66 PROFESSOR OWEN ch. n. 



undertaken to do for Madame Cuvier, and it is a 

 debt I owe to him who is now no more. 



' J. B. Pentland.' 



In December we find Owen making experi- 

 ments for Dr. Buckland as to the means by which 

 the nautilus rises and sinks. The letters are tech- 

 nical, but the following extract shows Owen's 

 ideas of Buckland's work: — ' December 14, 1833. 

 No one, however, I imagine, can refuse their 

 assent to the theory you have so beautifully deve- 

 loped, and I feel much honoured by your being 

 pleased to think it of any moment to add to your 

 observations, that I am perfectly satisfied and con- 

 vinced that it affords an adequate explanation of 

 the means by which the nautilus rises and sinks, 

 and is also in harmony with what we may rea- 

 sonably conceive to be the movements of the 

 animal both at the surface and the bottom of 

 the sea.' 



About a year later Sir Anthony Carlisle thus 

 addresses Owen on the subject of the Pearly 

 Nautilus : — 



' My dear Owen, — I have lately looked through 

 your story of the Pearly Nautilus, and am better 

 satisfied with the dark engravings. The letter- 

 press improves on re-reading. It is an excel- 

 lent specimen of Hunterian-Cuvierian Natural 

 H istory, but, as I at first foresaw, your pearls are 

 thrown before swine. If the English medical hog- 



