242 
PROFESSOR OWEN 
CH. VIL 
Before attending the meeting of the British 
Association at York, Owen ‘spent another busy 
week in Lancaster, inspecting all the abodes of the 
poor and taking notes of the worst cases which 
admit of relief by better regulations ; made myself 
acquainted with the present drainage of the town 
and its water supplies, and leaving instructions to 
architects for improvement plans and their ex- 
pense, and to registrars and doctors for tables of 
mortality and disease.’® 
Richard Ozve7i to his sister Eliza 
South Hetton : October 4, 1844. 
‘The success of the York meeting has com- 
pletely settled the question of the continued ex- 
istence of the British Association. . . . Sedgwick 
told me that the idea I had thrown out in my 
speech on a new geographical partition of the 
continents of the earth, in accordance with the 
extinct animals found in them and other grounds 
which I have not room for, was good and new.’ 
During October 1844 Owen was on and off 
at Lancaster for the purpose of collecting materials 
for his report on the town. In the middle of the 
month his wife returned home, to find ‘ five boxes 
of bones in the hall, and the house free from the 
smell of paint and penguin.’ F'our boxes of these 
® To his wife, October i, 1844. 
