On the extent and aims of a national museum of natural history : including the substances of a discourse on that subject, delivered at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, on the evening of Friday, April 26, 1861 / by Professor Owen.

Date:
1862
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the extent and aims of a national museum of natural history : including the substances of a discourse on that subject, delivered at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, on the evening of Friday, April 26, 1861 / by Professor Owen. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    invested most capital and received the largest returns for it in the slaughter of the Balcena mysticetus, might be expected to be that in which, when the animal itself had utterly passed away, would be preserved as a subject of wonder, con- templation, and study, to succeeding generations, the sole and unique taxidermal evidence of this marvel of creation. St. Petersburg justly boasts of the stuffed skin of its unique Mammoth : Madrid was as famous for its once unique Megatherium. Any capital in Europe would be eagerly visited by the Natu- ralist if a single specimen of the extinct Dodo were preserved in its national museum; but a dried head at Oxford, and a dried foot in the British Museum, are the sole examples of the skin of this strange bird which now exist. If the wealthiest maritime and commercial country should not think it worth while to preserve one specimen, or at least the skeleton, of the right whale, before the species becomes mere matter of history, it will be amenable to the same reflection which is cast upon the Dutch, who, intent only on killing the dodo to victual their ships as they touched at their Prince