ii 4 PROFESSOR OWEN ch. iv. 



the official letter. R. intends to see Sir Benjamin 

 Brodie to-morrow before sending his acknowledg- 

 ment.' 



This Professorship Owen was obliged to 

 decline, as the Council of the College of Surgeons 

 required him to finish his Catalogue before accept- 

 ing any other office. On June 29 he writes to 

 the ■ Managers of the Royal Institution of Great 

 Britain' in these terms : — 



' I should have immediately acknowledged, 

 with becoming respect, the most gratifying and 

 honourable mark of your esteem in the appoint- 

 ment which you have been pleased to confer upon 

 me, of the Fullerian Professorship of Physiology 

 at the Royal Institution, had not a paramount 

 engagement in relation to an important work — 

 the Catalogue of the Hunterian Collection, com- 

 pelled me to defer my communication until I was 

 made aware of the decision of the Council of the 

 College of Surgeons ; which, I regret to say, 

 obliges me to forego, until the completion of that 

 work, the acceptance of any other office than that 

 I now hold at the College of Surgeons.' 



Towards the end of July 1837, Owen paid 

 a visit to Lancaster, chiefly in order to see his 

 mother. After arriving at his birthplace he wrote 

 a long letter to his wife, descriptive of his journey 

 and of the pleasure he experienced in revisiting 

 his native town. He also gives us a pleasant 

 glimpse of the characteristic way in which he 



