In 1832, Owen and Scott initiated one of the first Swedish temperance societies, ; the following year it expanded into the rest of the city of Stockholm. In 1837, the two, along with , , Jöns Jacob Berzelius, Anders Retzius, and others, founded the Svenska nykterhetssällskapet (the Swedish Temperance Society). The organization would reach over 100,000 members in the 1840s.
