LIFE OF FLOWER 5 



which could be obtained in no other manner, and 

 developing his powers of observation. 



This innate taste for natural history appears to have 

 been further fostered in early life by frequent intercourse 

 with the late Rev. P. B. Brodie, an enthusiastic zoologist 

 and geologist ; but whether this took place during school 

 or college life the writer has no means of knowing. Be 

 this as it may, it appears that after a preliminary 

 education, partly at home and partly at private schools, 

 Flower matriculated at London University in 1849, (the 

 year of his present biographer's birth), attaining honours 

 in Zoology ; and that during the same year having made 

 up his mind to adopt the study and practice of Medicine, 

 or of Surgery as a profession, he entered the Medical 

 Classes at University College and became a pupil at the 

 Middlesex Hospital. It was apparently largely, if not 

 entirely, owing to his fondness for zoology that young 

 Flower selected Medicine as a profession, since at the 

 time, as indeed for many years subsequently, this was 

 practically the only career open to young naturalists 

 devoid of sufficient private means whereby they might 

 hope to be able to devote a certain amount of time and 

 attention to the pursuits and more especially Com- 

 parative Anatomy towards which their inclinations 

 tended. 



At University College Flower had a distinguished 

 career, gaining the gold medal in Dr. Sharpey's class of 

 Physiology and Anatomy, and the silver medal in Zoology 

 and Comparative Anatomy ; the gold medal in the latter 

 subjects having been carried off the same year by his 

 fellow- student, Joseph Lister, who in after years became 

 the distinguished surgeon, and, as Lord Lister, was for 



