348 
PROFESSOR OWEN 
CH. vin. 
CHAPTER VIII 
1845 
Owen’s Opinion of the ‘Vestiges of Creation’ — His Desci'iptive 
Catalogue of Fossil Mammalia — Election to ‘The Club’— 
Refusal of the offer of Knighthood — Visit to Turner the 
Painter — Meeting of the Italian Naturalists at Naples. 
A REMARKABLY advanced scientific book ap- 
peared in the year 1844, entitled ‘Vestiges of 
the Natural History of Creation.’’ It was 
published anonymously, and for forty years the 
secret of its authorship was unknown. The 
book was variously ascribed to Thackeray, 
Lady Lovelace, Sir Charles Lyell, George 
* The author of the Vestiges 
of Creation gave a sketch of the 
geological history of the earth, 
followed by Considerations on 
the Origin of the Animated 
Tribes, and endeavoured to show 
‘ throughout the geological his- 
tory strong traces of a parallel 
advance of the physical con- 
ditions and the organic forms ; ’ 
‘ that the construction of this 
glohe and its associates, and 
inferential!)' that of all the other 
globes of space, was the result, 
not of any immediate or personal 
exertion on the part of the 
Deity, but of natural laws which 
are expressions of His will ‘the 
whole train of animated beings, 
from the simplest and oldest, up 
to the highest and most I'ecent, 
are, then, to be regarded as a 
series of advances of the princip^^ 
of development, which have de- 
pended upon external physical 
circumstances, to which the 
resulting animals are appio- 
priate.’ 
