OWEN 81 



extinct reptiles of Great Britain, on the fossil belemnites 

 from the Oxford clay, on the wading land bird Gastornis 

 Parisiensis, etc., remain well-known classics. In 1877 

 he published two volumes, Researches on the Fossil 

 Remains of the Extinct Mammals of Australia, with a 

 Notice of the Extinct Marsupials of England, and in 

 1879 two volumes on the Extinct Wingless Birds of New 

 Zealand-, and even as late as 1889 he published mono- 

 graphs on fossil Keptilia and Cetacea. At the age of 

 eighty -five we find Owen at work on his favourite 

 subjects. This certainly upsets Oslerism, or " too old at 

 forty " ! And it should be borne in mind that the greatest 

 philosopher of the nineteenth century, Herbert Spencer, 

 did not commence writing his volumes on the Synthetic 

 Philosophy until the age of forty. 



In addition to the previously-mentioned researches, 

 by his numerous memoirs on Mesozoic land reptiles, to 

 which he gave the name of Dinosaurs, and a hundred or 

 more other pieces of work, Owen did inestimable service 

 to palaeontology. 



Owen excelled Cuvier in the accuracy of his work and 

 in the generalizing spirit which he brought to bear upon 

 his problems. Erroneous in some of his theories ; but 

 where is the worker who has not made faults 1 As 

 Liebig said, " The man who never made a fault never 

 worked." 



The working out of the structural contrasts between 



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