382 Obituary — Sir William Henry Flower, K.C.B. 



young Flower's case it was to last a lifetime, for it was fostered 

 througli his being early brought in contact with that veteran 

 naturalist and geologist, the Rev. P. B. Brodie, M.A., F.G.S., 

 who was the first person, as Flower himself informed the writer, 

 to inspire him with a taste for collecting fossils and other natui'al- 

 history objects, and to stimulate his powers of observation in the 

 field as a zoologist. 



After his schooldays were over, he matriculated at the University 

 of London in 1849, with honours in Zoology, and in the same year 

 he entered the Medical Classes at University College and became 

 a pupil at the Middlesex Hospital. Hei'e he gained the gold medal in 

 Dr. Sharpey's class in Physiology, and the silver medal in Zoology, 

 and passed the first M.B. of the London University in 185L In 

 1854 he became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons ; he 

 shortly afterwards joined the 6ord Regiment, and embari<;ed for Con- 

 stantinople, war with Russia having just then been declared. The 

 sufi'erings of the British Army in the Crimea are now a matter of 

 history, and young Flower, who passed the first winter with his 

 regiment there, experienced all the severity of the climate, officers 

 and men being alike without tents and even necessai'y warm 

 clothing, suffering from frostbite and exposure for many weeks 

 every night in the open air. Mr. Flower, who was never of a very 

 robust constitution, at length broke down and was invalided home ; 

 soon after receiving, at the hands of the Queen, the war-medal with 

 clasps for the Alma, Inkermann, Balaclava, and Sebastopol. 



Shortly after his recovery, he joined the staff of the Middlesex 

 Hospital as Demonstrator in Anatomy, and resigned his position 

 in the Army in order to settle and take a practice in London. In 

 1857 he passed the examination for the Fellowship of the Royal 

 College of Surgeons, and next year was elected Assistant-Surgeon 

 to the Middlesex Hospital, holding also the office of Curator of the 

 Museum and Lecturer on Comparative Anatomy in the same 

 institution. 



In 1858 he mai-ried Georgiana Rosetta, youngest daughter of 

 Admiral W. H. Smyth, F.R.S., the well-known Astronomer and 

 Hydrographer. 



In 1861 the important office of Conservator of the Museum of 

 the Royal College of Surgeons of England, commonly called the 

 " Hunterian Museum," became vacant by the death of Professor 

 Quekett. The collections under the Conservator's charge were 

 most extensive, and very varied in their nature, embracing Surgery, 

 Pathology, Anatomy, Physiology, Zoology, and Palaeontology, and 

 some knowledge of these diverse subjects was required by the 

 occupant of the office. The appointment was, however, congenial 

 to Mr. Flower's tastes, and for it he gladly relinquished the practice 

 of his profession and his connection witb the Middlesex Hospital ; 

 he henceforth devoted himself wholly to scientific pursuits. The 

 care of the Museum and its complete reorganization and gradual 

 augmentation constituted for many years his principal employment, 

 every department having unfortunately fallen into arrears, as 

 regards cataloguing and arrangement, at the time he took charge 



