VIII 'OSTEOLOGY OF THE MAMMALIA' 105 



which they were delivered, and the excellent drawings with which 

 they were illustrated. After the lectures were over they were 

 re-written in a somewhat changed form, so that they might serve 

 better as a ** Handbook " for students, and were published by 

 Macmillan & Co. in September of the same year. The Hand- 

 book, which is of convenient size, and illustrated by drawings 

 placed in the text, met with a very favourable reception from 

 teachers and students of zoology, and attained a large circulation. 

 A second edition was called for and published in 1876, and a 

 third edition appeared in 1885, in preparing which Flower, being 

 at that time overburdened with work, obtained the assistance of 

 Dr. Hans Gadow, F.R.S., of the University of Cambridge. 



As regards the general scheme of this excellent piece of work, 

 it need only be said that, after a general chapter on the classi- 

 fication of mammals, the author discusses the skeleton and its 

 component parts in separate essays, pointing out the modifications 

 in the different organs which take place in the various members 

 of the series, and concludes with a chapter on the correspondence 

 between the bones of the anterior and posterior extremities, which 

 has always been a favourite subject of discussion. The whole 

 work, it may be truly said, although it is very difficult, if not im- 

 possible, to avoid technicalities in writings of this character, is 

 compiled in plain and understandable language, and will no 

 doubt long continue to serve the useful purpose for which it was 

 intended. 



The subjects chosen by Flower for his Hunterian 

 lectures for the next twelve years illustrate the 

 course of his own personal investigations in the 

 field of zoology. It will be noticed that they all 

 deal entirely or mainly with the history and structure 

 of mammals, and that five are concerned with the 

 natural history of the highest of all mammals, 

 namely, man. In 187 1 he lectured on the Teeth 

 and Allied Organs of Mammalia, in 1872 on the 

 Digestive Organs of the Vertebrata, in 1873 on 



