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87.09.27Preferred Citation:
Richard Owen to Ferdinand von Mueller, 1887-09-27. R.W. Home, Thomas A. Darragh, A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora, J.H. Voigt and Monika Wells (eds), Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, <https://vmcp.rbg.vic.gov.au/id/87-09-27>, accessed September 11, 2025
1
Letter not found. The version used here was published in Victorian naturalist, vol. 4, no. 8, December 1887, p. 119, under the heading 'Sir Richard Owen on an
embryo of Ornithorrhynchus, in a letter to Baron von Mueller'. M tabled Owen's letter
at a meeting of the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria on 14 November 1887, together
with a copy of Owen's published description of the undissected specimen that M had
sent him (Owen (1887)).
2
Near Kew, England.
My Dear Baron, —
I fear, you will think me both indifferent and ungrateful for your most friendly and
acceptable transmission of the embryo-ornithorrhynchus, — the wished for since 1832,
— and which on my eightieth birthday I concluded would enrich a successor in my line
of research; — but I wished to accompany my thanks with evidence of having made use
of my much longed-for rarity.
3
See Owen (1832).
4
Owen had acknowledged the arrival of the specimen as soon as he received it; see M
to R. Owen, 5 October 1886 (in this edition as 86-10-095a), and Owen's acknowledgment, R. Owen to M, 16 November 1886 (in this edition as
86-11-16b).
I could not make up my mind, to mutilate the unique specimen, — having confidence
in ultimate reception — (life and dissecting ability being spared) of a duplicate-subject
for the scalpel.
I trust you to be the expressor of my best thanks also to the Worthy and Reverend
Pastor Hagenauer.
The conclusion, which his unique specimen has brought me — at the actual stage of
evidence — is that, although skin-shelled eggs have been found in the nests of both
Ornithorrhynchus and Echidna, some degree of fœtal development has taken place prior
to exclusion, and that the Monotremes — like certain reptiles — are
ovo-viviparous
. To this I have become inclined through the opportunity, kindly offered in my eighty-third
year.
Believe me, dear Baron, with every good wish, yours gratefully and most truly,
RICHARD OWEN.
5
Owen's letter is followed (p. 120) by comments by the editor (see M to R. Owen, 1
December 1887, in this edition as 87-12-01a). The comment begins: 'it may not be inappropriate to observe, that Baron von Mueller
held also the view, that the small group of animals, above alluded to, must be regarded
as ovo-viviparous, Dr. Nicholson having obtained a soft-shelled egg from an Ornithorrhynchus
about 30 years ago near the Ovens-River'. The editor concluded his observations: 'Much
caution is evidently necessary in applying the latest discoveries, regarding the subject,
to discussions on evolution-theory.'