IX THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM 127 



in general, and of attaching them to Museums in 

 particular. 



The post to which Flower was now appointed 

 was one for which, both by instinct and training, 

 he seems to have been intended by nature. 



While the Hunterian Museum and the work 

 there had primary and practical reference to man, to 

 the study of whose form and the well-being of 

 whose body it was destined by express intention to 

 contribute, the scope of the Zoological Department 

 of the British Museum was as wide as life itself. 

 Neither was it limited to the collection and setting 

 out of the forms of life of to-day or of the laws to 

 which they conform, whether of plants or animals. 

 The life of forgotten worlds and of extinct forms 

 was also included, while the inorganic elements of 

 the world's structure were represented in the 

 portions devoted to mineralogy, which have attained 

 to such remarkable development under the direction 

 of the present Keeper of Mineralogy, Mr. L. 

 Fletcher, F.R.S. 



Writing to the Duke of Argyll just after 

 his appointment on January 28, 1884, Flower 

 says : — 



I beg to thank you for your kind letter about the British 

 Museum appointment. I shall be very sorry to leave this Museum 

 (the Hunterian) where I have worked for twenty-two years, but 

 the other is a very important post, as much of the position and 

 progress of Natural History in this country may depend upon 

 the good arrangement of that grand collection. It is therefore 

 a great responsibility. It is, however, most gratifying to me to 



