PALAEONTOLOGY. 281 



OBSERVATIONS ON PALEONTOLOGY. 



.Lectures explanatory of Hunter's Manuscript Essay c On Extra- 

 neous Fossils,' and Introductory to the Hunterian Course ' On 

 Fossil Remains,' delivered in the Theatre of the Royal College of 

 Surgeons of England, in 1855. By Professor Owen, F.R.S. 



Lecture I. 



March 6th, 1855. 

 Me. President and Gentlemen, — I propose to devote the present 

 Course of Lectures to the illustration of the Hunterian Specimens of 

 Fossil Organic Remains. The Palaeontological is, in fact, now the only- 

 department of the Museum which has not been systematically elucidated 

 in this theatre, to the extent, at least, of the time and ability at my 

 command to devote to the fulfilment of the responsible and honourable 

 duties which you have been pleased to confide to me. 



Nor, remote as the subject of Fossils may seem from their aims to 

 my purely anatomical and professional auditory, will it be found to be 

 without the connexion which Hunter believed, and the philosophical 

 surgeon will find it to have with the fundamental principles of medicine 

 and surgery. 



Anatomy, or the scrutiny of animal structures, may be pursued — 

 irrespective of the various mechanical methods of investigation — in 

 different ways and with different views. 



An animal may be anatomized in order to a knowledge of its struc- 

 ture, absolutely, without reference to any other animal; the species 

 being regarded as standing alone in creation, unconnected and uncom- 

 pared with any other being or series of beings. The knowledge so 

 acquired may, from the very limitation of the field of inquiry, be most 

 accurate and most minute : it will be most valuable in its application to 

 the cure of the diseases and repair of the injuries of such single species or 

 subject. Such, e. g., is 'Anthropotomy,' or the anatomy of the human 

 subject; and ' Hippotomy,' or the anatomy of the veterinary surgeon's 

 principal patient. The ' Anatome Testudinis Europsese,' fol. 1819, of 

 Bojanus, and the ' Traite Anatomique de la Chenille du Saule,' 4to, 



