PROFESSOR OWEN 
CH. X. 
312 
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,^ 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 
' Natural Science, 1893, P- 20. 
