228 PROFESSOR OWEN ch. vn. 



or to the history of discovery.' [Then follows a 

 long discussion as to the date of discovery of the 

 first anthropomorphous remains.] 



On February 2 Owen lectured on the di- 

 nornis at the Royal Institution. ' He had the 

 bones and diagrams of the dinornis fetched early 

 to the Institution, and after we had arranged 

 them on the table they made an exceedingly fine 

 show. Richard gave a very clear account, in his 

 characteristic style, of all that is at present known 

 on the subject. He made it interesting by dis- 

 cussing the reasons for believing that the different 

 genera of these apterous birds now known to us, 

 are only remaining types of a large creation as 

 proper to an early state of the globe. There was 

 a large and most attentive audience, notwith- 

 standing a great attraction on the opposite side of 

 the street in Mr. Buckingham's opening night of 

 his Association. Faraday had tea ready for R. 

 when his lecture was over, which was a true kind- 

 ness.' 



Shortly after this lecture Sir John F. W. 

 Herschel wrote to Owen, protesting against his 

 spelling of l dinornis,' as obscuring its derivation 

 from the Greek Bsivos. 



Collingwood : February 14, 1844. 



1 Dear Sir, — ... I saw in the " Athenaeum " 

 some notice of your researches on the extinct 

 struthious birds and of the dinornis. May I be 



