234 PROFESSOR OWEN ch. vii. 



going to the Royal Society, and talked to R. with- 

 out mercy ; but R., whose thoughts and attention 

 were so entirely given up to Mrs. Gamp and 

 Jonas, could only answer at random. As soon as 

 my father was gone, we laughed over Mrs. Gamp 

 till bedtime.' 



' May 6. — R. helped to draw up, and gave 

 a finish to the first Gwydyr House report on 

 Health of Towns.' 



' 17///. — R. to Mr. Pickersgill after breakfast. 

 They spent the rest of the morning together, as 

 R. wanted to see the dwarf, General Tom Thumb. 

 Dr. Hamel here at eleven. Went into the 

 museum with him, and he poked about in his 

 usual way. He is going to be the bearer of R.'s 

 dinornis to St. Petersburg, much to his delight.' 



Among the curious applications frequently 

 made to Professor Owen, there was none, perhaps, 

 more strange than a letter he received from a 

 firm of surgeons near Bath on May 17. After 

 apologies for troubling him they write : — 



[1844.] 

 1 We have been for a few days actively 

 engaged embalming the remains of the late 

 William Beckford, Esq., of Fonthill Abbey, a 

 gentleman of family and fortune. [Here follows 

 a rough sketch of the process, which consisted in 

 injecting the vessels with an antiseptic, treating 

 the viscera by Dr. Baillie's process and covering 



