books, etc. He served on several public commissions, received a civil list pension, and all the honours and distinctions usually awarded to men of science. Among these may be mentioned that he was elected, on 25th April 1859, one of the eight foreign associates of the Académie des Sciences; and in 1884 Queen Victoria conferred a K.C.B. He was also a chevalier of the orders: Pour le Mérite, Légion d'Honneur, Sts Maurice and Lazarus of Italy, the Rose of Brazil and Leopold of Belgium. Owen was also LL.D. of Edinburgh and Cambridge, and D.C.L. of Oxford Universities; and he received medals from the Royal, Linnean, and Geological Societies, and the Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons. He was an honorary member of most of the learned academies and societies of the world. In fact, few men of science have ever received more numerous marks of distinction than Owen.
In 1852 Queen Victoria had shown her respect by granting him Sheen Lodge, Richmond Park; and there he lived for the remainder of his long life. Owen resigned his official post at the Natural History Museum in 1883, at the age of seventy-nine. Although full of years, he had lost little of his mental vigour, and he continued to work in his retirement.
To talk to Sir Richard Owen was to be struck by the vastness of his knowledge, and "the noble dignity of his personal character was in every way worthy of his fame." To be in his company was to feel that one was in the
