Februaky >2, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



211 



the age of Oken, St. Hilau-c and Ciivier, and 

 tlie age (if the modern school of morpholo- 

 gists. He made no special eontrilrations to 

 comparative embryology ; he was guiltless 

 of histology and of microscopic techui(iue. 

 His ideas and lines of thought and work 

 were a fusion of Okenism and of the 

 doctrine of correlation of organs biuglit 

 by Cuvier, with perhaps a slight infus- 

 ion of the transformationist school of 

 France. Like some of the fossil forms 

 which he restored with masterly skill 

 and philosophic insight, he was in a sense 

 a synthetic or prophetic type of naturalist. 

 For example, he declined when asked to at- 

 tack the ' Vestiges of Creation ', rather 

 sjTnpathizing with the views put forth in 

 that book; bnt also objected to become a 

 loyal disciple of his friend, Darwin. He 

 partiallj- accepted the general doctrine of 

 evolution ; but though his ^■iews were vagne 

 and nnformed. like many others perhaps in 

 the period between ISM) and 1870, he prob- 

 ably felt tliat Natural Selection was not a 

 sole, eflicient cause, though believing in the 

 orderly evolution of life bj- secondary law. 

 We find in this life no statement from 

 Owen's own letters or journals regarding his 

 attitude to tlie doctrine of natural selection. 

 Either he was late in life somewliat iudifter- 

 ent, or he was guarded in speaking or writ- 

 ing of the matter. Oertainly there are no 

 grounds for the statement sometimes made 

 that he showed outright ' hostility ' to Dar- 

 winism, unless his Athenfeum article be re- 

 garded <as such. In Owen's evidence before 

 Mr. Gregory's committee regarding the re- 

 moval of the Natural History Collection to 

 South Kensington his biographer tells us : 

 "Owen made some interesting remarks con- 

 cerning Darwin's work on the 'Origin of 

 Species," just published, which helps to 

 strengthen the impression that he was at 

 first much taken with the new views, and felt 

 the same friendliness toward them as he liad 

 previously shown to tlie views expressed in 



the ' Vestiges of Creation.' " Owen remarks 

 concerning the arrangement of the new mu- 

 seum : " With regard to birds, I must say 

 that not only would I exhibit every species, 

 but I see clearly, in tlie present plan of na- 

 tural history pliilosophy, that we .shall be 



compelled to exhibit varieties also 



As to showing you the varieties of those 

 species, or anj- of those phenomena that 

 would aid one in getting at the mystery of 

 mysteries, the origin of species, our space 

 does not permit : " and again he replies to 

 a question of the chairman : "I must sjiy 

 that the number of intellectual individuals 

 interested in the great question which is 

 mooted in Mr. Darwin's book is far beyond 

 the small class expressly concerned in sci- 

 entific research." 



Owen's controversial papers, as well as his 

 statements of scientific belief, were at times 

 vague and a grain oracular, and were jire- 

 sented in a labored style, quite different from 

 that of his letters and popular lectures, or 

 even his work on Archetypes, the style of 

 which has been characterized as 'clear and 

 forcible.' Darwin in the well known refer- 

 ence to Owen's views in the Historical 

 Sketch prefacing the sixth edition of the 

 Origin of Species was, he says, 'completely 

 deceived' by such expressions as ' the con- 

 tinuous operation of creative power,' and he 

 was ajiparently unable to determine wliat 

 his real opinions were, and was evidently 

 piqued and disappointed that the great an- 

 atomist, his old scientific friend of many 

 years, did not accept the doctrine of natural 

 selection. On p. 91 his biographer states : 

 '• If not 'dead against' the theory of natural 

 selection, Owen at first looked askance at it, 

 prefeiTing the idea of the great scheme of 

 Nature which he had himself advanced. 

 He was of the opinion that the operation of 

 external influences and the resulting 'con- 

 test of existence ' lead to certain sjiecies be- 

 coming extinct. Thus it came about, he 

 supi)osed, that, like the dotlo in recent times, 



