CHAPTER IV 



AS PRESIDENT OF THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY 

 [1879-1899] 



DURING a portion of his tenure of office as Conservator of 

 the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, and 

 throughout the whole of his Directorship of the Natural 

 History Museum, Sir William Flower occupied the 

 Presidential Chair of the Zoological Society of London 

 the oldest body of its kind in existence. The events 

 narrated in the present chapter occurred therefore 

 during the period covered by its two immediate pre- 

 decessors; nevertheless, this method of treatment, 

 although breaking the chronological order, has been 

 found, on the whole, the most convenient. 



The Zoological Society, it may be observed, has 

 been in the habit of selecting its presidents from three 

 distinct classes. As in the case of the late Prince 

 Consort, the president may be a personage of exalted 

 rank without any claim to a special knowledge of 

 zoology. . On the other hand, as exemplified by the 

 Earl of Derby, who filled the office in the "fifties," the 

 Marquis of Tweeddale in the " seventies," and the Duke 

 of Bedford at the present time, he may combine high 

 rank with a more or less pronounced taste for and 

 knowledge of natural history, or, finally, as in the case 

 of the founder, Sir Stamford Raffles, he may be selected 



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