3io PROFESSOR OWEN ch. x. 



writing or discourse of mine. It has struck me 

 chiefly as an instance of the extreme barrenness of 

 the human mind in the invention of hypotheses 

 when not guided thereto by observation and 

 experiment. Transmutation of species in the 

 ascending course is one of six possible secondary 

 causes of species apprehended by me, and the least 

 probable of the six. When I remarked to the 

 (reputed) author of " Vestiges," the last time 

 he visited the museum, how servilely the old 

 idea had been followed by De Maillet, Mirabeau 

 (not the politician), Lamarck, and the author of 

 " Vestiges " — viz. of " progressive development" — 

 and that there were five more likely ways of intro- 

 ducing a new species, he asked suddenly and 

 eagerly, "What are they?" I declined to give 

 him the information, but shortly after brought 

 prominently under his notice the facts that might 

 have suggested one, at least, of the more likely 

 ways. He saw nothing of their bearing, and 

 I shall refrain from publishing my ideas on this 

 matter till I get more evidence.' 



About a fortnight afterwards Owen wrote a 

 second letter to this correspondent, in which he 

 says : ' With regard to the hypothesis of progres- 

 sive development and transmutation of species, it 

 you still desire me to state what my present opinion 

 is, I beg to say that it continues the same as that 

 expressed in the concluding summary of my second 

 report on British Fossil Reptiles (" Reports of 



