202 Royal Imtitution. 



ward and forward movement at regular intervals. On the animal or 

 vegetable nature of the production he has no remarks to offer. 



The paper was accompanied by magnified drawings of Bacillaria 

 paradoxa in various stages of elongation and retraction ; and by very 

 highly magnified representations of its mode of fissiparous increase, 

 and of the markings on both its surfaces. 



Read also the commencement of a memoir "On the Vegetation of 

 the Galapagos Archipelago, as compared with that of some other 

 Tropical Islands and of the Continent of America." By Joseph Dal- 

 ton Hooker, Esq., M.D., F.L.S. &c. 



ROYAL INSTITUTION. 



Jan. 29, 1847. — " On the fundamental type and homologies of the 

 Vertebrate Skeleton." By Prof. Owen. 



The Professor commenced by alluding to the origin of anatomy in 

 the investigation of the human structure, in relation to the relief and 

 cure of disease and injuries ; and to the consequent creation of an 

 anatomical nomenclature, having reference solely to the forms, pro- 

 portions, likenesses and supposed functions of the parts of the human 

 body ; which were originally studied from an insulated point of view, 

 and irrespective of any other animal structure or any common type. 

 So, likewise, the veterinary surgeon had begun the study of the 

 anatomy of the horse in an equally independent manner, and had 

 given as arbitrary names to the parts which he observed. Thus, in 

 the head of a horse there was the " os quadratum ;" and in the foot 

 the "cannon-bone," the " great" and "small pastern-bones," the 

 " coronet," and " cofiBin-bones," &c. When the naturalist first sought 

 to penetrate beneath the superficial characters of the objects of his 

 study, their anatomy had often been conducted in the same insulated 

 and irrelative way. The ornithotomist, or dissector of birds, de- 

 scribed his "ossa homoidea," "ossa communicantia " seu "inter- 

 articularia," his " columella," his " os furcatorium" and " os quadra- 

 tum," the latter being quite a distinct bone from the " os quadratum" 

 of the hippotomist. The anatomiser of reptiles described " hatchet- 

 bones" and " chevron-bones," an " os cinguliforme" or " os en cein- 

 ture," and an " os transversum ; " he had also his " columella," but 

 which was a bone distinct from that so called in the bird. The 

 ichthyotomist described the " os discoideum," " os transversum," 

 " OS ccenosteon," " os mystaceum," " ossa symplectica," " prima," 

 " secunda," " tertia," " quarta," &c. Each at first viewed his sub- 

 ject independently and irrelatively ; and finding, therefore, appa- 

 rently new organs, created a new and arbitrary nomenclature for 

 them. 



After pointing out the impediments to a philosophical knowledge 

 of anatomy, from such disconnected attempts to master its complexi- 

 ties, and the almost impossibility of retaining in the memory such an 

 enormous load of names, many distinct ones signifying the same es- 

 sential part, whilst diflferent parts had received the same name. Prof. 

 Owen proceeded to demonstrate the principal results of the philoso- 



