310 
PROFESSOR OWEN 
CH. X. 
writing or discourse of mine. It has struck me 
chiefly as an instance of the extreme barrenness of 
the human mind in the invention of hypotheses 
when not guided thereto by observation and 
experiment. Transmutation of species in the 
ascending course is one of six possible secondary' 
causes of species apprehended by me, and the least 
probable of the six. When I remarked to the 
(reputed) author of “ Vestiges,” the last time 
he visited the museum, how servilely the old 
idea had been followed by De Maillet, Mirabeau 
(not the politician), Lamarck, and the author of 
“ Vestiges ” — viz. of “ progressive development” — ' 
and that there were five more likely ways of intro- 
ducing a new species, he asked suddenly and 
eagerly, “What are they?” I declined to gL^ 
him the information, but shortly after brought 
prominently under his notice the facts that might 
have suggested one, at least, of the more likely 
ways. He saw nothing of their bearing, and 
I shall refrain from publishing my ideas on this 
matter till I get more evidence.’ 
About a fortnight afterwards Owen wrote ^ 
second letter to this correspondent, in which h^ 
says : ‘ With regard to the hypothesis of progres- 
sive development and transmutation of species, h 
you still desire me to state what my present opinioi^ 
is, I beg to say that it continues the same as that^ 
expressed in the concluding summary of my second 
report on British Fossil Reptiles (“ Reports of 
