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OWEN, RICHARD. 



OWEN, RICHARD. 



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of peace in 1S14. He returned to school, and afterward* became 

 the pupil at Mr. Baxendale, a Burgeon in Lancuter. In 1824 he 

 repaired to the University of Edinburgh for the purpose of completing 

 hie me Jical education. Here be became a pupil of Dr. Kirclay, and 

 under his teaching a taste which he had acquired for comparative 

 anatomy became confirmed. In 1825 be came to London, and entered 

 ai a atudent of St. Bartholomew's Hospital. Here he speedily attracted 

 the attention of John Abernetby, then surgeon to the hospital, and 

 lecturer on anatomy, who discovering the talents of his new pupil at 

 once engaged his assistance in the dissecting room as prosector. In 

 almost every country but England such ability as young Owen dis- 

 played would have advanced him in the institution of which he was 

 so distinguished a pupil. But tho system of favouritism pursued in 

 the London hospitals precluded his advancement in the school of St. 

 Bartholomew's, although backed by so great an influence as that of 

 the distinguished Abernetby. Tho consequence was that British 

 science had a narrow escape of losing one of her greatest names. In 

 1826 Owen became a member of the College of Surgeons, and now 

 having nothing else to do his old longing for the sea returned. He 

 found no difficulty from his old connection with the Admiralty in 

 obtaining a situation as an assistant-surgeon. Having done this, he 

 called to tike his farewell of his eccentric friend and master at St. 

 Bartholomew's. This interview has been narrated in an article on 

 Professor Owen's labours in the ' Quarterly Review,' and is too charac- 

 teristic to be omitted in this biographical notice. " ' What is all this ?' 

 said Abernethy; 'where are you going?' ' Going to sea, Sir.' 'Going 

 to sea going to the devil ! ' 'I hope not, sir.' ' Go to sea ! you had 

 better, 1 tell you, go to the devil at once,' reiterated glorious John, 

 dwelling on tho temptations, the difficulties, the loss of time and fame, 

 that must be the result of so rash a step, and insisting on another 

 interview after the pause of a week. Owen revisited his rough but 

 downright friend at the expiration of that time, when Abernethy pro- 

 posed an appointment at the College of Surgeons. This was accepted : 

 our youthful anatomist found himself happily associated with one of 

 congenial mind, and so the navy lost a good officer, and science gained 

 one of her brightest ornaments." 



This appointment arose out of the possession by the College of 

 Surgeons of John Hunter's great museum. This wonderful collection 

 bad been entrusted to the care of the College, but except for the devo- 

 tion of Hr. Clift, the able assistant of John Hunter, who devoted his 

 life to preserving the specimens it contained intact, little of it might 

 have been left for the genius of Owen to work upon. Much of Hunter's 

 manuscript had been lost or destroyed, and in order to make the 

 museum subservient to science, an accurate catalogue was a first 

 necessity. It was to this work that Owen now applied himself. 

 Although a herculean task, no more fitting field for the development 

 of the genius of Owen could have been found. In order to identify 

 the specimens in the Hunterian collection, he was obliged in a large 

 number of coses to dissect and examine fresh specimens. In this 

 manner volume after volume of the catalogue appeared, till at the end 

 of thirty years the whole was printed a work of scarcely inferior value 

 and importance to the museum itself. This catalogue, which involved 

 the examination of nearly four thousand specimens, was illustrated 

 by seventy -eight plates. It was thus that Owen earned for himself 

 the reputation of the first of curators, and was able to give complete 

 instructions on this, perhaps the humblest department of the labours 

 of the naturalist. In 1885 he published ' Directions fur collecting and 

 preserving Animals and parts of Animals for Anatomical purposes' 

 (London, 4to). In 1849 he contributed to a 'Manual of Scientific 

 Knquiry, prepared for the use of H.M. Navy,' ' Instructions for Col- 

 lecting and Preserving Animals.' This study of the Hunterian 

 specimens yielded however higher results than the vast catalogue 

 itself. Whilst working at the form and structure of the animals which 

 the diligence of Hunter had brought together, new ideas were suggested, 

 new paths of inquiry were opened up, and discoveries were made in 

 every direction. The 'Transactions' of the Royal, Zoological, and 

 Geological societies, the ' Reports ' of the British Association, and the 

 'Annals' and 'Magazine of Natural History,' with numerous inde- 

 pendent works, bear testimony to an activity seldom equalled, perhaps 

 never surpassed. Owen's career will bear comparison with the most 

 brilliant names in the past or present generations. Huuibol.lt speaks 

 of liim as the greatest anatomist of his age, and another eminent writer 

 calls him the Newton of natural history. 



In endeavouring to estimate the services rendered by Professor 

 Owu to science, his writings must be regarded from several points of 

 view: first as a comparative anatomist and physiologist, next as a 

 zoologist, then as a paleontologist, and lastly as the philosophical 

 exponent of the general laws regulating the forms and development 

 of animal life. As an anatomist, contributing largely to our know- 

 ledge of the internal structure of the various members of the animal 

 kingdom, he takrs a first place. As examples of his labour* in this 

 direction, many of his contributions to the ' Transactions ' and ' Pro- 

 ceedings' of the Zoological Society, and the 'Cyclopedia of Anatomy 

 and I'hysiology,' may be taken. These works comprise accounts of 

 the dissections of numerous animals not hitherto accurately examined 

 or new to science. Amongst the higher forms of Mammalia,, the 

 family of Quadi-Knana have been most copiously illustrated. The 

 following are some of the most important paj*r on these animals : 



' On the Anatomy of the Orang Utan ' (' Proc. ZooL Soc.,' i.) ; 'On the 

 Cranium of the Orang Utan' (ibid, v.) ; 'Dissection of a Female 

 Orang Utan ' (ibid, xii.) ; 'On the Comparative Osteology of the Orang 

 and Chimpanzee' (ibid, iii.) ; ' On the Dissection of a Female Chimpan- 

 zee' (ibid, 1848) : also a series of papers in the ' Transactions,' entitled 

 ' Osteologies! Contributions to the Natural History of the Chimpanzee.' 

 In these papers ho established the existence of a second specie* of 

 Troglodyte*, the T. Gorilla, a gigantic species of Chimpanzee, dis- 

 covered by Dr. Savage in the Gaboon country, West Africa. A more 

 complete account of this creature was given at the last Liverpool 

 meeting of the British Association, and formed the subject of one of 

 the evening meetings at that place. Several other papers have been 

 devoted to the auatomy of this family. 



The next order of Mammalia is the Carnivora. Papers on the 

 anatomy of the Kiukajou, the Thibet Bear, the IV.is jubata, the 

 Lion, the Tiger, the Seal, and other forms of this family, indicate the 

 attention which this group of animals has received from our great 

 naturalist. The anatomy of many of these creatures has been studied 

 with reference to extinct forms of the same family. This has also 

 been the cose with the Edentata, a small order of existing animals, 

 but having the highest interest iu relation to extinct forms. Thu 

 Armadilloes and the Sloths engaged the attention of Professor Owen, 

 in order to throw light on the structure of their congeners in the post 

 the Megatherium, the Mylodon, and the Glyptodon. 



The other forms of Mammalia have been the subject of many 

 important observations, but we pass over them to draw attention to 

 the interesting family of the Mariupiahi. These animals, representing 

 in their habits and structure all the other forms of Mammalia, were 

 regarded by some naturalists as marsupiate forms of the other orders. 

 It was left for Owen to demonstrate the essential unity of this group 

 of animals. He demonstrated the imperfection of their brain, tho 

 structure of the marsupuis or pouch ; he examined the history of the 

 development of the young, and supplied an amount of information 

 with regard to their structure and habits that has secured their 

 position in the animal scale. The papers devoted to the anatomy of 

 these animals are scattered through the ' Philosophical Transactions,' 

 the ' Proceedings ' and ' Transactions ' of tho Zoological Society, and the 

 ' Reports ' of the British Association. A raumt of bis labours and 

 views on this family is contained in the article ' Marsupialia,' in the 

 ' Cyclopaedia of Anatomy and Physiology.' Some of the most valuable 

 remarks on tho structure of the Monotremata, comprising the Orni- 

 thorhyncut and the Echidna, have been uia le by Professor Owen in 

 his papers on these animals. Before leaving the Mammalia we ought 

 to refer to the various papers of Professor Owen on the Ruminanlia, 

 which have thrown much light on tho structure and nature of both 

 recent ami fossil species of these animals. 



Tho great class of Birds has not received less notice than the 

 Mammalia. Numerous notices of dissections of recent birds have 

 been published. These prepared the way for the more searching and 

 exhaustive inquiries with regard to the extinct birds of New Zealand, 

 which resulted in the discovery of the extinct genus, JJinoritii, tho 

 most gigantic form of birds, and the detection nud description of a large 

 number of species of this genus, and of several other allied genera. 



The anatomy of recent Reptiles and Fishes has also been largely 

 illustrated by Professor Owen, especially in their relations to extinct 

 forms. 



Amongst his papers on the Invertebrate animals we may especially 

 refer to his ' Memoir on the Pearly Nautilus,' published in 1832, in 

 which the anatomy of this creature was fully described, and a new 

 classification of the family of Cephalopodous Mvlltuca, to which it 

 belonged, proposed. This was followed by other papers on the 

 Cephalopodous Mvlliuca, confirmatory of tho views he had originally 

 taken of their structure and organisation. An extensive series of 

 observations on the lower forms of JHoUuica, including especially a 

 paper on the structure of the Brachiopoda, uiul the articles ' Mollusca' 

 and 'Cephalopoda' in the ' Cyclopaxlia of Anatomy and Physiology,' 

 indicated the amount of labour and attention bestowed on this great 

 group of animals. 



The second great group of Invertebrate animals, the Articulate 

 animals, has also been extensively examined by Professor Owen. The 

 articles ' Articulata ' aud Kutozoa,' in the ' Cyclopedia of Anatomy 

 and Physiology/ and papers on the ' Crustacea ' and ' Arachnida,' are 

 the witnesses of tho attention paid to these animals. 



In the investigation of the structure of the organisation of animals 

 Professor Owen was 0110 of the first in this country to apply the micro- 

 scope and appreciate its value. He was one of the founders, and 

 the first president, of the Microscopical Society. In his researches on 

 the structure of the higher animals, ho was naturally led to study 

 closely the structure of the tooth. Only loose views of their intri- 

 cate structure prevailed at this time, but by the application of tho 

 microscope he laid the foundations of an accurate knowledge of their 

 true structure, and gave to the world a large series of original investi- 

 gations on this subject. Many of these investigations are contained 

 in separate papers, but hit accumulated observations on the micro- 

 scopic appearances of teeth were published in a work entitled ' Odonto- 

 graphy.' This work embraces the entire subject of the structure of 

 the teeth of the animal kingdom, and ia copiously illustrated with a 

 series of drawings of their microsopic appearance. The microscope 



