1837-38 DISSECTING A RHINOCEROS 121 



remains of an extinct animal related to the llama. 

 He also described the scelidotherium, which is 

 related to the ant-eaters ; and further determined 

 some disputed points in existing accounts of the 

 skeleton of the megatherium — a gigantic extinct 

 sloth about the size of an elephant. We also find 

 from the Diary that Darwin submitted the proofs 

 of the ' Voyage ' itself to Owen. 



But while occupied in describing fossil remains 

 he varied his occupation by dissecting the mortal 

 remains of a rhinoceros which had recently died 

 at Wombwell's Menagerie. This he looked upon 

 as a great prize, as a rhinoceros then — dead or 

 living — was a rarity in England. On February 1, 

 Owen had the carcase brought to his house in the 

 College of Surgeons, to his wife's disgust, who 

 thus comments upon it : — ' The defunct rhinoceros 

 (late of Wombwell's Menagerie) arrived while R. 

 was out. I told the men to take it right to the end 

 of the long passage, where it now lies. As yet I 



feel indifferent, but when the pie is opened ' 



' Febrttary 6. — R. still at the rhinoceros.' 

 In February the ' Wollaston ' Gold Medal of 

 the Geological Society was awarded to Owen, 

 and he thus remarks on it in a letter to his sister 

 Eliza (February 28) : ' My first number of Dar- 

 win's " Fossils " (strange animals) is out, and most 

 unexpectedly the Geological Society has awarded 

 me the Wollaston Gold Medal for that and other 

 services to geology. Is it not curious that 



