on the same subject. In these investigations he made frequent use of the microscope, and was one of the founders and the first president of the microscopical society. His microscopical investigations of the structure of the teeth of animals led him in 1849 to divide the mammalia into two classes, the monophyodonts, or those generating a single set of teeth, and the diphyodonts, which generate two sets. The most important results of these researches were embodied in his "Odontography" (2 vols. 8vo, London, 1840–'45). In the department of palæontology he reconstructed numerous extinct families of vertebrata, the existence of which had not previously been even surmised. His publications in this department comprise, besides shorter papers, a "History of British Fossil Mammals and Birds" (8vo, 1846); a "Description of the Skeleton of an extinct gigantic Sloth (Mylodon robustus), with Observations on the Osteology, Natural Affinities, and Probable Habits of the Megatheroid Animals in General" (4to, 1842); and a "History of the British Fossil Reptiles" (4to, 1848–'55). In the department of transcendental anatomy, Mr. Owen was the first to develop the idea of Oken, that the typical form of the skeleton in the higher animals is the vertebra, publishing works "On the Archetype and Homologies of the Vertebrate Skeleton, with Tables of the Synonymes of the Vertebral Elements and Bones of the Head of Fishes, Reptiles, Birds, Mammals, and Man" (1848), and "On the Nature of Limbs" (1849). Among his other writings is a work "On Parthenogenesis" (1849). In 1836 Mr. Owen was appointed Hunterian professor at the royal college of surgeons, in place of Sir Charles Bell. His lectures here were published under the title of "Lectures on Comparative Anatomy" (2d ed., 1853). In 1856 he was appointed chief of the natural history department of the British museum, which post he still holds (1875), giving in connection with it annual courses of lectures on natural history. He is also distinguished for his successful efforts toward improving the sanitary condition of large towns. He has received the royal and Copley medals, and various honors from seats of learning, and is a member of the chief scientific bodies of the world. His latest important work is "On the Anatomy of the Vertebrates" (3 vols,, 1866–'8).
OWEN. I. Robert, an English social reformer, born in Newtown, North Wales, March 14, 1771, died there, Nov. 19, 1858. The son of poor parents, when 14 years old he procured a situation in London, and at the age of 18 became partner in a cotton mill. He married in 1799 the daughter of David Dale, a Glasgow manufacturer, having previously, with other partners, bought from Mr. Dale the village and cotton mills of New Lanark, Scotland. Here he introduced a system of reform which proved for a time highly successful. In 1812 he published "New Views of Society, or Essays upon the Formation of Human Character," and subsequently a "Book of the New Moral World," and various other works, in which he maintained a theory of modified communism, insisting on an absolute equality in all rights and duties, and the abolition of all superiority, including alike that of capital and that of birth. By the aid of his immense fortune he was enabled to distribute a large number of tracts developing his peculiar views, and soon had everywhere numerous and enthusiastic followers, but was attacked on all sides, and particularly by the religious press. He set out in 1823, after the death of his patron, the duke of Kent, for the United States, where he determined to found at his own cost a communist society; and with this view he bought from Rapp the settlement of New Harmony in Indiana, on the banks of the Wabash, embracing 20,000 acres of land and dwellings for 1,000 persons. The scheme, however, proved an utter failure, and in 1827 he returned to Great Britain, where experiments of a similar nature attended by a similar result were made at Orbiston in Lanarkshire, and at Tytherley in Hampshire. He succeeded no better in establishing a "labor exchange" in London, in connection with a bazaar and bank. In 1828 he went to Mexico on the invitation of the government to carry out his experiment there, but effected nothing. He however continued for the rest of his life to advocate his views both as a writer and public speaker, revisiting America several times. His ideas are clearly developed in his "Lectures on a New State of Society," "Essays on the Formation of Human Character," and "Outline of the Rational System," and especially in his principal work, "The Book of the New Moral World," in which he came forward as the founder of a system of religion and society according to reason. During his last years he was a believer in spiritualism, through which he became convinced of the immortality of the soul.
II. Robert Dale, an American author, eldest son of the preceding, born in Glasgow, Scotland, Nov. 7, 1801. His early years were spent at New Lanark, under the care of a private tutor. In 1818 he was sent to Fellenberg's school at Hofwyl, Switzerland, where he remained upward of three years. He accompanied his father to the United States in November, 1823, lived for some time at New Harmony, and in the autumn of 1828 commenced at New York, in partnership with Miss Frances Wright, a weekly paper called "The Free Enquirer," which was continued for three years. He then removed to New Harmony, where he was three times (1835–'8) elected a member of the Indiana legislature. In 1843 and 1845 he was elected to congress as a democrat, serving till 1847. He took a leading part in settling the N. W. boundary dispute. In 1845 he introduced the bill organizing the Smithsonian institution, and in 1846 became one of its regents and chairman of its building committee. In 1850 he was elected a member of the convention which amended the constitution of Indiana,
