250 



SCIENCE. 



[X. 8. Vol. XVIII. Xo. 451. 



office it is quite unnecessary for me to si^eak 

 to the present company. It must suffice to say 

 that the whole of his time and all his great 

 abilities were devoted to the performance of 

 the multifarious business of this important 

 position. 



In 1899 Flower was president of the British 

 Association at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and de- 

 voted his presidential address mainly to mu- 

 seums and their arrangement. This was, no 

 doubt, one of his favorite subjects, and Vir- 

 chow, of Berlin, is said to have called him 

 the ' Prince of Museum Directors.' Thus we 

 see that Flower had occupied three of the 

 most exalted and conspicuous posts that any 

 devotee of zoology could hope to attain — the 

 directorship of the Natural History Museum, 

 the presidentship of the British Association 

 and the presidentship of the Zoological Society 

 of London. Besides this he was selected for 

 the presidency of the International Congress 

 of Zoologists which met at Cambridge in 1898, 

 but the unfortunate failure of his health com- 

 pelled him to surrender this last appointment. 



In zoology, no doubt. Flower's chief subject 

 was the class of mammals, and the work by 

 which he will probably be best known to pos- 

 terity is his volume entitled ' Mammals, Liv- 

 ing and Extinct,' published in 1891, in which 

 he was assisted by Mr. Lydekker. This ad- 

 mirable hand-book is, and will long remain, 

 our standard work of reference for stiidents 

 of the class of mammals. 



A distinguished writer has well said : " No 

 comparative anatomist of recent times has 

 more devotedly or with greater ability and 

 accuracy studied mammals. Moreover, in 

 every instance he has enlarged our knowledge 

 by his acute and comprehensive views, and, 

 since the range of his contributions passes 

 from the monotremes to the primates his in- 

 fluence on the subject has been immense. 



" The labors of his life culminated in the 

 magnificent series of whales, which it was one 

 of his last duties to arrange and exhibit in a 

 remarkably ingenious manner. 



" Wliile a splendid series of mounted skins, 

 models and skeletons themselves can be stud- 

 ied in the whale room numerous drawings 

 and labels enable the visitor to grasp still 



further the form and structure of these gigan- 

 tic denizens of the deep. No more fitting 

 memorial of the skilful hand of the leading 

 authority on the subject could be found than 

 this marvelous and unique collection." 



And no more fitting situation, I think, it will 

 be generally acknowledged, could be found for 

 the bust, which so well recalls the features 

 of the deceased naturalist, than the whale 

 room which he planned and furnished, and in 

 which, I believe, it is proposed to place it. 

 My Lord Archhishop: 



In the name and on behalf of the 185 

 subscribers to the ' Flower Memorial Fund ' 

 (which has received the generous support of 

 the zoologists of nearly every part of the 

 world) I beg leave to offer this bust for the 

 acceptance of the trustees of the British Mu- 

 seum. 



THE ISTERNATIOlsAL COMMISSION OF 

 ARCHEOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY. 



A MOVEMENT promising to effect much in 

 the way of stimulating scientific and historical 

 research throughout the western hemisphere, 

 and perhaps even more in the direction of 

 bringing about close and more harmonious 

 relations among the several American repub- 

 lics, was initiated at the second International 

 American Conference in the City of Mexico 

 in January, 1902. The first step was taken 

 by Hon. Volney W. Foster, of Chicago, one 

 of the representatives of the United States in 

 the conference; with the cooperation of Senor 

 Don Alfredo Chavero and others, he intro- 

 duced a resolution providing for an Interna- 

 tional Commission of Archeology, which was 

 adopted by the conference and recommended 

 to the several participating countries in the 

 volume of ' Recomendaciones, Eesoluciones, 

 Convenciones y Tratados,' issued later in the 

 same year. The first of the American repub- 

 lics to take action in accordance with the 

 recommendation of the conference was Mex- 

 ico; in October last President Diaz appointed 

 Seiior Chavero as a representative on the part 

 of the Mexican government to confer with 

 similar representatives from other countries 

 concerning procedure toward the organization 

 of the commission. Dr. Chavero visited 



