1S37-3& LECTURES IN COLLEGE OF SURGEONS 105 



CHAPTER IV 



1837-38 



Hunterian Professor'and Professor of Anatomy and Physiology in 

 the College of Surgeons, 1837 — His Courses of Lectures — Birth 

 of his Son, October 6, 1837 — the British Association at New- 

 castle, 1838 — Visit to Germany, 1838 — Death of his Mother, 

 November 1838. 



On the retirement of Sir Charles Bell from the 

 Professorship of Anatomy and Physiology in the 

 College of Surgeons, in the early part of 1837, 

 Owen was elected to the vacant chair. When the 

 Government purchased the Hunterian Museum 

 and transferred it to the College, a stipulation was 

 made that its contents should be illustrated by a 

 course of twenty-four lectures delivered annually. 

 This course had previously been divided between 

 the College Professors of Anatomy and Surgery, 

 each of whom devoted their twelve lectures to 

 some special subject in which they had attained 

 eminence, but which had no special reference to 

 the Hunterian Collections. These twenty-four 

 annual lectures Owen, as Hunterian Professor, 

 undertook to deliver, as illustrative of Hunter's 

 Collections, and without ever repeating the same 



