CHAPTER XIII 



ESSAYS ON MUSEUMS 



In 1889 Flower was elected President of the 



Zoological Society for the eleventh successive year, 



a fact which he notes with satisfaction in his diary. 



His chief work outside the Museum in this year 



was his Presidential address at the meeting of the 



British Association at Newcastle on September 4. 



He took for his subject " Museum Organisation," 



following, as he reminded the audience, the advice 



of Mr. Spottiswoode, one of his predecessors in 



the Presidential chair, that the holder of the office 



" would generally do better by giving utterance to 



what has already become part of his own thought 



than by gathering matter outside of its habitual 



range for a special occasion." 



Flower said that museums from one or other 



point of view had "occupied his time and attention 



almost from the earliest period of his recollection," 



and proceeded to convince his hearers of this fact 



by a retrospect of Natural History Museums in the 



past, a theory of what they should be at present, 



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