Twentieth Century History of Findlay and Hancock County, Ohio, and Representative Citizens, Part 105

Author: Jacob Anthony Kimmell
Publication date: 1910
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1189

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EARLY EDUCATION.

Soon after leaving school Richard Owen was apprentis: to " Leonard Dickson, of Lancaster, Surgeon and Ax- cary," as his indenture dated August 11, 1820, shows !. cording to the terms of this document Owen was to be ;. vided by his mother with "meat, drink, washing and Ic ing, and also decent and suitable clothes and wearing .: parel," and his master was on his part to teach him "arts, businesses, professions, and mysteries of a sors : apothecary and man midwife, with every circumstance - lating thereto."

Mr. Dickson died two years after, and Richard Owen ve " assigned, transferred, and turned over" by the execc .. to Joseph Seed for the term of five years, the indenture this transfer bearing the date of June 19, 1822. The !! lowing year Mr. Seed accepted a post as surgeon in : Royal Navy, and Owen was again transferred, by an inka- ture dated December 13, 1823, to James Stockdale Harrisz. "Surgeon and Apothecary."

There is appended to the indenture to Seed a certificate : Joseph Seed's handwriting, which contains the following paragraph :

Mr. Richard Owen's general conduct during the time he vx with me has my highest commendation, and at all times I sta be happy to bear testimony to his most deserving merit, as well as to his respectability.

(Signed)

J. SEED,

Surgeon Royal Navy.

Lancaster, January 10, 1827.

The terms of Owen's surgical apprenticeship at Lancaster were never carried out to the full. In October, 1824. & matriculated at Edinburgh University. Some of his lech cards of admission are still preserved. We gather from the: that he attended, besides numerous other lectures, the ats- tomical lectures of Monro (tertius) ; but as that worthy gel- tleman was in the habit of lecturing-so Owen had remarks: -from the notes used by his grandfather and his father, br: of whom had successively occupied the chair of anatomy be fore him, these lectures were found to be neither of particuls: interest nor yet sufficiently up to date. So Owen was co- strained to attend the outside course given by Dr. Barclay on practical anatomy, and anatomy and surgery. Though this was an extra which he could ill afford, still he never N- gretted it, for of all his teachers at Edinburgh it was to D. John Barclay that he owed the most. Many times had Omen spoken of the influence that Dr. John Barclay had on his early career, and the sincere affection with which he inspires him. At this time there were but two lecturers on anatomy in Edinburgh-Dr. Monro and Dr. Barclay. Liston entered the arena as number three.

At the end of April, 1825, Dr. Barclay strongly advised Owen to move to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London, and study under Abernethy. After some consideration, Owen decided to do so, and obtained his college certificates forth- with, all of which are in existence.

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barmus in fis certificate : " I had much reason to be satis-

with the mode of his attendance, and the manner in ch he prosecuted these branches of his medical studies " atomy and surgery).

ut Dr. Barclay's chief recommendation was a private let- to his friend Abernethy, which he gave to Owen to take to don with him.

wen was a perfect stranger when he arrived in London. only connection which he had with his northern friends Dr. John Barclay's letter of introduction to Dr. Aber- y. This, however, subserved a most useful purpose.

.bernethy had just finished lecturing when Owen arrived St. Bartholomew's Hospital. He received Owen rather fly. Owen presented his letter of introduction from Dr. clay. Abernethy read it hurriedly, stuffed it into his tet and made an appointment with Owen to breakfast with at eight o'clock the next morning.

Then Owen presented himself at Abernethy's residence next morning he anticipated anything but an agreeable 'erence with the great physician and surgeon. He found , to his great surprise, considerably smoothed down and e pleasant in manner. The result of this meeting was, Abernethy offered him the post of prosector for his ires.

o young Owen this was a very desirable position. It essed several obvious advantages. The prosector was re- ed of the necessity of purchasing his own subjects for ection-no inconsiderable item of expenditure then. This xpected source of revenue was indeed a saving grace to young medical student. Owen's father, having suffered re financial loss, died of a broken heart in 1809, when the Richard was but five years old. The mother and six Iren, two sons and four daughters, were not left penni- but their means of support were quite meager. For these ons Richard Owen was early largely thrown upon his own irces.

om such a chief as Abernethy, Owen could not fail to t. His prosectorship brought with it another decided ad- ige-the subjects provided for the lectures were in a much ler and fresher condition, comparatively speaking, than usually the case in those ever-memorable body-snatching

To the mind of your humble speaker, this so-called y-snatching " epoch forms one of the most interesting is in the whole history of medicine. The wonderful of John Hunter's persevering efforts to obtain the body Brien, the Irish giant, who died in 1783, should be read iry medical student.

a rule, Owen fared well at the hands of his professor, bernethy; but on one occasion he provoked Abernethy ger. The lecture was on the human kidney, which had duly prepared. But, unfortunately, in the process paration the adrenal gland became detached, owing, most to its not being quite so fresh as it might have been, n a great hurry, the prosector carefully fixed it on -but to the wrong end of the kidney. Abernethy's ex-

pianations were somewhat far advanced before he found this out, and not looking very closely at the specimen he held in his hand, he was elaborately describing its structure, as if it had been a normal kidney. When he discovered the error committed, he did not let the occasion pass without bestowing a few flowers of speech upon his young friend.

PROFESSIONAL CAREER.

On August 18, 1826, Owen obtained his membership of the Royal College of Surgeons. He had then just entered his twenty-third year. His diploma is signed by twelve great men, the three most familiar ones being John Abernethy, . Astley Cooper and Everard Home (John Hunter's brother- in-law).

Owen set up as a medical practitioner at 11 Cook's Court, Carey Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, and gradually secured a small practice among the lawyers. He also diligently visited the poorer classes of the neighborhood.

John Hunter having died in 1793, his rare, valuable and unusually complete collections numbering 3970 specimens were purchased by the government for the sum of $75,000 and given into the custody of the Royal College of Surgeons. Down to this time (1826) these Hunterian collections had been sadly neglected. For twenty-five years Sir Everard Home was " going to " prepare a descriptive catalogue of the collec- tions which had been transferred by the government from John Hunter's temporary museum in Castle Street to the Royal College of Surgeons.

Owen's peculiar ability as a dissector had not escaped the eagle eye of Abernethy, then president of the Royal College of Surgeons. Abernethy, who was much concerned at the neglect of the collections formed by John Hunter, which had recently been purchased by the government and handed over to the care of the college, insisted on his old pupil, Richard Owen, undertaking their arrangement. As Abernethy said : " The collection was located near his (Owen's) private resi- dence; he could devote his leisure hours to the work; there was no one else equally qualified to do so." Owen undertook the task, and was thus associated with William Clift, at that time conservator of the college museum, and who subsequently became his father-in-law.

In the year 1828 Owen was appointed lecturer on com- . parative anatomy at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, an appoint- ment which was the starting point of his career as a lecturer. Early in 1834 Owen was appointed professor of comparative anatomy at St. Bartholomew's.

In April, 1836, Owen was appointed Hunterian professor at the Royal College of Surgeons. To the last days of his life he constantly referred to the gratification which this ap- pointment gave him. As Hunterian professor it was Owen's special duty to deliver twenty-four annual lectures, as il- lustrative of Hunter's collections.

On the retirement of Sir Charles Bell, of Bell's paralysis fame, from the professorship of anatomy and physiology in the Royal College of Surgeons, in the early part of 1837, Owen was elected to the vacant chair. Owen's full title then

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became " Hunterian Professor and Professor of Anatomy and Physiology in the Royal College of Surgeons."

Owen now (in 1837) began gradually to relinquish his medical practice in order to devote the whole of his time to scientific research. He had been a practitioner of medicine and surgery for eleven years.

On May 2, 1837, at 5 o'clock p. m., Professor Owen de- livered his first Hunterian lecture. The subject of this course of lectures was the microscopical structure and nature of the teeth.

On June 19, 1837, Owen was elected Fullerian professor of comparative anatomy and physiology to the Royal Insti- tution. This professorship Owen was obliged to decline.

Owen filled the position of Hunterian professor of anatomy and physiology at the Royal College of Surgeons for a period of twenty years (1836 to 1856). On May 26, 1856, Owen was appointed superintendent of the natural history depart- ment of the British Museum, at a salary of 800 pounds (about $4000) a year. This appointment was originally sug- gested by Lord Macaulay. The office of superintendent was generally understood to have been created expressly for Owen.

Long after Macaulay had abandoned all other public busi- ness, he continued to occupy himself in the administration of the British Museum. In February, 1856, he wrote to Lord Lansdowne with the view of securing that old friend's potent influence in favor of an arrangement by which Professor Owen might be placed in a position worthy of his reputation and of his services. The following is an extract from Macaulay's letter to Lord Lansdowne, in which he proposes that Profes- sor Owen should be constituted superintendent of the whole department of natural history, including geology, zoology, bot- any and mineralogy.

Macaulay writes :

I cannot but think that this arrangement would be beneficial in the highest degree to the Museum. I am sure it would be popular. I must add that I am extremely desirous that some- thing should be done for Owen. I hardly know him to speak to. His pursuits are not mine; but his fame is spread over Europe. He is an honour to our country, and it is painful to me to think that a man of his merit should be approaching old age amidst anxieties and distresses. He told me that eight hundred a year (meaning 800 pounds a year) without a house in the Museum, would be opulence to him. He did not, he said, even wish for more. He seems to me to be a case for public patronage. Such patronage is not needed by eminent literary men or artists. A poet, a novelist, an historian, a painter, a sculptor, who stood in his own line as high as Owen stands among men of science, could never be in want except by his own fault. But the greatest nat- ural philosopher may starve while his countrymen are boasting of his discoveries, and while foreign Academies are begging for the honor of being allowed to add his name to their list.

Professor Owen entered upon the duties of his new office, that of superintendent of the natural history department of the British Museum, on June 8, 1856. This position Pro- fessor Owen held for twenty-eight years, or until he had almost reached the eightieth year of his age.

The superintendency gave Professor Owen an opportunity to do a little outside work. In 1857 Professor Owen was ap-

pointed lecturer on paleontology at the Royal Schxl Mines. His first lecture was given on February 26, st ce Museum of Practical Geology. Amongst the audience, & c: entry in the diary shows, were many old friends: Dr. Lite; stone, Frank Buckland, the Duke of Argyll, with his se Sir Charles Lyell and Sir Roderick Murchison.

Towards the end of 1857 Owen was offered and actey- an appointment which some years previously, while at . Royal College of Surgeons he was obliged to decline; it ve the Fullerian professorship of physiology at the Royal Ins: tution of Great Britain.

PRIVATE LIFE.

Professor Owen was one of the most affable of men. E. home-life was ideal. In scientific circles he was universe .; loved and respected. Even those whose views ran counter: his own always dealt with him with the highest considerati .: His earnestness of purpose, his sincerity and frankness, ve? marked traits of his character.

On July 20, 1835, Professor Owen's thirty-first birthir the event took place to which he had so long looked forw .:. namely, his marriage to Miss Caroline Clift. Professor OF: had been engaged to Miss Clift for eight years. It was : very quiet wedding, and is thus described in Miss Clite diary :

July 20 .- Richard Owen and I, my father and Harriet Sheppar: were in the new St. Pancras Church, Euston Square, by bal past eight o'clock. The Rev. Mr. Laing came immediately at !! we got into the vestry, and, Caroline Clift having been lost c: the road, Mrs. Richard Owen returned to breakfast at No. 1 Euston Grove; after which my husband, my mother and I &E off to Oxford.

This union was blessed with one child, William Onda born October 6, 1837. On October 6, Professor Owen write in his wife's diary :

At a quarter-past nine William Owen was born.

The next day there is the entry :

Papa's joy a little damped by excruciating toothache. Motte and child as well as possible.

About a month afterwards Mrs. Owen begins the dias again. The diaries of Mrs. Owen, began about the year 18 ... are now kept almost without a break up to 1873, the year . her death, thus covering a period of at least forty-six years. Many of the scenes and incidents in Professor Owen's life. which I have incorporated in this paper, have been taken from Mrs. Owen's interesting diary.

Mrs. Owen died May 7, 1873, and by her death Professor Owen lost one who had been his fitting helpmate for nearif forty years, and who had, in her younger days especially, & sisted his work in no small degree by her acute powers ef observation and by her artistic skill.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO MEDICAL SCIENCE.

Owen's most important contribution to medical science is his discovery of the Trichina spiralis, a small nematoid worm. which harbors in striated muscle and causes the disease known

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Mãe by Owen in the autumn of 1834. At first it seemed rely a curiosity of science. Mr. Wormald, demonstrator anatomy at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, sent Professor ven a piece of human muscle accompanied by the following ter:

DEAR OWEN .- I send you some sort of organised beings, as I ieve, which occupy the muscles of a subject now under dis- :tion at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and as I know you are reen hand for parasitical things from crabs downwards, I send : enclosed for your inspection.

Ever yours sincerely,

THO. WORMALD.

Upon examining this piece of muscle, Owen discovered a w entozoon, the Trichina spiralis. Owen's nomenclature 3 been slightly changed, and in your recent text-books on thology you will find this parasite spoken of as the Trichi- 'la spiralis. Owen's paper, entitled "Description of a croscopic Entozoon infesting the Muscles of the Human dy," appeared in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society, 1. III, 1835.

This minute worm is not limited in its distribution to the iscles of men, but when in the human body not unfre- ently causes death. It is well known as producing the demic trichinosis, which formerly made its appearance efly in Germany, or in such places where diseased pork or tially cooked ham is consumed. Cobbold, in his masterly atise on parasites, appends a list of thirty-three epidemics trichinosis observed in Germany during the first six years mediately following the announcement of Professor Owen's covery of the Trichina spiralis.

The Trichina spiralis figures conspicuously in Professor eph Leidy's excellent monograph, " Flora and Fauna in ing Animals." Dr. Leidy lays especial stress upon the t that the inhabitants of the United States are less in- :ed with entozoa than the inhabitants of other countries. Before leaving this important subject it is intensely inter- ng to note that the medical student who was making the ection at St. Bartholomew's was Mr. Paget, who after- ds became the renowned Sir James Paget.

wen was the last great exponent of the so-called " Verte- e Theory of the Skull." This theory originated in the le brain of the German poet Goethe, in the year 1790; as greatly elaborated in 1807 by Lorenz Oken, a German omist; and further developed and most ably championed rofessor Owen about the middle of the nineteenth century. essor Owen's views are embodied in his "Report on the etype and Homologies of the Vertebrate Skeleton," pub- d in 1846.

le vertebral theory of the skull is based upon the hypothe- at the vertebrate skull consists of four modified or ex- ed vertebræ-in other words, that the skull is the highly entiated anterior end of the backbone.

ile Owen's classic anatomy was faultless, many of his isions were subsequently proven by Huxley to be un- le. These were Huxley's words :

The spinal column and the skull start from the same primitive condition, whence they immediately begin to diverge.

It may be true to say that there is a primitive identity of structure between the spinal or vertebral column and the skull; but it is no more true that the adult skull is a modified vertebral column than it would be to affirm that the vertebral column is a modified skull.

Professor Owen conferred an inestimable boon upon medical science by editing two octavo volumes of John Hunter's manu- scripts. These two volumes of Hunter's unpublished manu- scripts, edited by Owen, appeared in 1860, and are entitled "John Hunter's Essays and MSS." These volumes contain essays on natural history, psychology and kindred topics.

Professor Owen was one of the pioneers in public health work and in sanitation. He was chairman of the original Health of Towns' Commission. Sir Henry Littlejohn, the man who made the first sanitary survey of the city of London, mentioned by Dr. Osler in his recent magazine article entitled " Man's Redemption of Man," served with Professor Owen on this commission.

Professor Owen was also a member of the Commission of Sewers and of the Royal Commission on Smithfield Market and the Meat Supply of London.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO COMPARATIVE ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY.

Owen's contributions to comparative anatomy represent his most exhaustive work. These are largely embodied in his three-volume work, " On the Anatomy and Physiology of Vertebrates," and his one-volume work, "On the Anatomy and Physiology of Invertebrates." Owen was the leading anatomist of the age, and the leading vertebrate anatomist of all time.

An observation which Owen made on the generative organs in the muridæ or mouse and rat family is of interest. This was mentioned in his Hunterian lectures for 1840. The sub- ject of the lectures for this year was " The Comparative Anat- omy of the Generative Organs and the Development of the Ovum and Fœtus in the Different Classes of Animals." In these lectures Professor Owen describes for the first time, as separate and distinct glands, the "small glands with a gran- ulated exterior " situated adjacent to the seminal vesicles in the rat and mouse. Previous investigators had described these glandular structures as part of the prostate gland.

Owen also rendered great service to comparative anatomy by pointing out the distinction between homology or struc- tural resemblance and analogy or functional resemblance.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO ZOOLOGY.

Owen's contributions to zoological literature are almost as innumerable as the sands of the sea. His first zoological paper, written in 1830, was " On the Anatomy of the Ourang- outang." In 1832 Owen published . his " Memoir on the Pearly Nautilus," the description of which seemed to have given his mind a bent in a definite direction. This was Owen's first work which attracted the attention of scientific men. In the same year Owen published a paper "On the

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Mammary Glands of the Ornithorhynchus paradoxus," and another "On the Generation of Marsupial Animals." In 1863 Owen published his "Memoir on the Aye-Aye."

CONTRIBUTIONS TO PALEONTOLOGY.

Owen was the first to identify the mammoth, an extinct hairy elephant, and assign it to its proper place in the zoolog- ical world. Owen was also the first to properly describe the Archæopteryx, an extinct bird possessing reptilian characters and supposed to be the transition link between reptiles and birds. The Megatherium americanum, an extinct ground- sloth from South America, was the subject of considerable controversy until the appearance of Owen's memoir.

Owen's most notable contributions to palæontology are con- tained in his monograph on the " Extinct Wingless Birds of New Zealand." Herein Owen describes with characteristic clearness and thoroughness the apteryx, the dinornis, and the notornis, all extinct birds of New Zealand; and in an ap- pendix he describes the extinct dodo of Mauritius, the gar- fowl of Newfoundland, and the solitaire of Rodriguez.

Professor Owen described six distinct species of the genus dinornis, ascending respectively from the size of the great bustard to that of the dodo, of the emu and of the ostrich, and finally attaining a stature far surpassing three of the once-deemed most gigantic of birds. This latter is the Dinornis maximus, or great moa, a large struthious bird " of a heavier and more sluggish species than the ostrich." Its greatest height, as determined by Professor Owen, was prob- ably sixteen feet.

MISCELLANEOUS CONTRIBUTIONS.

Professor Owen was the most sought-after man in scien- tific England. He played a considerable rôle in the discovery of the remains of John Hunter, and in their removal from the vaults beneath St. Martin's Church to Westminster Abbey. These events transpired early in 1859, or nearly sixty-six years after John Hunter's death.

All through Owen's life he was regarded as legitimate prey to the numerous inquirers as to the nature and habits of such fabulous monsters as the cockatrice, the phoenix and the bunyip. Even the question of the existence of a sea-serpent was referred to Owen. In 1848-1849 this "Great Sea-ser- pent " was alleged to have been seen no less than 187 times. The officers and crew of H. M. S. Dedalus also gave a de- scription of this sea-monster. In a letter to the Prince Con- sort, Professor Owen states his opinion that the "animal " seen from the deck of the Dedalus was the head and track of a great seal, or sea-lion. About this time there was another sea-serpent seen, of which the particulars were sent to Owen by the Duke of Northumberland. This Owen demonstrated to be the ribbon-fish from the drawing which was sent. Punch soon had a parody on the subject, modeled after the famous Mother Goose rhyme, " Who Killed Cock Robin?" Punch's lines began :

" Who killed the sea-serpent?"

"'I,' said Professor Owen."

" Scotched, not killed," was Owen's comment on this. Owen attempted a classification of animals, based on : nervous system. He also founded the science of "0! tography," or the natural history of teeth.

Even obstetrics was not neglected, because in 1842 ( -:- wrote a paper entitled "Notes on the Birth of the Girad- the Zoological Society's Gardens, and description of the : membranes, and of some of the natural and morbid appe" ances observed in the dissection of the young animal."

SUMMARY OF LIFE WORK.

Professor Owen's active working life covered the phen- enal period of sixty-five years. His first two papers were : pathological subjects, and were read before the Abernett. Society in 1826 : one " On Encysted Calculus of the Urir .: Bladder," and the other " A Case of Gluteal Aneurism . Ligature of the Internal Iliac." Owen's first surgical ps was published in 1830. Its subject was " An Account of : Parts concerned in the Aneurism for the Cure of which !? Stevens tied the Internal Iliac Artery at Santa Cruz in : Year 1812." Owen's last paper was written in 1889, wi its venerable author was eighty-five years of age. It was E- titled " A Monograph on the British Fossil Cetacea from t Red Crag."

Owen's published works number 642. These embrace brei: and monographs in every department of natural history- zoology, comparative anatomy, geology, botany, palæontology. anatomy, physiology, geography, chemistry and public health. Owen was one of the earliest workers with the microscope, and a founder and charter member of the Royal Microscopica Society.

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Twentieth Century History of Findlay and Hancock County, Ohio, and Representative Citizens, Part 105

Author: Jacob Anthony Kimmell Publication date: 1910 Publisher: Number of Pages: 1189

Author: Jacob Anthony Kimmell
Publication date: 1910
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1189