LIFE OF FLOWER 37 



It might have been added with perfect truth that this 

 series of the detached homologous bones of different 

 animals is of equal value and importance to both the 

 palaeontologist and the evolutionist ; since with its assist- 

 ance the former has a ready means of ascertaining the 

 nearest relationships of any fossil bone that may be brought 

 under his notice, while the latter is able to observe the 

 modifications that any particular bone has undergone 

 in different groups of animals. He may notice, for 

 instance, the elongation and slenderness distinctive of the 

 humerus, or arm-bone, of the bat, and contrast it with the 

 short and broad contour characterising the same bone in 

 the mole, while he may observe the elongation of some 

 of the bones of the hind-limbs distinctive of jumping 

 mammals, and their almost total disappearance in the 

 whales and dolphins. If the preparation of this series 

 of specimens (which appears to have been closely con- 

 nected with his lectures on the osteology of the 

 Mammalia, and their subsequent incorporation in the 

 well-known volume noticed in the sequel) had been 

 the sole limit of the work accomplished by Flower, it 

 would still have been sufficient to entitle him to the 

 gratitude of posterity. 



It was while engaged in the development of the 

 collections of this museum that Flower made his im- 

 portant observations on the homologies and mode of 

 succession of the teeth of various groups of mammals, and 

 more especially the marsupials. Here, too, it was that 

 he undertook the investigations which led to his publica- 

 tion of a new scheme of classification for the Carnivora ; 

 and it was likewise during his Conservatorship that he 

 published his valuable series of observations upon the 



