80 PROFESSOR OWEN ch. hi. 



thinking that it and the Levee had been two of 

 the greatest contrasts which London could have 

 exhibited in the same afternoon.' 



In reply to Owen's letter asking permission 

 to move the coffin to St. Paul's, Dean Milman 

 wrote the following letter : — 



Deanery, St. Paul's : February 25. 



' My dear Professor, — Are you quite sure that 

 it is the genuine John Hunter ? I had some cor- 

 respondence a few weeks ago with my friend Dr. 

 Sutherland, and conversation with Professor Bell 

 on the subject. Since that a rumour reached us 

 that it was the wrong J ohn. Remember that your 

 credit is at stake. If you impose upon us the 

 bones of a worthy grocer or warehouseman 

 instead of the immortal surgeon, we shall never 

 trust you again. We shall believe not a word of 

 all your science ; nothing you advance about the 

 ornithorynchus paradoxus, the dodo, or that 

 refined chimpanzee which you are making out to 

 be our first cousin — only once removed. 



' However, if he be the real John (and it is 

 not necessary for that to anatomise the anato- 

 mist), I should be the last person not to wish to 

 do him proper honour. The only difficulty is the 

 anomaly of the case. It must be done quietly. 

 The body cannot be removed without a faculty in 

 the Bishop's Court ; of that I presume you can at 

 once ascertain the cost. Nor can there be much 



