Vol. II., No. 12, NOVEMBER, 1885.] 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 
— 
LV.—Sir Ricuarp Owen. 
While the name of Joseph Hooker will always be intimately 
associated in the minds of New Zealanders with the botany of this 
country, that of Richard Owen will be equally closely associated with 
its zoology. But while the former worked more widely over the 
whole field of his science as exemplified in these islands, the latter 
worked more specially at those branches of his subject which are 
characteristic of and peculiar to New Zealand. 
Owen was born at Lancaster (England) on July 20,1804. Early 
in life he had a longing for the sea and entered the navy as a mid- 
shipman, but this career—fortunately for sclence—was soon cut short 
by the termination of the American War, and the restoration of peace 
in 1814. Returning to his native place he became the pupil of a 
local surgeon, and from this commencement went on to Edinburgh 
University, entering as a medical student in 1824. In the following 
year we find him attending the schools of medicine in Paris, and it 
was at this time that he made the acquaintance of the celebrated 
zoologist Cuvier, then occupying the highest position in the scientific 
world. How far Cuvier’s work influenced the-mind of the student at 
that period we do not know, but some twelve years before, the 
veteran had published his celebrated work “ Les Ossemens Fossiles ” 
in which he described from their fossil remains the extinct animals 
which formerly existed in France, and whose skeletons had been 
disentombed from the very neighbourhood of Paris. And he had 
shown that so perfect was the agreement between all the parts of an 
animal, that any one who by close study made himself acquainted 
with all general types of zoological structure, could tell even by the 
examination of one bone what the other parts of the body must be. 
Those who have followed Owen’s work know how accurately this 
special knowledge was developed in him. 
In this same year, 1825, Owen entered St. Bartholemew’s 
Hospital, London, where he had the advantage of working under Dr. 
Abernethy, and it was by the strong persuasion of this friend that he 
withdrew from the purpose which he had formed of rejoining the 
navy. In 1826 he took his diploma from the Royal College of 
Surgeons, and on the completion of his medical studies commenced 
private practice in London. But his real scientific work dates from 
1828, when at the instance of Dr. Abernethy he received the appoint- 
ment of Assistant Curator of the Hunterian Museum, and was 
employed in the preparation of the catalogue of the Hunterian 
collection. This work of cataloguing the great accumulation of 
specimens was carried on pretty continuously for twenty-seven years; 
the catalogue of the invertebrate animals in spirits being published in 
1830, that of the physiological specimens between 1833 and 1840, 
that of the osteological specimens in 1853, and that of the fossil 
vertebrates and cephalopods in 1855. 
