76 BIOGRAPHIES OF SCIENTIFIC MEN 



school of St Bartholomew's Hospital. During these 

 days he was prosector to Abernethy, and in 1826 he 

 obtained the Diploma of the Royal College of Surgeons. 

 Having completed his medical studies, he began to practise 

 as a medical man at 11 Cook's Court, Lincoln's Inn 

 Fields ; but from the beginning of his career he was much 

 more interested in scientific pursuits than in strictly pro- 

 fessional duties. In 1828, at the age of twenty-four, and 

 knowing his great skill as a dissector, Owen was, at the 

 suggestion of Abernethy, invited to act as assistant curator 

 of the Hunterian collection in the Museum of the Royal 

 College of Surgeons, of which Mr William Clift was 

 curator ; and in the same year he was appointed lecturer 

 on comparative anatomy at St Bartholomew's Hospital. 

 His duties at the Royal College were to catalogue the 

 great collection of Hunter, whose manuscript had been 

 lost. The collection meant the examination and descrip- 

 tion of no less than 3970 specimens. He was equal in 

 every respect to this great task, as his subsequent genius 

 proved. 



In 1830 Cuvier visited England, and Owen made 

 his personal acquaintance, and the following year visited 

 Paris. Cuvier at this time was busy on his great work on 

 fishes, which made a great impression on Owen, so much 

 so that he attributed his subsequent work on palaeontology 

 to "the debt which he owed to Cuvier." 



On 1st August 1831, during his visit to Paris, he went 



