274 PROFESSOR OWEN cH. ix. 



the public expositions of zoology at the British 

 Museum, of botany at Kew Gardens, and of 

 geology at Craig's Court, for which latter collec- 

 tion a new museum is now in progress of erection. 

 Such annual grant, if the importance and various 

 applications of comparative anatomy be deemed 

 just ground for meriting it, ought to be applied to 

 the maintenance of the museum ^ under the control 

 and direction of the Trustees! 



Owen was of opinion that the utility of the 

 collections at the Hunterian and British Museums, 

 and the Museum of Practical Geology, would be 

 greatly enhanced if these collections could be 

 combined. He was convinced of the importance 

 of studying fossil and recent animals together — 

 a question which has formed the subject of con- 

 sideration of the most eminent scientists at the 

 present day. 



Sir William Flower mentions that as early as 

 January 6, 1842, Owen reported to the Council of 

 the College of Surgeons on the expediency of com- 

 bining the fossil and recent osteological specimens 

 in one catalogue as well as in one museum series. 

 His argument was thus summed up in the Report : 

 ' The peculiarities of the extinct mastodon, for 

 example, cannot be understood without a compa- 

 rison with the analogous parts of the elephant and 

 tapir ; nor those of the ichthyosaurus without 

 reference to the skeletons of crocodiles and fishes. 

 The most useful portion of such specimens in the 



