xxn RICHARD OWEN 373 



successively but progressively." Darwin's special doctrine of 

 " natural selection," however, he never appreciated, and his 

 strong opposition to it caused him, though quite erroneously, 

 to be looked upon by those outside the world of science as a 

 supporter of the old-fashioned and then more "orthodox" 

 view of special creation. His most distinct utterance upon 

 this subject is contained in the following paragraph : " So, 

 being unable to accept the volitional hypothesis, or that of 

 impulse from within, or the selective force exerted by outward 

 circumstances, I deem an innate tendency to deviate from 

 parental type, operating through periods of adequate duration, 

 to be the most probable nature, or way of operation, of the 

 secondary law, whereby species have been derived one from 

 the other." (Op. cit. vol. iii. p. 807.) 



His career as a lecturer did not entirely cease with his 

 connection with the College of Surgeons, as, by permission of 

 the authorities of the Museum of Practical Geology in 

 Jermyn Street, he gave several courses on the fossil remains 

 of animals, [in the theatre of that institution, and he held 

 in the years 1859, 1860, and 1861, in conjunction with 

 his office at the British Museum, the Fullerian Professorship 

 of Physiology in the Eoyal Institution. On the revival of 

 the annual lecture on Sir Eobert Rede's foundation in the 

 University of Cambridge, in 1859, he was appointed to give 

 the first, and took for his subject the Classification of the 

 Mammalia. He also occasionally lectured at the Eoyal 

 Institution on Friday evenings, his last appearance there 

 being on 26th April 1861, when he delivered the discourse, 

 " On the Scope and Appliances of a National Museum of 

 Natural History," to be presently referred to. In April 

 1862 he gave four lectures on Birds at the London Institution. 



While at the College of Surgeons he had been a member 

 of a Government Commission for inquiring into the health of 

 the Metropolis; and subsequently (1849) of one on Smithfield 

 and the other meat markets, in which he strongly advocated 

 the entire suppression of intramural slaughter-houses, and the 

 concomitant evil of the passage of droves of sheep and cattle 

 through the streets of London. For the Great Exhibition of 

 1851 he was on the Preliminary Committee of Organisation, 



