66 
PROFESSOR OWEN 
CH. ii. 
undertaken to do for Madame Cuvier, and it is a 
debt I owe to him who is now no more. 
‘ J. B. Pentland.’ 
In December we find Owen making experi- 
ments for Dr. Buckland as to the means by which 
the nautilus rises and sinks. The letters are tech- 
nical, but the following extract shows Owen’s 
ideas of Buckland’s work : — ‘ December 14, 1833. 
No one, however, I imagine, can refuse their 
assent to the theory you have so beautifully deve- 
loped, and I feel much honoured by your being 
pleased to think it of any moment to add to your 
observations, that I am perfectly satisfied and con- 
vinced that it affords an adequate explanation of 
the means by which the nautilus rises and sinks, 
and Is also in harmony with what we may rea- 
sonably conceive to be the movements of the 
animal both at the surface and the bottom of 
the sea.’ 
About a year later Sir Anthony Carlisle thus 
addresses Owen on the subject of the Pearly 
Nautilus : — 
‘ My dear Owen, — I have lately looked through 
your story of the Pearly Nautilus, and am better 
satisfied with the dark engravings. The letter- 
press improves on re-reading. It is an excel- 
lent specimen of Hunterian-Cuvierian Natural 
History, but, as 1 at first foresaw, your pearls are 
thrown before swine. If the English medical hog- 
