248 
PROFESSOR OWEN 
CH. IX. 
CHAPTER IX 
1883-92 
‘Notes on Bii-ds in my Garden ’-Love of Poetry- Retirement 
from the Museum and made a K.C.B., iS84-Life at Sheen 
Lodge— Love of Chess, Music, and Gardening-Letters to his 
Grandson-Paralytic Stroke, 1890- Last Illness and Death, 
1892. 
In 1883 Owen received from PTederic Cuvier 
the present of a seal which had belonged to 
Georges Cuvier. The high value that he placed 
upon this important relic is shown by his reply to 
his ‘ dear and truly esteemed friend : ’ 
‘ For such is the relation in which I have 
ever held yourself, bearing the honoured name 
of the great teacher from whom I received my 
final instructions, as pupil at the Jardin des 
Plantes, in the sciences I have since cultivated. 
Whatever success may have attended my labours 
IS due to the principles there inculcated, and to 
the example there manifested. I was favoured 
by admission at 6 a.m. to the laboratory, where 
the master examined and noted the characters of 
the subjects of his last great work, “ Sur les 
Poissons.” 
