i 7 4 LIFE OF FLOWER 



carrying out) such sweeping and beneficial changes. 

 He was equally convinced of the supreme importance 

 and value, as educating media, of school and county 

 museums, if organised and kept up on proper and 

 rational lines j and he did all that lay in his power to 

 promote the establishment, extension, or development 

 of institutions of this nature. 



At the request of the Head-Master, in 1889, Flower 

 furnished some written advice as to the best method of 

 arranging a museum at Eton College, and these were 

 published as an article in Nature for that year, under 

 the title of " School Museums." The writer observed 

 that the subjects best adapted for such a museum are 

 zoology, botany, mineralogy, and geology ; adding 

 that u everything in the museum should have some 

 distinct object, coming under one or other of the 

 above subjects, and under one or other of the series 

 defined below, and everything else should be rigorously 

 excluded The Curator's business will be quite as much 

 to keep useless specimens out of the museum as to 

 acquire those that are useful." It was further urged that 

 the " Index Museum," in the Natural History Museum, 

 furnished the best guide to the lines on which a school 

 museum should be furnished and arranged, but that the 

 exhibits should be restricted to a simpler and less 

 detailed series. 



Under the title of " Natural History as a Vocation," 

 Sir William published in Chamber? Journal for April 

 1897 an article dealing with biology as a profession, and 

 also discussing the best means of encouraging and 

 directing the "collecting instinct," which is so marked 

 a feature in some boys. This article is reprinted 



