152 SIR W. H. FLOWER [august 



conferred upon him respectively by the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge ; 

 and he was also the recipient of those of D.Sc. and Ph.D. So far back as 1851 

 he became a Fellow of the Zoological Society, of which body he was elected 

 president in 1879 — an office he held at the time of his death. From 1883 till 

 1885, Sir William also occupied the presidential chair of the Anthropological 

 Institute ; while in 1887 he served in the same capacity at the meeting of the 

 British Association, having presided over the section of Biology at the meeting 

 of 1877, and that of Anthropology in 1881. He was also President of the 

 section of Anatomy at the International Medical Congress at its London 

 meeting in 1881 ; and it was solely due to ill-health that he was prevented 

 from presiding over the International Congress of Zoology held last year at 

 Cambridge. Both the Geological and the Linnean Societies of London claimed 

 Sir William as a Fellow. 



As examples of his devotion to his own work, it may be mentioned that it 

 is within the knowledge of the present writer, that Sir William refused both 

 the Presidency of the Royal Society, and a seat in the Senatus of London 

 University (in succession to Huxley), on the ground that they would interfere 

 Avith his official duties. 



From his very earliest days Sir William Flower displayed a marked love 

 and inclination towards natural history studies ; and in his last work, " Essays 

 on Museums " (which is a collection of articles compiled while incapacitated by 

 illness from more severe labours), he takes the public into his confidence to 

 tell them how he first began collecting and arranging zoological specimens in 

 early boyhood. With his appointment to the Museum of the College of 

 Surgeons, opportunities for cultivating that branch of zoological science he 

 loved best, namely, the anatomy and classification of mammals (inclusive of 

 man), were abundant, and good use was made of them. Nearly every portion 

 of the osteological collection of the College still bears the impress of his work ; 

 the series of human skulls and skeletons having been vastly increased during his 

 tenure of office. 



A permanent record of his zeal in augmenting and classifying the Hunterian 

 collection is afforded by the two volumes of " Catalogues " compiled by him, 

 with the assistance of Dr. Garson, during his tenure of office ; one of these, 

 published in 1879, being devoted to the osteology of man, while the second 

 (1881) treats of that of other mammals. 



During his tenure of the Hunterian chair, Professor Flower regularly 

 delivered the annual course of lectures ; the substance of the first series of these 

 being expanded into the now well-known " Introduction to the Osteology of 

 the Mammalia," the first edition of which appeared in 1870, and the third 

 (revised with the assistance of Dr. H. Gadow) in 1885. 



For several years after his appointment to the British Museum, Sir 

 William's attention (in addition to the routine work of his office) was largely 

 occupied with the formation and arrangement of the " Index Museum," which 

 now occupies the bays on the sides of the central hall ; while he was also 

 engaged with the acquisition and mounting of the interesting specimens ex- 

 hibited in the cases standing in the hall itself. When, however, the office of 

 Keeper of the Zoological Department was held by him conjointly with the 

 Directorship, Sir William in due course determined to rearrange at least the 

 Vertebrate Galleries of the Museum according to his own ideas — a work which 

 is still in progress. As is well known, it was his idea that ho specimens should 

 be exhibited in a Museum to the public which do not actually teach something; 

 and he was above all urgent as to the necessity of explanatory labels, which he 

 regarded as of almost more importance than the specimens themselves. The 

 results of his plan are now exhibited in the Mammal and Bird Galleries. 



Although a diligent student of the structure of mammals belonging to all 

 orders, Sir William's special favourites were undoubtedly man on the one hand 

 and whales and dolphins on the other. And his last efforts during his tenure 



