Sir William Flower. 85 



and " Boys' Museums " in ' Chambers' Journal.' Lastly, " The 

 Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England" formed the 

 subject of a most interesting address to the Anatomical Section of the 

 Medical Congress. He had besides the distinction of opening the 

 great Marine Laboratory at Plymouth, and he performed this duty in 

 a manner worthy of the occasion uud himself. Moreover, at a time 

 when his health rendered such a journey inadvisable, he generously 

 travelled northwards at the end of October, 1896, to aid Lord Reay in 

 opening the Gatty Marine Laboratory at St. Andrews. 



Few scientific men of position have exerted themselves more con- 

 tinuously to popularise science than Sir William. Some of his earlier 

 lectures were to Mutual Improvement Associations and non-scientific 

 bodies, while the majority were to mixed audiences, or to more or less 

 scientific ones. Some of his lectures at the Zoological Gardens, and in 

 connection with the Zoological Society, contained the result of much 

 patient research, such as those " On Sloths and Ant-eaters, " and " Dol- 

 phins, " and the same may be said of those "On Horses, Past and 

 Present, " " Cattle, Past and Present, " and " Fins, Wings, and Hands, " 

 at the London Institution; "On Wings of Birds," "On the Horse," 

 and "On Seals," at the Royal Institution. In all these his fluent 

 delivery and fine presence, as well as his thorough acquaintance with 

 the subject^ carried both instruction and conviction to his audience. 



His addresses, like his lectures, covered a wide area, and his energies 

 must often have been severely taxed in the performance of so many en- 

 gagements, while his busy brain was otherwise at work. His more 

 general addresses included a loyal tribute to Her Majesty on Jubilee 

 day at the Zoological Society in June, 1887, one when presenting th 

 prizes to the students of University College, an address at the Ch"*eh 

 Congress, opening address to the First Chelsea Industrial Exhibition, 

 1887, a speech at the Civil Service Dinner of 1890, an address at the 

 Burial Reform Association, others at the Shakespeare School on speech- 

 day, the Church of England Society for the Promotion of Kindness to 

 Animals, and to the Hammersmith School for Girls. That to the 

 Church Congress, in 1883, was a notable one, since it treated of the 

 meaning of evolution and the kind of evidence on which it rests. " Can 

 it be of real consequence, " he asks, " at the present time, either to our 

 faith or our practice, whether the first man had such an extremely low 

 beginning as the dust of the earth, or whether he was formed through 

 the intervention of various stages of animal life? The reign of order 

 and law in the government of the world has been so far admitted, that 

 all these questions have literally become questions of a little more or a 

 little less order and law. " He further pointed out that the evidences 

 of the Divine Government of the world and of the Christian faith, have 

 been sufficient for us, notwithstanding our knowledge that the individual 

 and the race were created according to law. His eloquent and manly 



