276 PROFESSOR OWEN ch. ix. 



to the adoption of such a principle the union of 

 the fossil collections of the Museum with those 

 of the College of Surgeons, the advantages to 

 science are too obvious and numerous for present 

 discussion. The difficulties in the way are 

 numerous, and I fear insurmountable. If you have 

 ever thought on the subject sufficiently to devise 

 even the outline of any practical scheme for the 

 purpose, I should be very thankful for any com- 

 munication on the subject as confidential as you 

 might wish to make it. 



1 Believe me, very faithfully yours, 



' F. Egerton.' 



Richard Owen to Lord Francis Egerton 



College of Surgeons: March 27, 1846. 



' Dear Lord Francis Egerton, — Your letter 

 has revived a hope in me on a subject which I 

 have had at heart for some years, but about which 

 I had begun to despond : a remedy for the 

 increasing anomaly of separate collections of 

 natural objects, which, as at present disjoined, fail 

 to illustrate the order and laws of Nature, and 

 consequently are wanting in that which best 

 justifies the expenses of collecting, housing, and 

 arranging them. The first and most obvious 

 practical remedy that suggested itself was that to 

 which you refer — viz. the combination of the fossil 

 skeletons at the British Museum with the recent 

 ones at the College of Surgeons. It seemed the 



