It is all the more important to give to the general reader this warning, because an impression seems still to remain in the popular mind that Owen could and did restore extinct types from a single bone or a single tooth; but no anatomist would attribute to any mortal man such superhuman power. Let us, therefore, while gratefully acknowledging the debt we all owe to the great naturalist--who has gone to his rest since our first edition appeared--not attribute to him impossible things. Nor can it be denied that even he sometimes fell into error, or drew conclusions not borne out by later discoveries. It must also be confessed that in some respects he lagged behind in the march of scientific progress. While on this subject we cannot do better than quote some remarks of our friend, Mr. A. Smith Woodward, of the Natural History Museum, in an able review of Sir Richard's work on vertebrates.[15] He says, "Owen, in fact, was Cuvier's direct successor, and, apart from his striking hypotheses ..., it is in this character that he has left the deepest impression upon biological science. Extending and elaborating comparative anatomy as understood by Cuvier, Owen concentrated his efforts on utilising the results for the interpretation of the fossil remains--even isolated bones and teeth--of extinct animals. He never hesitated to deal with the most fragmentary evidence, having complete faith in the principles established by Cuvier; and it is particularly interesting, in the light of present knowledge, to study the long series of successes and failures that characterise his work. However, unwittingly, Owen may be said to have contributed most to the demolition of the narrow Cuvierian views. When dealing with animals closely related to those now living, his correctness of interpretation was usually assured; when treating of more remote types, he could do little more than guess, unless tolerably complete skeletons happened to be at his disposal.... "In short, Owen's work on fragmentary fossils has demonstrated that the principles of comparative anatomy are very different from those inferred by Cuvier from his limited field of observation, and the discoveries of Leidy, Marsh, Cope, Scott, and Osborn, in America, have finally led to a new era that Owen only began to foresee clearly in his later days." [15] _Natural Science_, ii. p. 130. (Feb. 1893.)