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 school of St Bartholomew's Hospital. During these days he was prosector to Abernethy, and in 1826 he obtained the Diploma of the Royal College of Surgeons. Having completed his medical studies, he began to practise as a medical man at 11 Cook's Court, Lincoln's Inn Fields; but from the beginning of his career he was much more interested in scientific pursuits than in strictly professional duties. In 1828, at the age of twenty-four, and knowing his great skill as a dissector, Owen was, at the suggestion of Abernethy, invited to act as assistant curator of the Hunterian collection in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, of which Mr William Clift was curator; and in the same year he was appointed lecturer on comparative anatomy at St Bartholomew's Hospital. His duties at the Royal College were to catalogue the great collection of Hunter, whose manuscript had been lost. The collection meant the examination and description of no less than 3970 specimens. He was equal in every respect to this great task, as his subsequent genius proved.

In 1830 Cuvier visited England, and Owen made his personal acquaintance, and the following year visited Paris. Cuvier at this time was busy on his great work on fishes, which made a great impression on Owen, so much so that he attributed his subsequent work on palæontology to "the debt which he owed to Cuvier."

On 1st August 1831, during his visit to Paris, he went