Yol.  49.] 
AXXIVEBSABY  ADDBESS  OF  THE  PBESEDENT. 
47 
all  the  steps  in  this  remarkable  career,  which,  indeed,  has  already 
formed  the  subject  of  many  a  chronicle.  With  reference  to  this 
period  of  his  life  it  may  be  sufficient  to  say  that  in  1830  an  instal¬ 
ment  of  the  Catalogue  was  published.  In  the  same  year  Mr.  Owen 
read  a  paper  on  the  Anatomy  of  the  Orang-utan  at  the  very  first 
meeting  of  the  Zoological  Society’s  Committee  of  Science.  He  after¬ 
wards  made  several  important  contributions  to  that  Society’s  publi¬ 
cations,  and  was  in  fact  for  many  years  their  unpaid  prosector.  In 
1832  he  wrote  his  well-known  memoir  on  the  Pearly  A autilus,  and 
in  1834  was  appointed  to  the  newly- established  Chair  of  Comparative 
Anatomy  at  St.  Bartholomew’s.  In  1835  he  married  the  daughter 
of  Mr.  Clift. 
It  is  in  this  latter  year  that  we  find  the  first  allusion  to  Owen 
in  the  publications  of  the  Geological  Society.  Dr.  Mantell,  it 
appears,  had  read  a  paper  with  reference  to  the  discovery  of  bird- 
bones  in  the  Tilgate  Forest  Beds,  and,  as  doubts  had  been 
expressed,  he  placed  his  specimens  in  the  hands  of  4  Mr.  Owen,  of 
the  College  of  Surgeons,’  who  pointed  out  one  bone  as  decidedly 
belonging  to  a  wader.  In  April  1837  the  first  paper  of  the 
Hunterian  Professor  of  Anatomy  was  read  before  the  Geological 
Society.  It  contained  a  description  of  Toxodon  platensis,  an  extinct 
Mammal  of  gigantic  size,  referable  by  its  dentition  to  the  Bodentia, 
but  with  affinities  towards  the  Pachydermata  and  the  herbivorous 
Cetacea.  Charles  Lyell  and  Charles  Darwin  were  then  Secretaries 
of  the  Society.  On  May  31st  in  the  same  year  Prof.  Owen  was 
elected  a  Pellow  of  the  Society  (F.R.S.  in  1836)  in  company  with 
Mr.  James  Hey  wood,  of  Manchester,  whose  name  still  remains  upon 
our  books.  Owen’s  certificate  on  that  occasion  was  signed,  amongst 
others,  by  R.  Hutton,  B.  I.  Murchison,  C.  Darwin,  L.  Horner,  and 
J.  Phillips. 
As  an  instance  of  the  wa}’  in  which  honours  came  thick  upon  him, 
Prof.  Owen,  when  only  34  years  of  age  (in  1838),  received  the 
MMllaston  Medal,  awarded,  as  his  friend  Dr.  Whewell  remarked,  for 
his  services  to  ‘  Possil  Zoology  ’  in  general,  and  in  particular  for  the 
description  of  the  Fossil  Mammalia  collected  bj-  Mr.  Darwin.  The 
President  further  expressed  a  hope  that  this  early  recognition  of 
the  Medallist’s  services  might  be  regarded  as  a  token  of  interest  hi 
future  investigations.  Owen,  in  reply,  confessed  that  since  he  had 
pursued  anatomical  investigations  in  connexion  with  fossil  remains 
he  had  been  rewarded  by  new  and  extrinsic  pleasures.  To  this 
source  he  traced  his  connexion  with  the  Geological  Society  and  the 
