Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

OWEN, SIR RICHARD (1804–1892)

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V20, Page 394 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

OWEN, See also:SIR See also:RICHARD (1804–1892) , See also:English biologist, was See also:born at See also:Lancaster on the loth of See also:July 1804, and received his See also:early See also:education at the See also:grammar school of that See also:town. In 182o he was apprenticed to a See also:local surgeon and See also:apothecary, and in 1824 he proceeded as a medical student to the university of See also:Edinburgh. He See also:left the university in the following See also:year, and completed his medical course in St See also:Bartholomew's See also:Hospital, See also:London, where he came under the See also:influence of the eminent surgeon, See also:John See also:Abernethy. He then contemplated the usual professional career; but his See also:bent was evidently in the direction of anatomical See also:research, and he was induced by Abernethy to accept the position of assistant to See also:William Clift, See also:conservator of the museum of the Royal See also:College of Surgeons. This congenial occupation soon led him to abandon his intention of medical practice, and his See also:life henceforth was devoted to purely scientific labours. He prepared an important See also:series of catalogues of the Hunterian collection in the Royal College of Surgeons; and in the course of this See also:work he acquired the unrivalled knowledge of See also:comparative See also:anatomy which enabled him to enrich all departments of the See also:science, and specially facilitated his researches on the remains of See also:extinct animals. In 1836 he was appointed Hunterian See also:professor in the Royal College of Surgeons, and in 1849 he succeeded Clift as conservator. He held the latter See also:office until 1856, when he became See also:superintendent of the natural See also:history See also:department of the See also:British Museum. He then devoted much of his energies to a See also:great See also:scheme for a See also:National Museum of Natural History, which eventually resulted in the removal of the natural history collections of the British Museum to a new See also:building at See also:South See also:Kensington, the British Museum (Natural History). He retained office until the completion of this work in 1884, when he received the distinction of K.C.B., and thenceforward lived quietly in retirement at Sheen See also:Lodge, See also:Richmond See also:Park, until his See also:death on the 18th of See also:December 1892. While occupied with the cataloguing of the Hunterian collection, Owen did not confine his See also:attention to the preparations before him, but also seized every opportunity of dissecting fresh subjects. He was especially favoured with the See also:privilege of investigating the animals which died in the Zoological Society's gardens; and when that society began to publish scientific proceedings in 1831, he was the most voluminous contributor of anatomical papers.

His first notable publication, however, was his Memoir on the Pearly See also:

Nautilus (London, 1832), which was soon recognized as a classic. Henceforth he continued to make important contributions to every department of comparative anatomy and See also:zoology for a See also:period of over fifty years. In the See also:sponges Owen was the first to describe the now well-known " See also:Venus's See also:flower See also:basket " or Euplectella (1841, 1857). Among Entozoa his most noteworthy See also:discovery was that of Trichina spiralis (1835), the See also:parasite infesting the muscles of See also:man in the disease now termed trichinosis (see also, however, the See also:article on See also:PAGET, SIR See also:JAMES). Of See also:Brachiopoda he made very See also:special studies, which much advanced knowledge and settled the See also:classification which has See also:long been adopted. Among See also:Mollusca, he not only described the pearly nautilus, but also Spirula (1850) and other See also:Cephalopoda, both living and extinct; and it was he who proposed the universally-accepted subdivision of this class into the two orders of Dibranchiata and Tetrabranchiata (1832). The problematical Arthropod Limulus was also the subject of a special memoir by him in 1873. Owen's technical descriptions of the See also:Vertebrata were still more numerous and extensive than those of the invertebrate animals. His Comparative Anatomy and See also:Physiology of Vertebrates (3 vols., London, 1866—1868) was indeed the result of more See also:personal research than any similar work since See also:Cuvier's Lecons d'anatomie comparee. He not only studied existing forms, but also devoted great attention to the remains of extinct See also:groups, and immediately followed Cuvier as a See also:pioneer in vertebrate palaeontology. Early in his career he made exhaustive studies of See also:teeth, both of existing and extinct animals, and published his profusely illustrated work on Odontography (184o—1845) He discovered and described the remarkably complex structure of the teeth of the extinct animals which he named Labyrinthodonts. Among his writings on fishes, his memoir on the See also:African mud-See also:fish, which he named Protopterus, laid the See also:foundations for the recognition of the Dipnoi by Johannes See also:Miller.

He also pointed out later the serial connexion between the teleostean and ganoid fishes, grouping them in one sub-class, the Teleostomi. Most of his work on See also:

reptiles related to the skeletons of extinct forms, and his See also:chief See also:memoirs on British specimens were reprinted in a connected series in his History of British Fossil Reptiles (4 vols., London, 1849—1884). He published the first important See also:general See also:account of the great See also:group of Mesozoic See also:land-reptiles, to which he gave the now See also:familiar name of Dinosauria. He also first recognized the curious early Mesozoic land-reptiles, with See also:affinities both to amphibians and mammals, which he termed Anomodontia. Most of these were obtained from South See also:Africa, beginning in 1845 (Dicynodon), and eventually furnished materials fcr his See also:Catalogue of the Fossil Reptilia of South Africa, issued by the British Museum in 1876. Among his writings on birds, his classical memoir on the Apteryx (184o—1846), a long series of papers on the extinct Dinornithidae of New See also:Zealand, other memoirs on Aptornis, Notornis, the See also:dodo, and the great See also:auk, may be specially mentioned. His monograph on See also:Archaeopteryx (1863), the long-tailed, toothed See also:bird from the Bavarian lithographic See also:stone, is also an See also:epoch-making work. With regard to living mammals, the more striking of Owen's contributions relate to the monotremes, marsupials, and the anthropoid apes. He was also the first to recognize and name the two natural groups of typical Ungulate, the See also:odd-toed (See also:Perissodactyla) and the even-toed (See also:Artiodactyla), while describing some fossil remains in 1848. Most of his writings on mammals, however, See also:deal with extinct forms, to which his attention seems to have been first directed by the remarkable fossils collected by See also:Darwin in South See also:America. Toxodon, from the See also:pampas, was then described, and gave the earliest clear See also:evidence of an extinct generalized hoof See also:animal, a " pachyderm with affinities to the See also:Rodentia, See also:Edentata, and Herbivorous See also:Cetacea." Owen's See also:interest in South See also:American extinct mammals then led to the recognition of the See also:giant See also:armadillo, which he named See also:Glyptodon (1839), and to classic memoirs on the giant ground-sloths, See also:Mylodon (1842) and Megatherium (186o), besides other important contributions. At the same See also:time Sir See also:Thomas See also:Mitchell's discovery of fossil bones in New South See also:Wales provided material for the first of Owen's long series of papers on the extinct mammals of See also:Australia, which were eventually reprinted in See also:book-See also:form in 1877.

He discovered Diprotodon and Thylacoleo, besides extinct kangaroos and wombats of gigantic See also:

size. While occupied with so much material from abroad, Owen was also busily See also:collecting facts for an exhaustive work on similar fossils from the British Isles, and in 1844—1846 he published his History of British Fossil Mammals and Birds, which was followed by many later memoirs, notably his Monograph of the Fossil See also:Mammalia of the Mesozoic Formations (Palaeont. See also:Soc., 1871). One of his latest publications was a little work entitled Antiquity of Man as deduced from the Discovery of a Human See also:Skeleton during Excavations of the Docks at Tilbury (London, 1884). Owen's detailed memoirs and descriptions require laborious attention in See also:reading, on account of their nomenclature and ambiguous modes of expression; and the circumstance that very little of his terminology has found universal favour causes them to be more generally neglected than they otherwise would be. At the same time it must be remembered that he was a pioneer in concise anatomical nomenclature; and, so far See also:ROBERT at least as the vertebrate skeleton is concerned, his terms were based on a carefully reasoned philosophical scheme, which first clearly distinguished between the now familiar phenomena of " See also:analogy " and " homology." Owen's theory of the Archetype and Homologies of the Vertebrate Skeleton (1848), subsequently illustrated also by his little work On the Nature of Limbs (1849), regarded the vertebrate See also:frame as consisting of a series of fundamentally identical segments, each modified according to its position and functions. Much of it was fanciful, and failed when tested by the facts of See also:embryology, which Owen systematically ignored throughout his work. However, though an imperfect and distorted view of certain great truths, it possessed a distinct value at the time of its conception. To the discussion of the deeper problems of biological See also:philosophy he made scarcely any See also:direct and definite contributions. His generalities rarely extended beyond strict comparative anatomy, the phenomena of See also:adaptation to See also:function, and the facts of See also:geographical or See also:geological See also:distribution. His lecture on " virgin See also:reproduction " or parthenogenesis, however, published in 1849, contained the essence of the theory of the germ-plasm elaborated later by See also:August See also:Weismann; and he made several vague statements concerning the geological See also:succession of genera and See also:species of animals and their possible derivation one from another. He referred especially to the changes exhibited by the successive forerunners of the crocodiles (1884) and horses (1868); but it has never become clear how much of the See also:modern doctrines of organic See also:evolution he admitted.

He contented himself with the See also:

bare remark that " the inductive demonstration of the nature and mode of operation " of the See also:laws governing life would " henceforth be the great aim of the philosophical naturalist." See The Life of Richard Owen, by his See also:grandson, Rev. Richard Owen (2 vols., London, 1894). (A. S.

End of Article: OWEN, SIR RICHARD (1804–1892)

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
OWEN, SIR HUGH (1804-1881) 		[next]
OWENS, JOHN (1790-1846)

Site © 2006 - Net Industries