32 PROFESSOR OWEN ch. n. 



of the Abernethian Society, 1 and communicated 

 to that body a few pathological papers. 



On August 1 8, 1826, Owen obtained his 

 membership of the Royal College of Surgeons. 

 His diploma is signed by John Abernethy, Astley 

 Cooper, Anthony Carlisle, T. Forster, Everard 

 Home, William Blizard, Henry Cline, William 

 Norris, William Lynn, and Leigh Thomas. He set 

 up as a medical practitioner at 1 1 Cook's Court, 

 Carey Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, and gradually 

 secured a small practice among the lawyers. 

 Owen's peculiar ability as a dissector had not 

 escaped the eye of Abernethy, then President of 

 the College of Surgeons, who, much concerned at 

 the neglect of the collections formed by John 

 Hunter, which had recently been purchased by 

 the Government and handed over to the care of 

 the College, insisted on his old pupil undertaking 

 their arrangement. As Abernethy said, ' The 

 collection was located near his private residence ; 

 he could devote his leisure hours to the work ; 

 there was no one else equally qualified to do so.' 

 Owen undertook the task, and was thus associated 



1 The name of this society Rowland H. Coombes, in vol. iv. 



was formerly the ' Medical and of St. Bartholo?new , s Hospital 



Philosophical Society of St. Reports, 8vo, 1868, we read : — 



Bartholomew's.' It was founded 'In 1826 Richard Owen read 



by Abernethy in 1795, an ^ took two papers : one On Encysted 



the name of 'Abernethian So- Calculus of 'the Urinary Bladder, 



ciety' in 1832, the year of Aber- and the other A Case of Gluteal 



nethy's demise. In a Sketch Aneurism with Ligature of the 



of the Abernethian Society, by Internal Iliac? 



