32 LIFE OF FLOWER 



decay, have been replaced by others preserved by better 

 methods." 



In regard to the special purposes served by this 

 museum, it is mentioned in the same address that it is 

 maintained by the College of Surgeons " for the benefit 

 not only of its own members, but for that of the 

 profession at large, and indeed of all who take any 

 interest in biological science, whether the young student 

 preparing for his examination, or the advanced worker 

 who has here found materials for many an important 

 contribution by which the boundaries of knowledge 

 have been materially enlarged. To all such it is freely 

 open without fee or charge. Even the written or 

 personal introduction of members, still nominally required, 

 is never asked for on the four open days from any 

 intelligent or interested visitor; and on the one day of 

 the week on which it is closed for cleaning, facilities are 

 always given to those who are desirous of making 

 special studies, and to the increasing number of lady 

 students, whether artistic, scholastic, or medical. Artists 

 continually resort to the museum to find opportunities 

 of studying anatomy of man and animals, which no other 

 place in London affords ; and of late years it has been 

 the means of a still wider diffusion of knowledge, by 

 the visits which have been organised on summer 

 Saturday afternoons by various associations of artizans, 

 to whom a popular demonstration of its contents is 

 usually given by the Conservator." 



Elsewhere in the same address we find the following 

 passage in connection with the teaching functions of this 

 body : 



"The various professorships and lectureships that 



