26 
PROFESSOR OWEN 
CH. I- 
first, from contact, as far as the crowd permitted ! 
But when the rumour began to buzz abroad that it 
was Dn and Mrs. Livingstone — then at the acme 
of their lion-hood, especially with the Church 
party, through Lord Shaftesbury’s speech the day 
before — what a change came over the scene ! It 
was which of the scornful dames could first get 
introduced to Professor O., to be introduced "^to 
Mrs. L. ; and the photographs were comparatively 
deserted for the dusky strangers.’ 
Owen had several tales of similar discomfiture, 
which he would often relate with the greatest 
delight and amusement. 
The last lecture which he gave this year was on 
‘ Ivory and Teeth of Commerce,’ and was delivered 
at the Society of Arts on December 19. 
On December 29, 1856, Owen writes to his 
friend John Murray on the subject of an article on 
‘ Parthenogenesis ’ for the ‘ Quarterly Review,’ in 
the course of which letter he remarks : ‘ The first 
question is whether your estimable editor of the 
Quarterly or yourself would regard the details of 
the reproductive economy and apparatus of a Rose 
and a Bee as equally producible in respectable 
society. . . . 1 he facts bearing upon this myste- 
rious power of virgin-procreativeness are now so 
numerous and varied as to form an important body 
of physiological doctrine, of which the “ Quarterly ” 
ought to take cognizance without squeamishness. 
