90 LIFE OF FLOWER 



solely for his eminence as a zoologist or as a lover of 

 animals. 



On the death of the Marquis of Tweeddale, 2pth 

 December 1878, Professor Flower was selected by the 

 Council to fill the presidential chair ; the appointment 

 being duly ratified at the Annual Meeting of the Society 

 held the following spring. From that date till the 

 year of his death, Flower was annually re-elected 

 president by the unanimous vote of the meeting. He 

 made an admirable president, his deliberate mode of 

 speaking being specially well adapted to the comments 

 expected from a scientific man occupying the presidential 

 chair at the scientific meetings. From his wide know- 

 ledge of zoology, anatomy, and palaeontology, he was 

 able to speak to the point on almost all the papers read 

 at the Society's meetings ; and those privileged to listen 

 to his remarks on any specimen in which he was speci- 

 ally interested will not readily forget the impressive 

 manner in which he brought its more salient and char- 

 acteristic features to the notice of his hearers. Many 

 of his more important scientific memoirs communicated 

 to the Society had been published in its Proceedings or 

 Transactions, before he accepted the presidential chair, in 

 days when the calls on his time were not so pressing 

 or so numerous as they afterwards became ; but even 

 after his elevation to the presidency several valuable 

 memoirs were received from him, the most important being, 

 perhaps, one on the classification and affinities of the 

 dolphins, to which fuller reference is made in another 

 chapter. 



During Flower's presidency several important events 

 and changes occurred in the affairs of the Zoological 



