5° 
PROCEEDINGS  OE  THE  GEOLOGICAL  SOCIETY. 
[May  1893, 
meeting  was  held  at  the  rooms  of  the  Eoyal  Society  on  the 
21st  January,  1893,  when  it  was  decided  that  the  memorial  should 
consist  primarily  of  a  marble  statue  to  be  placed  in  the  hall  of  the 
Natural  History  Museum.  It  was  also  determined  that  a  Memorial 
Catalogue  of  Owen’s  works  should  be  issued. 
Whatever  memorial  may  ultimately  be  raised  in  his  honour,  it 
must  be  confessed  that  Sir  Eichard  Owen’s  publications  are  of  them¬ 
selves  a  monument  of  his  talent  and  industry.  On  looking  over  the 
Eoyal  Society  s  Catalogue  one  is  tempted  to  exclaim  4  Prodigious  !  5 
o  less  than  068  memoirs  and  papers  of  his  are  enumerated  down 
to  che  end  of  18/2,  and  he  has  been  credited  with  some  60  after 
that  date ;  of  these  28  were  printed  in  the  Quarterly  Journal  of 
this  Society.  We  ourselves  are  chiefly  concerned  with  his  palaeon¬ 
tological  work,  and  especially  with  those  portions  of  it  which 
appeared  in  our  own  publications  and  in  those  of  the  Palseonto- 
graphical  Society. 
Yv  ith  the  latcer  Society  Owen  may  be  said  to  have  established 
the  most  intimate  relations.  It  was  in  1848  that  he  first  offered  a 
Monograpn  on  the  British  P  ossil  Eep tiles,  and  in  the  following  year  he 
became  a  member  of  their  Council,  being  re-elected  on  many  occa¬ 
sions  in  succeeding  years.  In  1867  he  was  elected  a  Yice-President, 
and  he  1  etained  that  office  until  18  /  / ,  when  he  was  elected  the  fourth 
President  of  the  Society  on  the  death  of  Hr.  Eowerbank.  It  is 
almost  needless  to  remind  you  that  he  continued  to  be  President 
until  the  day  of  his  death,  although  the  last  time  he  occupied  the 
Chair  was  at  a  Council  meeting  in  June  1887.  Meanwhile  his 
promised  Monograph  had  expanded  into  a  series  of  monographs,  on 
which  he  continued  to  work  for  a  period  of  over  thirty  years.  The 
4  Eeptilia  of  the  London  Clay,’  commenced  in  1848,  was  completed 
in  1880 :  this  includes  the  Bracklesham  and  other  Tertiary  beds. 
The  4  Eeptilia  of  the  Cretaceous  Pormations,’  commenced  in  1851. 
was  completed  in  1862.  The  4  Eeptilia  of  the  Wealden  and  Pur- 
beck  Pormations,’  commenced  in  1853,  was  completed  in  1879. 
This  is  an  immense  work,  running  into  thirteen  separate  numbers. 
The  4  Eeptilia  of  the  Kimeridge  Clay  Pormation  ’  was  commenced 
in  1859  and  concluded  in  1868.  The  4  Eeptilia  of  the  Liassic 
Pormations,’  begun  in  1859,  was  concluded  in  1869.  The  4  Eeptilia 
of  the  Mesozoic  Pormations,’  the  4  Eed  Crag  Cetacea,’  and  the  4  Mam¬ 
malia  of  the  Mesozoic  Pormations  ’  must  also  be  added  to  this  list. 
A  4  History  of  British  Possil  Eeptiles,’  in  three  volumes,  was 
published  in  1884,  with  abundant  illustrations,  in  which  the 
memoirs  already  mentioned,  with  some  others,  were  collected. 
