3i2 PROFESSOR OWEN ch. x. 



that all vertebrate structure might be reduced to 

 one single type, figured in one of the bones of the 

 human spine, from which ideal type he went on 

 to show that all other vertebrate structure could 

 be built up by an infinite variety of modifications. 

 He argued further that the skull of the vertebrated 

 animals was in fact only a modified arrangement 

 of four backbones — each modified vertebra having 

 an organ of sense, such as taste, smell, sight, and 

 so on, at the front or anterior part of its bony 

 ring. 



Dr. St. George Mivart, 1 in discussing Owen's 

 hypotheses, refers to the theory of the archetype, 

 held by both Oken and Owen, as one which, 

 he supposes, ' no one now maintains.' ' Never- 

 theless, these theories, when they were first 

 promulgated here, produced no slight effect, for 

 they drew many thoughtful minds towards ques- 

 tions of biology, and they roused an antagonism 

 which has also led to much valuable work. We 

 believe them to have been, in these different 

 ways, very serviceable to science, but we also 

 think that they embodied, or were the mis- 

 taken outcome of, some deep and very signi- 

 ficant truths which are, in general, far too little 

 appreciated, a wave of sentiment and the in- 

 fluence of a party (which could do much to make 

 or mar a young man's progress) having combined 



1 Natural Science, 1893, p. 20. 



