170 PROFESSOR OWEN ch. vi. 



The last two sentences of this letter read 

 more like those of a boy at school than of a 

 busy man of sixty-two, and serve to illustrate the 

 wonderful spirits which Owen enjoyed throughout 

 his life. 



' Poor Whewell,' he writes to his sister Maria 

 on February 27, 1866, 'is reported rather more 

 favourably of in this morning's " Times ;" but it 

 is not a very hopeful case. I think it not 

 unlikely that he had a kind of stroke while 

 on his horse, and so startled the animal before 

 he fell. There will be expectancies now raised 

 that were kept in abeyance through belief in 

 the long-aged constitution of the strong-looking 

 man.' A few days afterwards Whewell passed 

 away, and by his death Owen lost a school- 

 fellow and an old and lifelong friend. 



Owen thus writes to a correspondent in 

 Germany who is desirous of translating his 

 ' Palaeontology' into German (March 16, 1866): — 



1 I have communicated your request to 

 Messrs. Black, who have the copyright of my 

 " Palaeontology," and have this morning heard 

 from them. They have no objections to the 

 translation of the work into German, and I 

 shall have pleasure in its being undertaken 

 by so devoted a zoologist and palaeontologist 

 as yourself. Whatever additions you may think 

 fit to make will receive my best attention in 

 relation to a third edition of the English issue, 



