242 PROFESSOR OWEN ch. VII. 



Before attending the meeting of the British 

 Association at York, Owen ' spent another busy 

 week in Lancaster, inspecting all the abodes of the 

 poor and taking notes of the worst cases which 

 admit of relief by better regulations ; made myself 

 acquainted with the present drainage of the town 

 and its water supplies, and leaving instructions to 

 architects for improvement plans and their ex- 

 pense, and to registrars and doctors for tables of 

 mortality and disease.' 6 



Richard Ozven to his sister Eliza 



South Hetton : October 4, 1844. 



'The success of the York meeting has com- 

 pletely settled the question of the continued ex- 

 istence of the British Association. . . . Sedgwick 

 told me that the idea I had thrown out in my 

 speech on a new geographical partition of the 

 continents of the earth, in accordance with the 

 extinct animals found in them and other grounds 

 which I have not room for, was good and new.' 



During October 1844 Owen was on and off 

 at Lancaster for the purpose of collecting materials 

 for his report on the town. In the middle of the 

 month his wife returned home, to find ' five boxes 

 of bones in the hall, and the house free from the 

 smell of paint and penguin.' Four boxes of these 



6 To his wife, October 1, 1844. 



