of the accuracy of my narrative, though the passages cited 

 may be too eulogistic. " And here I may notice, when speaking of the 

 Iguanodon, that there is a peculiar appropriateness in your awarding 

 the Wollaston Medal to the discoverer of that genus, since I well remem- 

 ber the evening at the Geological Society, when Dr. Wollaston, having 

 seen the first teeth exhibited by my friend in London, warmly encou- 

 raged him to pursue his researches, and that, too, when Mr. Man tell 

 thought others were less struck and less interested than the subject 

 deserved." Anniversary Speech of the President (Ma. LYELL) of the 

 Geological Society, Feb. 20, 1835. See APPENDIX E. 



* Quoted from Prof. Owen's "Monograph on Cretaceous Reptiles." 

 See the same " Monograph," for a practical illustration of these remarks. 



