1804-24 THE NEGRO'S HEAD 21 



ailed me." I made him an indifferent answer, 

 returned him the keys and lantern, and passed 

 out. I remember having mentally vowed all my 

 way home never, never again to desecrate the 

 Christian corpse, and to quit a profession that 

 could only be learnt by such practices.' 



How long Richard Owen kept this resolution 

 we can easily see. It was only a few months after 

 that the incident occurred known as the ' Negro's 

 head story,' which the Professor used to tell so 

 well. As imperfectly recollected accounts of this 

 story during his lifetime appeared occasionally in 

 various papers, it may not be out of place to give 

 it in his own words : — 



' My worthy preceptor was called out one 

 evening to the case of a sailor who was brought 

 home in an apoplectic fit after receiving a heavy 

 fall in a drunken fray at a public-house. The 

 doctor found it a hopeless case, and the man 

 passed from his stupor into death. After his 

 death his widow and daughter retired to one of 

 the little houses which face the steepest part of 

 the hill leading to the Castle gates. One evening 

 they were talking about the slave trade, in which 

 occupation it appeared that the unfortunate hus- 

 band and father had spent a large part of his active 

 life. The two women had finished their meal 

 and were sitting before the fire, by the light of 

 which they were holding their conversation. The 

 mother was feebly attempting to make a case in 



