34 
PROFESSOR OWEN 
CH. II. 
the recoiTimendations, save the final one (lecture- 
theatre) of my report of 1859- The theatre 
was erased from my plan, and the elementary 
courses of lecturing remain for the future.’ 
In communicating this report to Parliament, 
Professor Owen felt that he was addressing 
representatives of the greatest commercial and 
colonising nation on the globe, and that such a 
nation and empire might well be expected by 
the rest of the civilised world to offer to students 
and lovers of natural history the best and noblest 
museum for the illustration of this great division 
of general science. 
But for such a museum a site of not less than 
eight acres was required. The effect of restrict- 
ing the site to the space, for example, on which 
the Museum at Bloomsbury stands was signifi- 
cantly demonstrative of difficulties to come, and 
Owen pointed to the wisdom which would be 
manifested by securing, in a rapidly growing 
metropolis, adequate space for future additions 
to the building which might be in the first place 
erected upon it. 
One or two of his intimate and confidential 
friends dissuaded him from sending in his report 
They urged that it might be rnisconstrued, or 
‘ interpreted as exemplifying a character prone to 
inconsiderate and extravagant views,’ and might 
even lead to disagreeable personal consequences. 
They further argued that the extended space for 
