370 RICHARD OWEN xxn 



animals. The rich treasures of the palseontological depart- 

 ment were explored, named, and described, as were also the 

 valuable additions which poured in from various parts of the 

 world, attracted in many cases by Owen's great reputation. 

 The long series of papers on the gigantic extinct Birds of New 

 Zealand, begun in the year 1839, at the College of Surgeons, 

 with the receipt of the fragment of a femur, upon which the 

 first evidence of their existence was based, was now continued 

 at intervals as fresh materials arrived. 1 The Marsupials of 

 Australia, the Edentates of South America, the Triassic Eeptiles 

 from South Africa, the Archceopteryx from Solenhofen, the 

 Mesozoic Mammals from the Purbeck, the Aborigines of the 

 Andaman Islands, the Cave remains, human and otherwise, of 

 the South of France, the Cetacea of the Suffolk crag, the 

 gorilla and other Anthropoid apes, the dodo, great auk, and 

 Chiromys, and many other remarkable forms of animal life, 

 were all subjects of elaborate memoirs from his untiring pen. 



1 Much misconception as to the real nature of such researches exists in the 

 popular mind, and is perpetually reproduced in quasi-scientific literature. It is 

 commonly said that ' ' Owen evolved a complete extinct creature from the frag- 

 ment of a single bone." The " restoration " of Dinornis especially is quoted as 

 a triumph of inductive reasoning, whereas it was simply the empirical applica- 

 tion of existing knowledge. Direct comparison of the fragment with the bones 

 already in the Museum having shown that it most closely resembled the femur 

 of the existing ostrich, but was of larger size, all that was really " predicted " or 

 "evolved" was that a bird having a thigh bone like that of an ostrich, but 

 of larger size, had existed in New Zealand. Another well-known but more 

 daring instance of inference as to the general characters and habits of an 

 extinct animal from a very slender foundation was less fortunate. A mutilated 

 skull from Australia, with a tooth of very remarkable form, was described in 1859, 

 as indicating "one of the fellest and most destructive of predatory beasts," and 

 named accordingly Thylacoleo carnifex. Upon the same empirical principle as 

 in the former case, the tooth had been compared with various teeth of known 

 animals, and appeared to resemble one which is characteristic of many recent 

 carnivorous animals, especially lions and tigers. The resemblance, however, 

 was a very superficial one. and the search for its nearest analogue was unfortun- 

 ately not carried far enough, or it would have been found in a group of Marsupials 

 of which the existing members are harmless, vegetable feeders. When the 

 remainder of the dentition was discovered it was seen that the famous Thylacoleo 

 really belonged to this group, and had no claims to the attributes assigned to it. 

 Nevertheless, notwithstanding the abundant demonstration of its fallacy, Owen 

 continued, with characteristic tenacity, to maintain to the last his original 

 assumption, never acknowledging that, however valid his reasoning might have 

 been, it was entirely vitiated by its foundation upon false premises. 



