1848-49 A DEAD RHINOCEROS 347 
in which I could fully confide in his true heart and 
judgment. Peace be with him! Few men have 
better earned it.’ 
In November the rhinoceros at the Zoological 
Gardens died, and, ‘as a natural consequence,’ 
Mrs. Owen writes, ‘ there is a quantity of rhino- 
ceros (defunct) on the premises.’ Owen mentions 
this rhinoceros in a letter to one of his sisters : — 
‘ Amongst other matters time-devouring, and 
putting out of memory mundane relations, sisters 
included, has been the decease of my ponderous 
and respectable old friend and client the rhino- 
ceros. I call him “ client” because fifteen years ago 
I patronised him, and took it upon my skill, in dis- 
cerning through a pretty thick hide the internal 
constitution, to aver that the beast w'ould live to 
be a credit to the Zoological Gardens, and that 
he was worth the 1,000 guineas demanded for 
him. The Council had faith, and bought him, and 
he has eaten their hay, oats, rice, carrots, and bread 
in Brobdignagian daily quantities ever since, and 
might have gone on digesting had he not, by some 
clumsy fall or otherwise inexplicable process, 
cracked a rib ; said fracture injuring the adjacent 
lung and causing his demise. His anatomy will 
furnish forth an immortal “ Monograph,” and so 
comfort comes to me in a shape in which it can- 
not be had by any of my brother Fellows of the 
Zoological order. . . . Yesterday I went to the 
Athenaium, and finished the second volume of 
