50 LIFE OF FLOWER 



zoological and anatomical works. The plan followed 

 in this volume forms an admirable model for all works 

 of a kindred nature. In the first chapter the author 

 discusses the classification of the mammalia; in the 

 second he describes the skeleton of that group as a 

 whole ; while in the remainder the modifications pre- 

 sented by the various bones in the different groups are 

 described in considerable detail. A special feature is 

 the sparing use of technical terms, and the careful 

 explanation of the meaning of those of which the use 

 was unavoidable. Besides being carefully revised and 

 brought up to date, the third edition differed from its 

 predecessors by including a table of the number of 

 vertebrae found in a large series of species. 



In the following year (1871) the Hunterian course, 

 which comprised no less than eighteen lectures, was 

 devoted to the functions and modifications of the teeth 

 of mammals, from man to the monotremes, although it 

 was not known at that time that either of the two generic 

 representatives of the latter group really possessed 

 true teeth, the discovery of these organs in the 

 Australian duckbill not having been made till many 

 years later. 



Among other subjects included in his Hunterian 

 lectures was the anatomy and affinities of the Cetacea, 

 or whales and dolphins, a group of mammals in 

 which Flower almost from the first displayed a 

 marked and special interest, and on which he became 

 one of the first authorities. Since, however, this 

 is a subject to which fuller reference is made in a 

 later chapter, it need not be further discussed in 

 this place. 



