252 
PROFESSOR OWEN 
CH. VIII. 
tention to the concluding generalisation in my 
twelfth lecture, and to that on the “ Metamor- 
phoses of Insects,” where will be found, I believe, 
the first enunciation of the true law of the ana- 
logies manifested by the embryos of animals in 
their progress to their destined maturity. I will 
not prolong this letter by any further remarks that 
have arisen from the peru.sal of your work.’ 
On January 30, 1845, Whewell wrote to Owen 
inquiring if he had seen ‘ a book called “ Vestiges 
of Creation,” for I am told it is much talked of in 
London.’ He asks Owen’s opinion of the doc- 
trines therein set forth, and especially of the state- 
ment ‘ that animals in general may be arranged 
in a series proceeding from less to more perfect, 
in such a way that the more perfect in their foetal 
condition pass through the successive stages of 
the less perfect, the characters being taken from 
the vital centres, the brain or the heart, and the 
more perfect being the more complex.’ Whewell 
cannot ‘ imagine ’ that Owen ‘ can assent to any 
part of this scheme,’ and wishes to know his 
opinion as to ‘ what parts of it are most palpably 
false in physiology.’ He proceeds: ‘The first 
proposition ’ about the foetal stages ‘ we have 
heard a great deal of lately. Who is the main 
promulgator of it, and how far do you believe it ?’ 
In reply Owen wrote, February 3, 1845 : 
‘ Animals in general cannot be arranged in a 
series proceeding from less to more perfect in any 
