1848 49 ms VIEWS ON THE ARCHETYPE 3” 
British Association,” 1841, pp. 196-202). And I 
have no objection to your adding, as my reply to 
your inquiry of my present sentiments on the 
subject, that if the Creator has been pleased to 
employ in the production of organised species 
any secondary influences or causes — of which no 
satisfactory proof has been adduced present evi- 
dence, from anatomy and physiology, is against the 
hypothesis of the existence and operation in any 
living species of self-developing energies adequate 
to a change and exaltation of specific characters ; 
but that the actual state of anatomical and physio- 
logical science is suggestive of other secondary 
causes, which seem to me to be more probable 
as operative in the production of species than 
“ transmutation and development, as advocated 
by De Maillet and Lamarck ; but that these other 
“ secondary causes” are hypothetical, and require 
much additional observation and experimental 
testing before they can merit public attention.’ 
In 1848 his work ‘On the Archetype and 
Homologies of the Vertebrate Skeleton’ ap- 
peared. As early as 1846, at the British Associa- 
tion meeting held at Southampton, Owen put for- 
ward the views which he extended and explained in 
this book. These views were further illustrated 
in his work on the ‘ Anatomy of Fishes,’ and more 
especially in his book ‘ On the Nature of Limbs. 
Owen’s ideas were based upon the observations 
of Lorenz Oken, and were designed to show 
