28 PROFESSOR OWEN ch. n. 



CHAPTER II 1 



1856-81 



Owen's Scheme for a Natural History Museum— His Report and 

 Plan, 1859 — Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry, i860 — The 

 Plan negatived — The Plan adopted by Mr. Gladstone — Again 

 rejected by the House of Commons in 1862 — Purchase of a 

 New Site for the proposed Museum sanctioned by Parliament 

 in 1863 — The Completion of the New Museum, 1881. 



Soon after his appointment to the Hunterian 

 Professorship at the Royal College of Surgeons, 

 Owen's thoughts turned towards the elaboration 

 of a definite scheme which should allow of the 

 proper exhibition of the natural history treasures 

 of the nation. His frequent visits to the British 

 Museum impressed him more and more with the 

 conviction that the natural history department 

 was the most neglected branch of that institution. 

 This neglect arose from the inadequate space 



1 For the sake of greater Owen's life through which the 



clearness, it has been thought discussions were spread. The 



advisable to devote a separate account is given as nearly as 



chapter to the history of the possible in his own words, the 



British Museum of Natural substance being taken from his 



History at South Kensington, address to the British Associa- 



instead of dispersing it among tion at York in 1881. 

 the many years of Professor 



