248 PROFESSOR OWEN ch. ix. 



CHAPTER IX 



1883-92 



' Notes on Birds in my Garden ' — Love of Poetry — Retirement 

 from the Museum and made a K.C.B., 1884 — Life at Sheen 

 Lodge — Love of Chess, Music, and Gardening — Letters to his 

 Grandson — Paralytic Stroke, 1890— Last Illness and Death, 

 1892. 



In 1883 Owen received from Frederic Cuvier 

 the present of a seal which had belonged to 

 Georges Cuvier. The high value that he placed 

 upon this important relic is shown by his reply to 

 his ' dear and truly esteemed friend : ' — 



1 For such is the relation in which I have 

 ever held yourself, bearing the honoured name 

 of the great teacher from whom I received my 

 final instructions, as pupil at the Jardin des 

 Plantes, in the sciences I have since cultivated. 

 Whatever success may have attended my labours 

 is due to the principles there inculcated, and to 

 the example there manifested. I was favoured 

 by admission at 6 a.m. to the laboratory, where 

 the master examined and noted the characters of 

 the subjects of his last great work, " Sur les 

 Poissons." 



