From Richard Owen   20 September 1854

My dear Sir,

I lose no time in informing you that the tooth, which I received, with your note of the 1 ^st Sep. ^t, this morning, is, as your inscription rightly states, the upper molar tooth of an Ox, i.e., of a species of the genus Bos; it is of a young animal, and, owing to its incomplete state of formation, I have not been able, after much comparison, to determine satisfactorily whether it belongs to a large variety of the common Ox, or whether to a female of the Bos primigenius, or Bison-priscus.

I am sorry I cannot satisfy you & myself on this point, but I am always happy to do my best for kind & zealous fellow-investigators of Nature, like yourself. No apology is ever needed, in such cases, by

your’s most truly |Richard Owen

[P.S.] The tooth will be safely delivered when I see you early in November. R.O.