ABSTRACT
The terms o f the Robert Rede lectures, endowed in 1524 by him, were reorganised in 1858 so that just one lecture per year in term time was to be delivered by a man of eminence in science or literature, appointed annually by the vice-chancellor. The first lecturer was Owen who in May 1859 spoke about die classification and distribution of mammals. He repeated his view, first given in 1857, that the human brain had unique structural features; and in his peroration expatiated on the uniqueness o f humans as the supreme work o f the Maker. These views were underpinned by Owen’s belief that the diversity o f life, past and present, was the result o f the embodiment of a divine idea in successive, diverse, and intricately adapted forms o f life. From early 1860 Owen became the fiercest and most implacable o f the opponents o f Darwinian evolution.11
