148 
PROFESSOR OWEN 
CH. V. 
The sciatica seems, however, to have soon 
yielded to treatment. Within a few weeks he was 
again on his travels. Towards the end of January 
1864 he paid a visit to the South of France, to 
the Vicomte de Lastic at Salette, to report upon a 
collection of human remains associated with flint 
implements and bones of Mammalia found in the 
caverns of that district. ‘ I was met at the 
station,’ he writes to his wife, January 21, 1864, 
‘ at 5 p.M. by the Vicomte, and have had a most 
kind reception. Found a blazing wood fire in my 
dressing-room (for all was hard fVost this morning 
when I got out at Perigueux and began my day’s 
journey) ; the last forty miles through mountain 
scenery like that we passed through in our High- 
land trip — very beautiful. At Paris I spent some 
hours in the Jardin d’Acclimatation, arriving at 
7.30 A.M., and quitting the same hour the same 
evening. . . .’ 
‘ Fehmary 5. — This is a charming family, 
the representative d(<bris of one of the old seig- 
norial lords of the country. ... an old chateau, 
hid in a valley alongside the river Aveyron, with 
hills and precipices on each side. An old coach, 
and coachman, and pair of black horses with long 
manes and tails, just as figured in old books. No 
neighbours.’ 
In view of this expedition, Owen only gave 
three lectures (on Fishes) at the Royal Institution, 
as Fullerian Professor, before starting for France. 
