256 PROFESSOR OWEN ch. vm. 



that, at the same time, he did not feel sufficiently 

 convinced to recognise those principles, afterwards 

 expounded by Charles Darwin, which his own 

 genius and capacity for work could not fail to have 

 furthered. 



In 1845 Owen first described the remains of 

 dicynodonts 2 from South Africa. These creatures 

 were a new tribe of sauria, the remains of which 

 have since been found in England, Scotland, and 

 India, and have proved of peculiar value in deter- 

 mining critical points with regard to the age of 

 certain rocks. 



By the end of the year his ' Descriptive Cata- 

 logue of Fossil Mammalia and Aves preserved 

 in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons ' 

 had also appeared. One cannot but be astounded 

 at the amount of work which he got through dur- 

 ing the years 1844-46 ; it was clearly a period of 

 excessive activity with him, and the wonder is 

 that he retained his health through it all. We 

 see from his wife's diary that a great part of this 

 work was done late at night. 



'Jamiaiy 7. — R. busy till nearly three in the 

 morning writing paper for the Geological Society 

 to-morrow on Dicynodon.' 



In a note to Laurillard written a few months 

 later, referring to the ' age of the rocks containing 

 the dicynodonts,' Owen says : ' I do not believe 



2 ' On Reptilian Fossils {Trans. Geol. Soc, vol. vii., 2nd 

 (Dicynodon) from S. Africa,' series, 1845). 



