THE 1' HOC REVS OE SCIENCE. 



381 



to the scientific development of Great 

 Britain during the Victorian era. A 

 life of Flower or of one of t lie other 

 scientific leaders of I he period written 

 On the lines of .Mr. Morlcy's great ' Life 

 of Gladstone ' would certainly be more 

 valuable to the world than a personal 

 memoir. While we have no right to 

 demand such a biography from Mr. 



president of the Zoological Society of 

 London. 



Flower was born in 1831, his father 

 being a brewer of Stratford-on-Avon, 

 who spent his youth in America. As 

 has been the case with many scientific 

 men, Flower's early education was 

 irregular; he was as a boy devoted to 

 natural history, learning to stuff birds 



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Cornish, we may regret that the memoir 

 is from the scientific side superficial 

 and even inaccurate. For example it is 

 recorded in the title page that Flower 

 was ' Late Director of the Natural His- 

 tory Museum, and President of the 

 Royal Zoological Society.' Flower was 

 in fact director of the Natural History 

 Department of the British Museum and 



at the age of ten and establishing a 

 ' museum.' He secured a medical edu- 

 cation at University College, London, 

 and served as a surgeon in the Crimean 

 war. He married in 1858 the daughter 

 of Admiral W. H. Smyth, an astron- 

 omer, one of whose sons became eminent 

 as an astronomer and one as a geol- 

 ogist, while a daughter married the 



