THE VANQUISHER
VANQUISHED
See Also: THE CANNIBAL DEAN; CHARLES DARWIN T.H. Huxley; PHYSIOLOGY The
Hunterian Collection; MUSEUMS The Grant Museum; THE NATURAL
HISTORY MUSEUM; UNIVERSITIES
Imperial College, T.H. Huxley
In 1800
the government had purchased John Hunter's collection of anatomical
specimens. This had been lodged with the
Royal College of Surgeons. The body had
stated that it would produce a catalogue of the material so that its use could
be facilitated.
In the
mid-1820s Thomas Wakley and his progressive medical journal The Lancet
set themselves against the College in its unreformed condition. The institution's failure to create a
systematic description of the assemblage's contents furnished the publication
with a clear instance of one of the organisation's failings. To address the criticism, the College
committed resources to producing the reference work. Richard Owen, a physician by training, was
appointed to act as an assistant conservator on the project.
Owen
developed close links to the Zoological Society of London. In the early 1830s he was active as a
comparative anatomist. His work was
profoundly influenced by that of the French naturalist Georges Cuvier. Owen focused on vertebrates. He showed himself to be open to studying the
new species of animals that were being discovered around the world.1 He fostered a relationship with the Rev
Professor William Buckland.2
Under the don's influence, the lapsed doctor extended his range to
palaeontology. This broadening of his
interests was underscored in 1836 when H.M.S. Beagle completed her
global circumnavigation. The specimens
that Charles Darwin had collected during the voyage indicated new avenues for
research that might be pursued.
The
College promoted Owen to be its conservator in 1842. He was now a major figure in London s
scientific circles. He appreciated that
biology was changing. It was seeking to
address the question of how species had originated. He felt a need to participate in the
debate. However, he had limited
abilities as a theorist and made no contributions that proved to be
durable. Young British natural
scientists were becoming receptive to the new physiological ideas that were
emerging from Germany. The regard in
which Owen's relatively inflexible Cuvierian approach was held began to
decline.
During
the course of the 1840s Owen had come to find his situation within the College
to be increasingly restrictive. In 1851
he applied to be appointed as the head of the British Museum's geology
department. He was passed over. The same year T.H. Huxley returned from his
own extended sea voyage. He made adverse
public criticisms of the conservator's work.
However, within the government/scientific nexus Owen remained a
prominent figure. In 1856 the
superintendency of the Museum's natural history collection was conferred upon
him.
In 1860
the Edinburgh Review published Owen's dyspeptic review of Darwin's Origin
of Species. Huxley responded to this
by attacking the superintendent's scholarship.
Owen replied in kind. The
exchange had the effect of sidelining the museum official from the biological
community. His subsequent publications
were overwhelmingly about palaeontological subjects. Just as Robert Grant had failed to keep up with
scientific thought in the 1830s, so Owen had in the 1850s. He continued to be a culturally-f ted figure,
however, he had become a scholar of marginal standing in the field in which he
had forged his intellectual reputation.
During
the 1860s and 1870s Owen played the leading role in creating the Natural
History Museum.
Location:
The Royal College of Surgeons, 35-43 Lincoln's Inn Fields, WC2A 3PE (orange,
brown)
1. It was Owen who proved that the
platypus was a real animal and not an elaborate hoax.
2. Buckland's ecclesiastical career was
aided by Tory politicians the 2nd Earl of Liverpool and Sir Robert
Peel.
David
Backhouse 2024