374 
PROFESSOR OWEN 
CH. XI. 
densed to the utmost, and it looks enough for two 
long articles in the “ Quarterly.” ’ 
Lockhart had considerable correspondence 
with Owen about this time, and in the course of 
an amusing letter he mentions a curious fact re- 
lated in the ‘ Life of Southey ; ’ ‘ In the last 
chapters of Southey’s Life,’ writes Lockhart, ‘ his 
son says that after his father’s mind failed, his hair, 
previously almost snow-white, thickened, curled, 
and became perceptibly darker. Now, tell me 
if you recollect any other instance of this counter- 
part to the not uncommon bleaching of the hair 
under mental distress. For, if the rule be a 
sound one, a little real affliction or idiotism 
might be suggested to widows of Mayfair in lieu 
of the Chinese infallible hair-dye warranted of no 
purple tinge.’ 
There was some question this year of Owen 
succeeding to the post of Keeper of the Mine- 
ralogical Department of the British Museum, ren- 
dered vacant by the sudden death of Charles 
Konig. 
On September i, 1851, Owen writes: ‘Mr. 
Dinkel has just called, and tells me that poor Mr. 
Konig fell as he was ascending his own doorstep 
and was found dead on Friday evening. He 
was a kind and honest-hearted man.’ The post 
of Keeper of the Mineralogical Department of the 
British Museum at that time included geology, 
and the extract which follows from a letter sent 
