3o8 



NATURE 



[January 26, 1893 



Dr. E. A. Bond, Dr. P. L. Sclater, Mr. Carruthers, and Mr. 

 W. P. Sladen. There were also present, among others, Sir 

 G. M. Humphry, Mr. Holman Hunt, Mr. Ernest Hart, Dr. 

 Michael (President of the Royal Microscopical Society), Prof. 

 R. Meldola, Mr. O. Salvin, and Prof. T. Wiltshire. 



The Prince of Wales, in opening the proceedings, said, — I 

 have the great privilege conferred upon me of being asked to 

 take the chair to-day, upon this very special occasion. We are 

 assembled together for the purpose of paying a mark and tribute 

 of respect and appreciation to the memory of a great man 

 of science who has lately passed away from us. The name 

 of Sir Richard Owen must always go down to posterity as 

 that of a great man — one who was eminent in the sciences 

 of anatomy, zoology, and palaeontology. Perhaps I may 

 be allowed to say a word of my own personal knowledge 

 of him. It is now thirty-five years since I had the advantage 

 of knowing him. When I lived as a boy at the White Lodge, 

 Richmond Park, now occupied by my illustrious relative on my 

 right (the Duke of Teck), I had opportunities of visiting him 

 and knowing him. His geniality and his charm of manner to 

 all those who knew him have, I am sure, left a deep and lasting 

 impression. Whether he was explaining to you the mysteries 

 of some old fossil bone that had been given him, or whether he 

 was telling one of his vivid ghost stories, one felt that one was 

 under the charm of his presence. His method of teaching, as 

 you all know, was earnest and clear in every respect ; and it 

 even derived a measure of force from a certain hesitation in his 

 manner. His great repute was gained as a zoologist, and in 

 the study, not only of living animals, but of those long extinct, 

 and following the same large range of work as Cuvier, to whom, 

 in the history of science, he may be regarded as a successor. 

 One of the great works and interests of his life was the forma- 

 tion of the Natural History Museum, which is now safely 

 established in South Kensington under the able guidance of our 

 friend Sir William Flower. It may be within your recollection 

 what great difificulties Sir Richard Owen encountered when he 

 was first appointed Superintendent of the Department of Natural 

 History at the British Museum in 1856. He himself saw in 

 getting that appointment that it was quite impossible that these 

 large collections could be adequately seen unless they were 

 removed to some other sphere. In 1862 a Bill was brought in 

 by Mr. Gladstone, who took the greatest interest in the matter, 

 while it was vigorously opposed, strange to say, by no less great 

 a man than Mr. Disraeli. The Bill was lost, though it was 

 eventually, ten years later, carried, and now we have that fine 

 building that we all know and deeply appreciate. I may also 

 mention that he took the greatest interest with regard to the 

 colonies, and in trying to obtain from them specimens that 

 would be worthily represented in the Natural History Museum. 

 In sanitary matters also he was not behindhand, as was shown 

 by his long intimacy with that distinguished man. Sir Edwin 

 Chad wick. There are several resolutions to be proposed, and 

 you will hear far better and more eloquent remarks from the 

 distinguished gentlemen who will move and second them. That 

 is the reason why on this occasion I shall not trouble you with 

 more remarks. Allow me only to repeat the assurance of the 

 deep interest I take in this movement for a suitable memorial to 

 the memory of this great man, and how deeply I appreciate 

 having been asked to take the chair on this interesting and 

 important occasion. 



Lord Kelvin moved : — " That it is desirable that the eminent 

 services of the late Sir Richard Owen in the advancement of 

 the knowledge of the sciences of anatomy, zoology, and palae- 

 ontology should be commemorated by some suitable memorial." 

 He said that, if there was no other reason but the part that Sir 

 R. Owen took in the establishment of the Natural History 

 Museum, and the success that ultimately attended his efforts, he 

 deserved the gratitude of the nation. There was scarcely any 

 branch of the whole of natural history that he had not touched 

 and enriched with the results of his investigations. Three 

 hundred and sixty papers, every one of them valuable, were to 

 be found under his name in the Royal Society catalogue of 

 scientific papers. From these contributions, however, he came 

 back to the Natural History Museum, and he held that every 

 subject of the Queen, in these islands or in the colonies, and 

 every visitor to this country, must feel that he was benefited by 

 the existence of that museum and by the splendid arrangement 

 of its contents. 



Prof. Huxley, in seconding the resolution, said that, if he 

 mistook not, there were very few men living who had had 

 occasion to follow the work of the remarkable man whose career 



they had met to celebrate with more carefulness and attention 

 than he had done. It was a career remarkable for its length, 

 for the rapid rise to eminence, and the long retention of high 

 position of the person who was the subject of it. It was more 

 than forty years ago since he, as a young man, had occasion to 

 look abroad upon the scientific world of London, in which he 

 was then a complete novice, and to see whether, perhaps, in 

 some small and insignificant corner of it room might be found 

 for him. At that time there were four persons whose names 

 stood out amongst the first in the galaxy of scientific men of 

 this country. 'I hey were Sir John Herschel, Mr. Faraday, Sir 

 Charles Lyell, and, last, though by no means least, the famous 

 Hunterian Professor, Owen. If he looked abroad amongst the 

 lights of biological science, with which he was prin- 

 cipally concerned, there were Johannes Miiller in Berlin, 

 Milne Edwards in Paris, Von Baer in St. Petersburg ; 

 but for quantity, general excellence, and variety of work 

 there was no one who could be regarded as the superior 

 of Owen. It was a common impression that Owen was the 

 successor and continuator of Cuvier, and that was largely true. 

 The memoirs on the pearly nautilus, on the marsupials, on the 

 anthropoid apes were fully worthy of the author of the 

 " Memoires sur les MoUusques " or the " Le9ons d' Anatomic 

 Comparee," while the " Ossemen fossies" had a full equivalent 

 in the vast series of papers upon fossil remains, contained in the 

 publications of the Royal, the Geological, and the Palseonto- 

 graphical Societies. But it was also to be remembered that, in 

 another field, Owen was the successor and continuator of the 

 school to which Cuvier was most vehemently opposed — that of 

 St. Hilaire and Oken. The remarkable contributions to mor- 

 phology embodied in the works on the archetype of the verte- 

 brate skeleton and on the nature of limbs were able develop- 

 ments of speculative views of another order than Cuvier's. 

 Readers of Goethe would remember that he thought the 

 news of the controversy between Cuvier and St. Hilaire far 

 more interesting than that of the Revolution of July, which 

 broke out about the same time. Whether that was a just esti- 

 mate of the relative importance of things or not might be left an 

 open question ; but it was the peculiar irony of history to show 

 us in so many quarrels that right and wrong were on both sides. 

 And in this particular controversy it had turned out that the 

 right lay neither with Cuvier nor with St. Hilaire, but partly 

 with both and partly with a third party, which at that time 

 hardly existed. Whatever might be the ultimate verdict of 

 science in this particular matter, there could be no doubt that it 

 was a distinct aid to progress to have one view of the case stated 

 and illustrated with the unrivalled wealth of knowledge which 

 Owen brought to bear upon it. If history confirmed, as he 

 believed it would, the estimate of the broad features of Sir 

 Richard Owen's work, which he had suggested, then it would 

 justify them in endeavouring to preserve the memory of the 

 great results achieved by his stupendous powers of work, his 

 remarkable sagacity in interpretation, and his untiring striving 

 towards the ideal which he entertained: 



The resolution was then put and agreed to unanimously, as were 

 also those which followed. 



The Duke of Teck moved : — "That the memorial shall con- 

 sist primarily of a marble statue which shall be offered to the 

 Trustees of the British Museum to be placed in the hall of the 

 Natural History Museum." His Royal Highness said, — There 

 is no doubt, in my mind at least, that this would be the most 

 appropriate place and the most appropriate form in which to 

 erect the likeness of our admired friend. It is, so to say, his 

 second home, the home of his later labourS; and no better place 

 could be found. Besides, I think it is a very nice idea that 

 every one who enters the hall should see first of all the man to 

 whom we owe this inheritance. Others have said so much about 

 Sir Richard Owen that it is needless for me to go over the ground 

 again. As all of us know so well, what he has been and what 

 he has done will remain in the minds of all who survive him, 

 and, therefore, I will only say that in my opinion the hall, which 

 is a very fine interior, of the Natural History Museum should be 

 the place where the memorial of this great man should be 

 erected. 



Sir William Flower, in seconding the resolution, said that 

 having twice in his life succeeded Sir Richard Owen, he had had 

 special opportunities of judging of his work, and he might, 

 therefore, be expected to say something about the general char- 

 acter and extent of that work on the present occasion, but after 

 what had been said in the introductory remarks of His Royal 

 Highness, and the speech of Prof. Huxley, than whom no one 



NO. 12 13, VOL. 47] 



