38 PROFESSOR OWEN ch. n. 



history of man is broken off at South Kensington, 

 and taken up at Bloomsbury, at about the period 

 of the cave-dwellers ; though it is only fair to 

 mention that this is due more to the ' department ' 

 system than to the fact of there being two sepa- 

 rate institutions. 



Professor Owen's evidence before ' Mr. Gre- 

 gory's Committee ' occupies some thirty pages in 

 the Blue Book. In it he disposes of the sug- 

 gestion as to risk during removal by pointing out 

 that two such removals had been made, under his 

 care, at the College of Surgeons. The collections 

 of the British Museum were, he said, mainly dried, 

 and, therefore, would run considerably less risk in 

 transit than the innumerable delicate preparations 

 preserved in the collections of the College of Sur- 

 geons. 



In the course of his evidence Owen made some 

 interesting remarks concerning Darwin's work on 

 the ' Origin of Species,' just published, which helps 

 to strengthen the impression that he was at first 

 much taken with the new views, and felt the same 

 friendliness toward them as he had previously 

 shown to the views expressed in the ' Vestiges of 

 Creation.' Speaking as to the desirability of 

 exhibiting every species, or only a proportion of 

 the species of a group in the proposed new 

 museum, Owen said before the committee : ' We 

 are obliged not to have a Procrustean Law for 

 all classes, but to be guided, as to the proportion 



