SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



SIR WILLIAM HENRY FLOWER, 



K.C.B., LL.D., Dr.Sc, D.C.L., Ph.D., F.R.S., P.Z.S., Etc. 



'THE announcement of the retirement of Sir 

 A William Flower from the directorship of the 

 British Museum of Natural History, Cromwell 

 Road, South Kensington, is received with universal 

 and unfeigned regret. This severance is the more 

 to be deplored because of its reason, though we are 

 thankful that his health has been spared longenough 

 to enable him to place the Natural History Museum 

 of this country beyond the first rank of suchinstitu- 

 tions. To wander through its spacious courts and 

 long galleries is needed for appreciation of the 

 organizing faculty which has directed the excellence 

 of general arrangements. It is now, with the 

 exception of a few details, a perfect model of what 

 should be a modern museum of specimens in 

 natural history for scientific teaching. No doubt 

 Sir William has been ably and loyally supported 

 by a clever staff of departmental keepers and 

 assistants. All have willingly striven for success, 

 and it is attained. 



Sir William Henry Flower was born at Stratford- 

 on-Avon, the second son of the late Mr. Edward 

 Fordham Flower of that town, on November 30th, 

 1831. He was educated for the medical profession 

 at University College, London, and the Middlesex 

 Hospital. After qualifying, he joined the 63rd 

 Regiment, as surgeon, in April, 1854, and served in 

 the Crimean War, for which he holds medal, four 

 clasps, and Turkish medal. Returning to London 

 he was appointed Assistant Surgeon to the Middle- 

 sex Hospital, holding the post during 1859 to 1861, 

 when he received the appointment of Conservator 

 of the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, 

 in Lincoln's Inn Fields. In 1869 he became 

 Hunterian Professor of Comparative Anatomy and 

 Physiology, retaining both offices until appointed 

 Director of the Natural History Departments of 

 the British Museum in 1884, on the retirement of 

 Sir Richard Owen. Sir William was President of 

 the section of Biology at the British Association, 

 Dublin meeting, in 1878, and President of the 

 Association at the Newcastle-on-Tyne meeting 

 in 1889; President of the Anthropological Institute 

 from 1883 to 1885 ; President of the Section of 

 Anatomy at the International Medical Congress of 

 London in 1881. In 1879 Sir William became 

 President of the Zoological Society of London, 

 and still occupies that position. He received the 

 honour of a Companionship of the Bath in 

 1887, and was promoted to be a K.C.B. in 1892. 

 He is an honorary LL.D. of Edinburgh and 

 Dublin, D C.L. of Durham, and D.Sc. of Cam- 

 bridge. He is a Correspondent of the Institute 

 of France, and he was elected President for the 



forthcoming International Congress of Zoology 

 to be held at Cambridge this August, but im- 

 paired health caused his retirement. 



It will always be in association with his admirable 

 museum work, first in Lincoln's Inn Fields and 

 then at South Kensington, that the name of Sir 

 William Henry Flower will be spoken. Still, he 

 has written several important memoirs on zoological 

 and anatomical subjects, and some more extended 

 works, for instance, that on " The Horse, a 

 Study in Natural History " ; and in collabora- 

 tion with Mr. Lydekker, he published in 1891 

 "An Introduction to the Study of Mammals, 

 Living or Extinct." The last publication of 

 Sir William's collected essays is noticed in this 

 number at page 85. It is embellished with a kindly 

 dedication to Lady Flower, who was Georgiana 

 Rosetta, the youngest daughter of Admiral W. 

 H. Smyth, D.C.L., F.R.S. They were married 

 in 1858. His son, Lieut. Stanley S. Flower, F.Z.S., 

 is numbered as a contributor to these pages, and 

 among our general supporters none is more valued 

 than Sir William himself. Although professionally 

 engaged for nearly forty years on scientific work, 

 no one has been less assertive of such position. 

 His bearing towards the humblest amateurs has 

 always been cordial, and they might always depend 

 for such advice or assistance he could give in their 

 difficulties. Like so many others who have helped 

 to make Natural Science what it is, Sir William 

 began as an amateur, and therefore appreciates 

 the embarrassments of others. 



In consequence of a misapprehension that the 

 office of Director of the Natural History Museum 

 was to be abolished, a very influential memorial 

 against such abolition was signed and presented to 

 the Trustees. Fortunately there does not appear 

 to have been any foundation for such rumour, as 

 it has been contradicted by Sir Edward Maunde 

 Thompson, the Chief Librarian at Bloomsbury. 

 Whoever is appointed in the place of Sir William 

 Flower, we hope the Trustees will succeed in select- 

 ing a man with powers of organization, administra- 

 tion, and with a general knowledge, rather than 

 a naturalist skilled in any one branch of natural 

 science. Sir William himself has written : " A 

 curator of a museum must be a man of very con- 

 siderable education, as well as having natural 

 ability, skill, manual dexterity and good taste. He 

 must possess the moral qualifications of punctuality, 

 habits of business, conciliatory manners, and in- 

 domitable industry to discharge the small and 

 monotonous duties constituting so large a part of 

 the curator's life." J. T. C. 



