274 
in^OFESSOR OWEN 
C'H. IX. 
the public expositions of zoology at the British 
Museum, of botany at Kew Gardens, and of 
geology at Craig’s Court, for which latter collec- 
tion a new museum is now in progress of erection. 
Such annual grant, if the importance and various 
applications of comparative anatomy be deemed 
just ground for meriting it, ought to be applied to 
the maintenance of the mti-setini, under the control 
and ddrection of the Trustees.' 
Owen was of opinion that the utility of the 
collections at the Hunterian and British Museums, 
and the Museum of Practical Geology, would be 
greatly enhanced if these collections could be 
combined. He was convinced of the importance 
of studying fossil and recent animals together — 
a question which has formed the subject of con- 
sideration of the most eminent scientists at the 
present day. 
Sir William Flower mentions that as early as 
January 6, 1842, Owen reported to the Council of 
the College of Surgeons on the expediency of com- 
bining the fossil and recent osteological specimens 
in one catalogue as well as in one museum serie.s. 
His argument was thus summed up in the Report : 
‘ The peculiarities of the extinct mastodon, for 
example, cannot be understood without a compa- 
rison with the analogous parts of the elephant and 
tapir ; nor those of the ichthyosaurus without 
reference to the skeletons of crocodiles and fishes. 
The most useful portion of such specimens in the 
