1845 
SEDGWICK ON ‘VESTIGES’ 
255 
Adam Sedgzvick to R. Oiven 
May 1845. 
‘ I have thoughts of writing a review of that 
beastly book, the “ Vestiges of Creation.” You 
are my brazen head, like the one old Friar Bacon 
used to consult in his difficulties.’ Sedgwick goes 
on to criticise various points in what he calls the 
‘ circular-logic ’ of the author, and he remarks : 
‘ The marsupials may resemble in their gestation 
the lower class of birds. But is not this mere 
resemblance without anything like identity, or 
like a passage from one towards another ? True 
philosophy has to do with differences rather than 
with resemblances, or at least has to do with both. 
I want you to clear my fog over one or two points.’ 
Sedgwick apparently wrote also to Sir Philip 
Egerton for information, for the latter writes to 
Owen in June to say that he has no time to give 
Sedgwick’s letter a careful answer. ‘ Give,’ he says, 
‘ old Sedg. an argument or two to level against 
the “Vestiges” founded on correct anatomy! 
It is interesting to find, after reading Owen’s 
own letter to the then unknown author of the 
‘Vestiges,’ that others eagerly sought after his 
opinions, for the express purpose of confuting 
the views therein expressed. We may, perhaps, 
Assume that Owen had a certain leaning towards 
the theories enunciated by Robert Chambers, but 
