211 
EEYIEWS. 
THE COMPARATIVE ANATOMY OF VERTEBRATE 
ANIMALS.* 
P ROFESSOR OWEN’S great and long-expected treatise has at last 
appeared. The present work will complete the outline of the organiza- 
tion of the animal kingdom which was begun nearly a quarter of a century 
ago ; but we hardly think it will satisfy those who are earnestly engaged in 
anatomical investigations. In fact, if truth must be told, the volume which 
Messrs. Longmans have just issued, is worthy to rank with that published in 
1843, but is scarcely what we should have expected from one of the greatest 
comparative anatomists of the age writing in the year 1865. Still it is a 
fine one, well written, well illustrated — although most of the woodcuts are 
old ones, — and full of valuable information. What we find fault with most, 
is the tendency which the author shows to underrate the observations of 
anatomists who oppose his own peculiar views, and to strain every point to 
support speculations which are little better than creations of a mind addicted 
to the formation of false analogies. Professor Owen’s archetype theory is a 
very beautiful one, and it is so ingeniously worked out, and appeals so vividly 
to the imagination, that it has great power of fascination for the enthusiastic 
philosopher. But a candid and careful examination of the evidence upon 
which it is based, must convince every unprejudiced observer that it is an 
over-generalization — a too-extended analogy. If the idea were simply to be 
regarded as a phantasy, we should not object to it ; but when Professor 
Owen says that his archetype is the great scheme upon which all vertebrate 
animals have been constructed, he affirms as a truth that which is only a 
speculation ; and he conveys an idea of the Almighty power which is abso- 
lutely degrading to the Creator, and which fails to satisfy the reason of the 
creature. Savants of the Bridgewater school, though their intentions are of 
the best order, have tripped in their transcendentalism in measuring the 
projects of the Creator from the narrow stand-point of their own minds. 
However they may express the train of reasoning which leads them to the 
construction of an archetype, it really comes pretty nearly to this : “ If we, 
as men, had to undertake the construction of a series of organisms, of different 
degrees of complexity, we should lay down a general plan — simple at first, 
—and we should gradually improve upon it, till we reached the highest point 
* “ On the Anatomy of Vertebrates.” Vol. I., “ Fishes and Reptiles.” By 
Richard Owen, F.R.S. London : Longmans & Co. 1866. 
