2Q2 PROFESSOR OWEN ch. IX. 



In 1847 Owen devoted much time to the 

 preparation of his work ' On the Archetype 

 and Homologies of the Vertebrate Skeleton/ 

 which came out in the following year. In the 

 month of January Charles Darwin was a fre- 

 quent visitor ; sometimes appearing at an early 

 hour. ' On January 7/ Mrs. Owen writes, 

 ' Mr. Darwin was here very early, before 

 breakfast. He and R. had a long discussion on 

 the subject of R.'s views on osteology and the 

 archetype. After breakfast R. brought out his 

 " Broadsheet of Osteology." Mr. Darwin quite 

 saw the force of that.' 



This ' Broadsheet of Osteology ' was a list or 

 table which Owen had drawn up of all the scientific 

 terms used by the most important English and 

 foreign naturalists when describing the various 

 bones of the vertebrate animals. The great 

 difficulty in the way of Owen's scientific writings 

 being generally read was the fact that, although 

 they often abounded in picturesque descriptions, 

 and certainly in rich and instructive revelations, 

 yet the frequency with which long compound 

 Latin and Greek words were used, quite unfitted 

 them to compete with more popular expositions. 

 And yet he, in reality, simplified and determined 

 to a great extent the language of comparative 

 anatomy. Often when preceding naturalists had 

 used different names in describing the same bone, 

 Owen avoided the confusion to which this gave 



