io6 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP. 



the Osteology and Dentition of Extinct Mammalia, 

 and in 1876 on the Relation of Extinct to Existing 

 Mammals. From 1877 to 1880 he dealt with the 

 Comparative Anatomy of Man. In 1881 he lec- 

 tured on the Anatomy, Physiology, and History of 

 the Cetacea. In the following year he took for his 

 subject the Horse and its Allies ; and in the last 

 course he endeavoured to classify man in a series 

 of lectures on the Principal Types of the Human 

 Species. 



In 1879 he received the distinguished honour of 

 being unanimously elected President of the Royal 

 Zoological Society. The Marquis of Tweeddale, 

 who had held the office, having died, the question 

 of appointing his successor was not without diffi- 

 culties. Hitherto the office had usually been con- 

 ferred by the Fellows of the Society on one of their 

 number distinguished, not only for his interest in 

 the Society's work, but also for high rank. But on 

 this occasion the tradition of electing a peer to be 

 president was departed from, and Flower received 

 the office by a unanimous vote. He was regularly 

 re-elected for twenty-two years, and during that 

 time never failed to attend and preside at the meet- 

 ings, unless prevented by unavoidable circumstances 

 of work or health. 



His wife remembers how continually she had to 

 decline invitations to dinner because it was a Twsday, 

 the evenings of the Society's scientific meetings ; 

 and however interesting the occasion promised to 



