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 PREFACE 



ALTHOUGH the complete manuscript of this volume was 

 placed in the hands of the editor before the publication 

 of the late Mr. C. J. Cornish's Life of Sir William 

 Flower (in 1 904), yet the present writer was aware that 

 such a work was in progress, and that it would deal 

 with the social and personal rather than with the 

 scientific side of Sir William's career. Consequently 

 it was decided at an early period of the work to con- 

 centrate attention in the present volume on the latter 

 aspect of the subject ; as indeed is only fitting in the 

 case of a biography belonging to a series specially 

 devoted to men of science. An incidental advantage of 

 this arrangement is that the writer has been able in the 

 main to confine himself to the discussion of topics with 

 which he is more or less familiar, rather than to attempt 

 to chronicle events and episodes to which he must of 

 necessity be a stranger, and to attempt an appreciation 

 of a fine character for which he is in no wise qualified. 



It will be obvious from the above, that any references 

 in the text to earlier biographies do not relate to Mr. 

 Cornish's volume. 



In the course of the text, it has been necessary to 

 make certain allusions to the condition and the mode of 

 exhibition of the specimens in the public galleries of the 

 Zoological Department of the Natural History Museum 



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