1843-44 PUTRID PENGUIN AND TOBACCO 241 



sion, announcing in a whisper — a Frenchwoman ! 

 So I had Madame Power instead of Goethe, and 

 heard again the whole history of Argonauts and 

 all the concomitant misfortunes, to which I sub- 

 mitted with great patience, finishing in the intervals 

 of explanations my herring and toast. . . . They 

 are painting — overhead — the ceiling of the library, 

 having done the same to the large room, and the 

 house is redolent ! However, I fight against it 

 with counterblasts of putrid penguin 5 and tobacco.' 



As Commissioner of the health of towns, 

 &c, Owen was deputed to report on the state 

 of his native town, Lancaster. While there in 

 September, ' busily occupied ' with his survey of 

 the town, he writes to Clift on the 28th : — 



' . . . Chadwick dined with us last Monday, 

 and we settled the plan of survey of the state of 

 the town, in which I have been , busily occupied, 

 with the hearty co-operation of all the most intelli- 

 gent medical men and builders. I found only the 

 present Superintendent of Sewers rather stiff; he 

 is a stout man with goggle eyes, and had a beard 

 of three days' growth. I give you a specimen of 

 one of his answers. To a query why they had not 

 adopted the oval form of sewer, which had been 

 formerly made in one street, but not in later-made 

 sewers, which had the old square shape, he said, 

 " We never adopt nought " ' ! 



5 ' On the Morbid Appear- of the Penguin ' {Aptenodytes 

 ances observed in the Dissection forsteri). Proc. Zool. Soc. 



VOL. I. R 



