OWEN 79 



published in book form in 1843 and in 1860-68 the 

 former a volume on the invertebrata, and the latter, in 

 three volumes, on the vertebrata ; and in 1855 another 

 series of lectures on the comparative anatomy and physi- 

 ology of the invertebrate animals was published in book 

 form, the volume occupying 689 pages of print, with 235 

 illustrations. In the concluding lecture Owen says : 



The invertebrated classes include the most numerous and diversified 

 forms of the Animal Kingdom. At the very beginning of our inquiries 

 into their vital powers and acts we are impressed with their important 

 relations to the maintenance of life and organization on this planet, 

 and their influence in purifying the sea and augmenting and enriching 

 the land relations of which the physiologist conversant only with the 

 vertebrated animals must have remained ignorant. 



These lectures were welcomed both in England and 

 on the Continent ; and in his work on the Archetype 

 and Homologies of the Vertebrate Skeleton he made at 

 the time a contribution of a high order to what may be 

 termed the philosophy of natural history, showing how 

 closely the bones, especially in the head, of vertebrate 

 animals conform to a general type ; but the ideas expressed 

 in this work limited his vision. This was a misfortune, 

 as his theory has been altered by the subsequent work 

 of embryologists. 



In his work on the Archetype he dissented from the 

 philosophy of Cuvier, and was inclined to that of Oken 

 and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. In matters of morphological 

 speculation Owen passed from the school of Cuvier into 



