1848-49 A DEAD RHINOCEROS 347 



in which I could fully confide in his true heart and 

 judgment. Peace be with him ! Few men have 

 better earned it.' 



In November the rhinoceros at the Zoological 

 Gardens died, and, ' as a natural consequence,' 

 Mrs. Owen writes, ' there is a quantity of rhino- 

 ceros (defunct) on the premises.' Owen mentions 

 this rhinoceros in a letter to one of his sisters : — 



' Amongst other matters time-devouring, and 

 putting out of memory mundane relations, sisters 

 included, has been the decease of my ponderous 

 and respectable old friend and client the rhino- 

 ceros. I call him " client" because fifteen years ago 

 I patronised him, and took it upon my skill, in dis- 

 cerning through a pretty thick hide the internal 

 constitution, to aver that the beast would live to 

 be a credit to the Zoological Gardens, and that 

 he was worth the 1,000 guineas demanded for 

 him. The Council had faith, and bought him, and 

 he has eaten their hay, oats, rice, carrots, and bread 

 in Brobdignagian daily quantities ever since, and 

 might have gone on digesting had he not. by some 

 clumsy fall or otherwise inexplicable process, 

 cracked a rib ; said fracture injuring the adjacent 

 lung and causing his demise. His anatomy will 

 furnish forth an immortal " Monograph," and so 

 comfort comes to me in a shape in which it can- 

 not be had by any of my brother Fellows of the 

 Zoological order. . . . Yesterday I went to the 

 Athenseum, and finished the second volume of 



