258 PROFESSOR OWEN ch. viii. 
His services on various Commissions in later 
years were given gratuitously. 
The diary continues : — 
'Jamiary 31. — To Faraday’s lecture at the 
Royal Institution. The largest crowd I have 
ever seen there. Many gentlemen were obliged 
to come into the ladies’ gallery, as they could 
not get seats elsewhere. After an exceedingly 
interesting lecture, Faraday said he had a few 
remarks to make on some new reform laws for the 
Institution. These remarks were admirably made, 
and no one could feel offended, although it was 
a direct attack on those gentlemen who helped to 
render the ladies very uncomfortable sometimes 
by filling seats, and often the front seats, in the 
part intended only for ladies. Wearing a hat in 
the library was one of the delinquencies, likewise 
sitting in the seats reserved for the directors, 
who were obliged by their office and duties to 
be the last in. Mr. Faraday also remarked that 
the formation of two currents, caused by certain 
gentlemen rushing upstairs the instant the lecture 
was over in order to fetch their lady friends, was 
not conducive to the comfort of those coming 
downstairs. Everything taken very well.’ 
A few days before this lecture Faraday wrote 
Owen an amusing letter about a three-legged frog 
which had come into his possession : — 
‘Dear Owen, — Who cares for bipeds or quad- 
rupeds ? They are as common as discontent; 
