38 
PROFESSOR OWEN 
CH. II. 
history of man is broken off at South Kensington, 
and taken up at Bloomsbury, at about the period 
of the cave-dwellers ; though it is only fair to 
mention that this is due more to the ‘ department ’ 
system than to the fact of there being two sepa- 
rate institutions. 
Professor Owen’s evidence before ‘ Mr. Gre- 
gory’s Committee ’ occupies some thirty pages in 
the Blue Book. In it he disposes of the sug- 
gestion as to risk during removal by pointing out 
that two such removals had been made, under his 
care, at the College of Surgeons. The collections 
of the British Museum were, he said, mainly dried, 
and, therefore, would run considerably less risk in 
tiansit than the innumerable delicate preparations 
preserved in the collections of the College of Sur- 
geons. 
In the course of his evidence Owen made some 
interesting remarks concerning Darwin’s work on 
the ‘ Origin of Species,’ just published, which helps 
to strengthen the impression that he was at first 
much taken with the new views, and felt the same 
friendliness toward them as he had previously 
shown to the views expressed in the ‘ Vesticres of 
Creation.’ Speaking as to the desirabilfty of 
exhibiting every species, or only a proportion of 
the species of a group in the proposed new 
museum, Owen said before the committee : ‘ We 
are obliged not to have a Procrustean Law for 
all classes, but to be guided, as to the proportion 
