Sir William Henry Flower, K.C.B. Sir William Henry Flower K.C.B. F.R.S., LL.D., D.C.L. Late Director of the Natural History Museum, and President of the Royal Zoological Society A Personal Memoir BY CHARLES J. CORNISH, M.A., F.Z.S. AUTHOR OF ' THE NATURALIST ON THE THAMES,' ' WILD ENGLAND ' ' ANIMALS AT WORK AND PLAY,' ETC. 3L0nli0n MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED NEW YORK : THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1904 All rights reser-sed PREFACE THE death of Sir William Flower in 1899 was a personal sorrow to so many friends in all stations of life, and a cause of almost personal regret to so many of the public, that a memoir of his life might have been expected earlier. But to any one who reads the following pages it will not come as a surprise that the loss of so attached a husband and father made it a task of a trying kind to members of his family to arrange and recall the memorials of a life so deeply regretted. His youngest son, Mr. Victor A. Flower, col- lected and classified most of the material available in the form of early letters and general memoranda during a visit to England, before returning to professional work at Singapore, and wrote the first two chapters as they stand here. But as Sir William's necessary correspondence increased, the recipients were naturally more diffused and the matter more condensed ; consequently this source of information became less available as an aid to the setting out of his later and more important years. If in the chapters which ensue the personal ^06525 vi SIR WILLIAM FLOWER element is accorded rather more space than might have been expected in a memoir of a distinguished man of science, and any critic cares to press this point, the writer is prepared to say mea culpa. Much of Sir William's work in life is its own record, more especially the lasting monuments in the cases of the Natural History Museum and in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons. But his character and charm in social and family life were such that any memoir of him would be incomplete and one-sided were an account of him in these aspects entirely omitted. To Mr. L. Fletcher, F.R.S. ; Mr. G. A. Bou- lenger, F.R.S. ; Mr. Charles Fagan, Secretary of the Natural History Museum ; Mr. J. W. Clark, Registrary of Cambridge University ; to the mem- bers of Sir William Flower's family, and especially to Lady Flower, the writer is more particularly indebted for assistance and information. But each and every one of the late Director's friends have most readily contributed their recollections when asked, with expressions of warm regard for his memory. An estimate of Sir William's great and prompt service to the better understanding of the facts of evolution, at a time when the knowledge of these facts was confined almost entirely to specialists, will be found on page 57, and in chapter v., pp. 64-65 and 66-68. Those who have only seen his method in the PREFACE vn lucid order of the Great Hall of the Natural History Museum, which has been copied in every leading zoological museum in Europe and in the United States, may not be aware that he originated this means of letting nature tell its own story of the laws of evolution within little more than three years after the publication of the Origin of Species. His early letters as a young army surgeon in the Crimea, for which service he volunteered, may probably have an added interest when compared with recent experiences in South Africa, and in view of the present invasion of Russian territory by Japan. C. J. CORNISH. ORFORD HOUSE, CHISWICK MALL, February 1904. CONTENTS CHAPTER I PAGE BOYHOOD AND EDUCATION, 1831-1854 . i CHAPTER II THE CRIMEA, 1854-1855 . . . .12 CHAPTER III MARRIAGE AND EARLY PROFESSIONAL LIFE . . 37 CHAPTER IV LIFE IN LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS THE HUNTERIAN MUSEUM . . . . . .52 CHAPTER V THE HUNTERIAN MUSEUM continued . . .64 CHAPTER VI FAMILY LIFE IN LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS . . 74 CHAPTER VII CHARACTER AND FRIENDSHIPS . . . .84 ix SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAPTER VIII LATER WORK AT LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS . ANTHROPOLOGY PAGE IOO CHAPTER IX APPOINTMENT TO THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM 123 CHAPTER X THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM CHAPTER XI THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM continued *5 2 CHAPTER XII STUDIES OF WHALES AND WHALE FISHERIES 166 CHAPTER XIII ESSAYS ON MUSEUMS . CHAPTER XIV 190 CHAPTER XV A VISIT TO TENNYSON . 20 3 CHAPTER XVI LATER DAYS AT THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM . 210 CONTENTS xi CHAPTER XVII PAGE LAST YEARS AT THE MUSEUM . . . .219 CHAPTER XVIII His LAST YEARS . . . . .227 APPENDIX I NOTES ON THE MEDICAL ARRANGEMENTS OF THE BRITISH ARMY IN THE CRIMEA . . .245 APPENDIX II HUNTERIAN LECTURES DELIVERED AT THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS . . . .250 APPENDIX III LIST OF PUBLISHED WRITINGS . . . .251 APPENDIX IV MEMORIAL TABLET . . . . .264 INDEX ....... 265 LIST OF PLATES 1. SIR WILLIAM FLOWER, K.C.B. . . Frontispiece 2. WILLIAM HENRY FLOWER, 63RD REGIMENT . 36 3. GEORGIAN A ROSETTA FLOWER, 1859 . . 44 4. PROFESSOR FLOWER, F.R.S., 1883 . . .94 5. SIR WILLIAM HENRY FLOWER, K.C.B. . . 202 CHAPTER I 1 BOYHOOD AND EDUCATION 1831-1854 WILLIAM HENRY FLOWER, third son of Edward Fordham and Celina Flower, was born on the 3Oth November 1831 at his father's house in Old Town, Stratford-on-Avon. His father, who was born at Hertford in 1805, was the youngest son of Richard Flower of Marden Hill in Hertfordshire. Much of his early life was passed in America, where he took a keen interest in sport, and a still keener interest in the struggle for the suppression of the slave trade. After his marriage he settled at Stratford-on-Avon, where he founded the brewery which his sons afterwards extended into the most important industry in the place, and was well known for the active part he took in all local affairs, especially in organising the Shakespeare Tercentenary celebrations in 1864. In 1871 he moved to London, where his strikingly- 1 Chapters I. and II. were compiled by Mr. Victor Augustine Flower, Sir William's youngest son. I B 2 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP. handsome figure was to be seen riding almost daily in Hyde Park up to the time of his death in 1883. During the latter years of his life he laboured incessantly for the good of animals, especially horses, his main efforts being directed towards the abolition of bearing-reins and the better paving of the London streets. His mother was born at St. Albans in 1804, and died at her residence, 16 Hyde Park Gardens, in 1884; she was the daughter of John Greaves of Radford Semele, Warwickshire, and sister of Edward Greaves, who represented Warwick in Parliament for many years. She, too, was tall, of strong character and pronounced literary tastes. To Edward Fordham and Celina Flower were born four children, the eldest of whom, Richard, died in infancy ; the second son was Charles Edward, the founder of the Shakespeare Memorial and the initiator of many beneficent works, who lived at Avonbank, Stratford-on-Avon, till his lamented death in 1892 ; the third is the subject of this Memoir; and the youngest, Edgar, born in 1833, of Middle Hill, Broadway, Worcestershire, in which beautiful house he died in 1903. Flower's early life was passed very quietly at Stratford, then a small and remote country town. Much of his time was spent out of doors, but the foundations of his education were being carefully laid by his mother, who had a great belief in exercising mind and memory by reading and reciting poetry, , HIS FIRST MUSEUM 3 and was herself well read in the best English literature, and delighted in reading aloud, which she did remarkably well. From his earliest years Flower was devoted to natural history ; his brother, Charles, writes in his diary : In June 1841 we all went to Scarborough and spent the summer till the 2Qth Sept. ; this was a delightful time. The museum at Scarborough was a great source of interest to us, and we used to go long walks "geologising," carrying our dinners with us. In one of these walks we met with Dr. Amory, who took an interest and helped us in our scientific pursuits. William learnt to stuff birds, and acquired a taste for studies which after- wards led to his becoming a surgeon. Of his first "museum" and collections he has written in Essays on Museums, a few paragraphs of which may well be introduced here. My first " museum " was contained in a large, flat, shallow box with a lid, and I made cardboard trays which filled and fitted the bottom of the box, and kept the various specimens separate. Everything was carefully labelled, and there was also a manuscript catalogue in a copy-book. When the box was out- grown it was superseded by a small cabinet with drawers, then by a cupboard; but before I had left the parental home for college, an entire small room was dignified by the name of my " Museum." It was the love of curatorship which thus grew up within me, without the remotest external influence or inherited predisposition towards it, that determined my after career, and led to such success as I have met with in it. My boyish fondness for dissecting animals and preparing their skeletons at that time could find no nearer outlet in any academic career than in the pursuits of a medical student, and the anatomical museum of my college was at first to me a subject of much greater interest than the wards of the hospital so much so, in fact, that while still 4 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP. in my second year of studentship the curatorship falling vacant, I was asked to undertake the office. Here I was in my glory, and although later on the more practical work of the surgical profession had its attractions also, attractions which at one time nearly carried me off into the stream of London hospital practice, I finally returned to the old love, and, through a succession of fortunate incidents, the museum under my care, instead of the one little box with which I began, is now the largest, most complete and magnificently housed in the world. One of the first specimens I possessed was a little stuffed bird with a brown back and white underneath and a very short tail. I saw it in the window of a pawnbroker's shop in my native town, Stratford-on-Avon. I often passed the shop and looked at it with wonder and admiration. At last I summoned up courage to ask the price. "Threepence," was the answer. This was a serious consideration ; but the financial difficulty being overcome, I carried the bird home in triumph. Having access to a copy of Bewick's British Birds, I identified it as the dipper or water-ousel, and even learnt its scientific name, Cinclus aquaticns. It was wretchedly stuffed. Though more than fifty years have passed since I saw it last, for during an absence at school it, with many other treasures, fell into places where " moth and rust do corrupt," its appearance is still fixed in my mind's eye, with its hollow back and crooked legs sticking out of impossible parts of its body. That bird became part of my permanent stock of ornithological knowledge, and ever since, whether by a mountain stream in the Highlands of Scotland, or a rocky river in the Harz or Thuringian Forests in Germany, when I see a dipper flitting over the rushing water or diving beneath the surface, it seems an old familiar friend of my childhood. We get an interesting glimpse of him as a boy in an undated letter from his aunt, Amelia Greaves, to her sister, Mrs. E. F. Flower : MY DEAR CELINA I only write to tell you of the admiration which William gained yesterday. I assure you I felt very proud of A CONGENIAL SCHOOL 5 my nephew in "The Museum,'' l and it was very pleasant to see how Mr. and Mrs. Taggart appreciated him. I wish you had been there to see the boy ; to see the perfect simplicity with which he knew and explained everything. Mrs. Taggart said she never had seen such a remarkable boy, and wanted to know " where and how he had been educated," and then she predicted all sorts of grand things to come. I thought the Taggarts delightful people ; it was amusing to see the offhand way in which William took Mr Taggart's card and invitation and then strapped on his knapsack and walked off. In January 1842 Flower was sent to a small boarding school at Edgbaston, near Birmingham, but he only stayed there one quarter, owing to his health, which was then, and for some years after, very delicate ; this occasioned his living a great deal at home with his mother. His health being somewhat restored, in January 1844 he was sent to a rather remarkable school at Worksop, of which the Headmaster was a German, Dr. Heldenmaier. In this school not only were the more ordinary subjects taught, but also astronomy, anatomy, elocution, logic, botany, mineralogy, and surveying. The life must have been hard for a delicate boy of twelve, as they had ten hours of lessons daily, and their "leisure" was taken up with gardening, gymnastics, and making collections for the school museum. This latter was a great joy to him, and he writes in triumph to his mother in September 1844 that he has been made "Curator 1 The Museum was a room in his father's house at Stratford-on-Avon devoted to his collections. 6 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP. of the Museum." The hard work and long hours seem to have told on him considerably, but yet he wrote cheerfully every week to his mother describing fully everything he was doing. The following extracts will show how, even at school, he was still following up his favourite subjects : Worksop, Feb. 25 (1844). As well as the book I have already mentioned I have one on chemistry. One very nice thing here is that on Sunday evenings the large boys sing in the dining-room, and the little ones (those of the second singing class), me among them, have to come into the room and read or draw, whichever we please, and Mr. Richmond, who keeps Dr. Heldenmaier's collection of stuffed birds, always lends me one to copy. I have done a skeleton of a starling, a knot, which is a kind of sandpiper, and a water-rail. Worksop, August 25, 1844. Webster and I are very busy about natural history, always poking about for insects and reading Jessie's Gleanings in Natural History and Mudie's Feathered Tribes of the British Islands. Worksop (March 1845). Dr. Heldenmaier has given us a room in the other house for dissecting. I wish you could see us there with knives and scissors, cutting and injecting away. . . . Since I have been here I have dissected, or helped in dissecting, two good-sized dogs, one puppy, one cat, five rats, two rooks, one jackdaw, etc. . . . Worksop, Feb. 4 (1845). Oh ! the chemistry here is beautiful. Owing to his delicate health he had to leave Worksop in the spring of 1845, anc * for more than two years he lived at home, with the exception of a short time at a school at Eastbourne, till in the autumn of 1847, on entering University College, London, he went to live at Cloudesley Terrace, Islington. At this time, among the teachers at i UNIVERSITY COLLEGE 7 University College were men of exceptionable ability, such as Professor George Busk and the cultured surgeon Campbell de Morgan, while among those of the students who became his lifelong friends were the Judge, Sir Edward Fry, and Lord Lister, President of the Royal Society. At first he only took up the ordinary Arts course, in which he matriculated in July 1849, believing that "the study of medicine is, after all, the essential thing by which I must stand or fall in the world," but, wishing " to turn his love of natural history to advantage," he after- wards entered on courses in Zoology, Comparative Anatomy, and Anatomy and Physiology, for which courses he obtained a gold and a silver medal. Writing to his mother in explanation, he said : A knowledge of birds alone is of very little use; I want a general and scientific knowledge of the whole animal kingdom, particularly of the lower classes, mollusca and radiata, of which I know next to nothing, and without which I could never turn my love of natural history to any advantage. Further on in the same letter he describes a knowledge of the above subjects as " indispensable," and laments not having time to take up " chemistry and geology, which are all so useful." To the boy of sixteen, born and brought up in the country, and who had lived so much of his life at home, London seemed at first very hard and unsympathetic. One letter (of many) will be sufficient to show him as he was during his first months in London : SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP. 36 CLOUDESLKY TERRACE, January 30, 1848. Mv DEAR MAMMA Imagine to yourself -w^, standing in ecstasies of delight over the just-arrived box, with hands trembling with impatience, undoing the cord and snatching off the lid, then pausing a moment where to commence the attack among the tempting-looking packages of paper. Presently four pieces of wood tied together and stuck in a corner are spied, and a brown bird is brought to light ; then the stockings, least interesting but not least useful, are thrown out ; then two mince pies, which did not live many seconds to enjoy the smoky atmosphere of London, for the hands, or rather mouth, of the destroyer was soon at work on them ; then cake, jam, nuts, pies, books, etc., etc., follow in quick succession : such a scene was enacted in this room about three o'clock this day ; but after pleasure a reaction often follows ; it grew dark, and I sat down by the fire, and I thought of Home and you all and bygone days and cried. I am not generally melancholy now, because I have plenty to do, but if ever I sit still for a few minutes doing nothing, and almost every night when I go to bed, it comes on. What a singular thing it is that the farther you look back on what has happened, and the farther off it you are, it seems so much the happier ; time and distance throw such a charm over everything. I think sometimes that I was happy once but am not now, but really it is not so; now, for instance, I think, oh, how happy I was at such and such a place, but when I really and earnestly think of the circumstances of it, I find that there were just as many troubles and cares and disappointments then as there are now, but these are forgotten and only the good impressions retained ; that is why people say childhood is the happiest time of life ; it seems so at first thoughts, but I think that happiness does not depend on age but on a good conscience. This last reflection, together with the following undated extract" The Bible came home to-day ; I hope it will be a constant companion and friend as THE ESSEX MARSHES 9 long as I live " show characteristic lines of thought which he adhered to all through life. However, he soon settled down to regular London life, broken only by a run down to his home at Stratford for a few days' hunting with his father, or by a day on the Essex marshes with his long single- barrel gun shooting wild duck and getting an occasional goose. From these latter expeditions the bag was usually brought back for purposes of dissection and stuffing. Another means of acquiring specimens was by going down to Leadenhall Market in the early morning and looking through the birds as they came in. In one letter he records having got specimens of pintail, curlew, tufted duck, and brent goose. The longer holidays were nearly all devoted to walking tours, usually with his brother Edgar, or with his life-long friend Septimus Sibley, or with Harry Greenhow, who afterwards went through the siege of Lucknow. " The most substantial parts of a journey are the letters written ; talking vanishes, impressions fade, but writing endures, so write, write and sketch." So wrote Mrs. Flower to her son ; and accordingly from every stopping - place he sent her long descriptive letters, and a sketch-book always accom- panied him, in which he recorded everything that struck him as being of interest, whether it was a building, a strange animal, or a fine piece of natural scenery ; the humours or discomforts of their travels, too, are frequently vividly portrayed. Among other io SIR WILLIAM FLOWER places visited in this way were Wales, the Lakes, the Wye district, the Rhine, Holland and Belgium, the Black Forest, the lower Rhone, the Pyrenees and Switzerland. Even in those days the Museums and Zoological Gardens they came to in their walks were always the first objects of interest. In March 1852 Flower read his first paper before the Zoological Society of London (of which he had been elected a Fellow the year before), " Notes on the Dissection of a New Species of Galago." He was also now contributing many papers to the University College and Middlesex Hospital Medical Societies. In March 1853 he was appointed Junior House Surgeon to Middlesex Hospital, and six months later Senior House Surgeon. In March 1854 he passed the examina- tion for Membership of the Royal College of Surgeons. In spite of all his other duties he under- took the work of Curator of the Middlesex Hospital Museum, to which he added many new preparations, and the general condition of which he much im- proved, as the Committee emphasised in their report every year. In January 1854 they wrote: ' The Committee have great satisfaction in recording their sense of the excellent order in which the Museum has been kept, and the admirable manner in which the preparations have been put up. This reflects the greatest credit on Mr. W. H. Flower, inasmuch as he has been engaged during the greater part of the year in performing in a very i JOINS THE ARMY MEDICAL STAFF n efficient manner the duties of House Surgeon to the Hospital." These two appointments he held till April 1854, when, owing to the rumours of approaching war, he threw them up in order to join the medical staff of the Army. CHAPTER II THE CRIMEA 1854-1855 DURING the opening months of 1854 rumours of the coming war with Russia were exciting every young Englishman. It had been Flower's intention to go abroad for a couple of years to study surgery at the French and German universities, but when he learnt that Dr. Sharpey of University College, who had been asked to send in the names of some " really good men " to the Director-General of the Medical Department of the Army, had included his among them, he gave up his original plans, and in the expectation of being soon employed on active service, decided to enter the Medical Department of the Army. His family received the news with some dismay, their letters calling forth this characteristically philosophical summing up of the question : March 31, 1854. MY DEAR MOTHER " Too anxious " I think you rightly call yourself; but do not let imaginary fears and dread of almost impossible dangers interfere with so brilliant an opportunity of GOES TO CHATHAM 13 acquiring experience and knowledge such as now presents itself, as every one whose opinion is worth having about here says without doubt it is. I should be very sorry indeed to do any- thing that would give you pain and trouble; but then, if the occupation of a medical officer in the Army does so on account of the danger, what is there that I can do that is not attended with danger ? Every time I make a post-mortem, or go into the wards among the patients with fevers, I encounter a certain amount of danger. How can I venture to trust myself in a railway carriage or a steam-boat ? What situation is there in which there is not more or less danger ? And one who is always dreading it must be miserable indeed ! I might get shot by a Russian cannon-ball, and I might get knocked down and run over by an omnibus in Oxford Street ; the chances of the latter are almost as great as the former, but they do not deter me from walking in the street in question. Edgar might break his neck or his leg out hunting, but I hope that fear of such an accident will never prevent him from enjoying that sport, or make you miserable when he does so, though to pursue it constantly is attended with risks quite as great as mine. The risks that are really tangible are from the climate and disease of the countries, but the greater these are the more advantageous must be the position from a medical point of view. The decision once made, very little time was lost. On the 8th April Flower passed the medical examination. Two days later he reported himself to the Principal Medical Officer at Fort Pitt, Chatham : Chatham, April 10, 1854. To-day I have commenced my " Military " life. What a strange thing it seems ! I am beginning to get an insight into what appears quite another branch of human nature; this place certainly abounds with the "quality, pomp, pride, and circumstance of glorious war," and so far is pleasant enough. We live at our own expense, receive no pay, and wear plain clothes, . . . and are carefully supervised by the i 4 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER P.M.O., whose duty, amongst other things, seems to consist in reprimanding men who wear loud pattern shirts or broad-gauge trousers. However, he was not long at Chatham, receiving orders to report himself as Assistant Surgeon to the Depot Battalion at Templemore, where he arrived on the 28th April. Here he found plenty to do, as there was a large number of cases in the hospital, and for a time he was the only surgeon ; and even when, a little later, a senior surgeon was appointed, the work was not much decreased, for the new- comer was " a very jolly old file, whose greatest sphere of action seems to be at the mess table a regular old army bird, always impressing on me his maxim ' Never do more work than you can possibly help,' but very knowing with the men, down to all their tricks to get off duty, etc. " Flower soon saw that the uniform as then worn in our army was most unsuitable for active service or for getting the best work out of men at peace manoeuvres, and began to advocate the abolition of the stock, and other changes. " The Colonel is very old-fashioned in his notions ; we have great arguments with him at mess about the dress and accoutrements of the British soldier, which he considers the most perfect thing in the world ; nothing can annoy him more than saying anything against that remnant of barbarism, the leather stock ; but he is a good- tempered and gentlemanly man, so we get on very well." While these discussions were going on ii THE SOLDIER'S STOCK 15 " one of the sentries was found dead at his post. I was called up to him, but life was quite gone. Dr. Breslin is a great enemy of soldiers' stocks ; the Colonel, on the other hand, an immense advocate for anything that is old - fashioned ; here was a grand chance for him to annoy the Colonel and cry down the stock ; so though the real cause of death was rupture of the heart, Dr. Breslin persuaded the jury that it was the stock, showed them an illustra- tion, the picture in last week's Punch, which they firmly believed was an actual portrait of one of the soldiers in the Eastern Expedition ; they accordingly returned a verdict to the effect that the deceased died from strangulation by the stock ! " At Templemore he remained for nearly three months, till on July 15 he wrote to his father : The happy moment has at length arrived ; to-morrow I bid adieu to Templemore ; the order came this morning for me to join the 63rd Regiment, now at Cork, waiting for embarkation to Turkey. However, there were further delays, and it was not till Sunday, July 23, that the Avon, Captain Ellison, a paddle-wheel steamer of 1800 tons, with on board the headquarters and eight service companies of Her Majesty's 63rd Regiment of Foot and two companies of the 46th Regiment, in all about 1220 men, sailed from Queenstown for the East. The voyage was slow and uneventful ; at Malta they took in tow a brig containing stores and 16 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP. provisions and a barge containing a pontoon bridge. There were a good many vessels in sight all day, several of them being French transports, schooners, and brigs of one to three hundred tons, bound in the same direction as ourselves, and having on board cavalry and stores ; what a miserable and uncertain mode of conveyance these seemed, compared with our mighty steamer ! Early this morning we fell in with the Medora, transport ship, having Artillery on board, and as she was becalmed we took her in tow, as well as the other two, so our procession now was very imposing. 1 On the yth of August they arrived off Constanti- nople. In this neighbourhood they remained till the end of the month, sometimes on board ship, some- times in camp in Sultan's Valley near Beicos, when they sailed on, first to Varna, and afterwards to Baltchik. Sickness had already set in ; before they left the Bosphorus there had been nine deaths from cholera in the 63rd Regiment alone, and in some other regiments many more. Ships and men were now being hurriedly assembled in Varna Bay ; great was the excitement on board the Avon, something was really to be done now, but nobody knew what, till on the 6th September they received orders announcing that the invasion of the Crimea had been determined on. On the following day the combined fleets of England, France, and Turkey, together with the transports carrying troops and stores, nearly 700 1 From Diary of the 5th and 6th August 1854. n FLEET SAILS FROM VARNA 17 vessels in all, sailed out from Varna, making a spectacle the like of which will never again be seen in the history of the world. Men-of-war had now attained to about the height of their magnificent appearance ; steam was coming in, but it was not yet of sufficient importance to modify the shape of hulls, or to diminish the height of masts or the spread of canvas. A more magnificent, spirit-stirring sight can scarcely be imagined than this, perhaps the most powerful Armada that ever was collected together, putting out to sea. The beautiful order in which the mighty steamers, each followed by two large ships in tow, wheeled round out of the bay and fell into their respective positions, while the line-of-battle ships hovered round, whipping up the slow ones into their places and constantly firing guns as signals ; the fineness of the day, the freshness of the breeze, the good spirits every one seemed in, all contributed to make it an event never to be forgotten by those who had the privilege of witnessing or sharing in it. 1 Then followed a week at sea, sometimes moving ahead, sometimes at anchor, every fresh move giving rise to much discussion and speculation, till on the 1 2th land was sighted, and two days later, on Thurs- day, September 14, the whole army landed, quite unopposed, about 28 miles north of Sebastopol. Thursday, September 14. Disembarkation of the allied armies on the coast of the Crimea commenced this morning. The place appeared to have been made by nature for such a purpose. The two places where the French and English disembarked were exactly similar, consisting of a low sandy beach about a mile long, and perhaps a quarter of a mile broad, each protected behind by a 1 From Diary of Thursday, September 7, 1854. i8 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP. shallow, square-shaped salt lake. Between the two lakes was a level plain or table-land, partly covered by corn, which had just been cut but not carried. The greater part, however, was un- cultivated and covered with coarse grass and immense quantities of wormwood, which gave a most fragrant odour as you walked over it. Looking northward nothing but level plains are to be seen ; the southern horizon is bounded by the outline of a chain of fine-looking mountains. Being in the last division of infantry, the Avon lay one of the farthest out to sea, and our turn for landing came last, so we spent the greater part of the day in watching the boats coming to the side of the other ships, being filled with red-coated men, and then towed off to shore by little steam-tugs. Our turn at length came about 4 o'clock ; a troop of boats came alongside, and in about an hour the whole regiment was safely landed on the Emperor of Russia's territories, without passport or permission. We were ordered to land in full dress, 1 with no baggage but what each officer could carry himself, including rations of salt pork and biscuits and a keg full of water to last three days. The night soon coming on after we had taken up the position assigned to us on the beach, we began in earnest to experience the hard- ships of war. We laid ourselves down in the sand with our great-coats around us, and began to sleep comfortably enough ; but before long I awoke with a most uncomfortable sensation of dampness, and found it was pouring with rain. It had been threatening, and indeed raining, a little all day long, but now it came down vigorously ; however, there was nothing to be done, so I pulled my coat closer round me and tried to sleep again. This, however, was impossible, and the cold and damp increased so that there was nothing for it but to get up and walk about. It was now about one o'clock, but I found every one on the move from the same cause ; a heavy surf had also risen on the sea, by which many of the boats engaged in landing horses and artillery late in the afternoon were wrecked and cast on shore, and tales were circulated of men being drowned and others having narrowly 1 Full dress: cocked hat, scarlet coatee, gold epaulettes, sword, pistol, flask, and great-coat. ii THE DISEMBARKATION 19 escaped. This circumstance, however, proved a blessing to us in one respect ; the stranded boats were soon seized upon by our men, broken into pieces, and their remains converted into a number of blazing fires, round which we collected in groups and spent the remainder of the night ; the light of the fire revealed a set of as unhappy-looking countenances as any one might wish to see. At length, however, it ceased raining, and the light of morn- ing began to appear, to our infinite satisfaction. Friday, September 15. The sun rose over the lake, and the brilliancy and freshness of the morning almost made us forget the misery of the night. The surf was still so high that disembarka- tion was stopped until the afternoon, and we found that it was true that a man and several horses had been lost during the night. I could not help feeling that if the storm were to continue, our position would be somewhat critical, in an enemy's country, without artillery, cavalry, provisions for more than three days, or means of retreat. In the afternoon the ships were at work again, but the only way in which the horses could be landed was by throwing them out of the boats and letting them find their way as they could to the shore. In the morning I took a walk along the coast to the French landing-place and encampment. In one respect they were much more comfortable than we were, in that they had tents to sleep in little low ones into which four men could just creep, and which are carried on the march a quarter by each man. In the evening we made our beds on the sand as before ; fortunately it was fine though very cold. Saturday, September 16. Went back to the ship to superintend the removal of about forty invalid soldiers to the Kangaroo, which ship is going to take them to the hospital at Scutari. On my return I was delighted to find our tents had arrived and were put up, the luxury of which no one can appreciate who has not been sleeping in the open air in cold weather. Sunday, September 1 7. The process of disembarkation is going on briskly, the beach presenting a scene of the most animated and lively description. Foraging parties that we have sent out to the neighbouring villages have been generally very successful, and have brought in an immense number of araba waggons, oxen, camels, horses, sheep, goats, etc. The inhabitants mostly came 20 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP. with them, and are taken into our service, paid and rationed for looking after the oxen and driving the waggons ; they are all Tartars and Mohamedans, and profess to entertain more sympathy for the Turks than for the Russians. The camels are of the sort with two humps. Very little use seems to be made of them, two of these huge beasts being always yoked in a small araba waggon, and they seem never to be used as beasts of burden. Monday, September 18. The disembarkation of horses still continues. I went for a long walk with another officer, first to the French camp, where we saw eighteen Russian soldiers who had been taken prisoner ; then we visited the Turkish camp and each of our divisions and the rifle camp in the village ; this was situated in a hollow with a good many trees round it. The houses, now nearly all deserted, were very comfortable and well- built, and the whole showed signs of civilisation, comfort, and cleanliness far superior to what I had expected. The great house of the village was an exceedingly pleasant country residence belonging to a Russian general. We went over it, and found it furnished exceedingly well ; the inhabitants had evidently left it in a great hurry on the appearance of our troops, but the servants all remained, and were very civil in showing us over the rooms, which we left in exactly the same state as we found them, with the exception of a slight diminution in the stock of wine. There was an excellent library, almost entirely of French books ; among others I saw Shakespeare's works, Marryat's, and other English authors translated into French. A very handsome illustrated Life of Napoleon was lying on the drawing- table, also a card- basket, drawing material, letters, music, etc. There was a piano too, and round the house a goodly-sized garden, though badly kept up. On returning in the evening we found to our great grief that the tents were all to go back to the ships, and that we should have no chance of seeing our baggage for some time to come. 1 So we had another night in' the open air, the last in our present situation, to-morrow being appointed for commencing the march. 1 It was a month before Flower got his tent again, and more than nine weeks before the baggage was landed from the Avon. ii MARCH TO THE ALMA 21 Tuesday, September 19. Early this morning a general move took place, the whole army marching off towards Sebastopol ; the 63rd Regiment alone was an exception, being left on the beach to assist the ships in clearing away some stores which had been landed and were not now wanted, and a number of sick and weakly men who had been left behind from different regiments. This occupied nearly the whole of a very hot day, but about half-past five in the afternoon we set off in the direction the rest of the army had taken ; but it appears we did not know exactly which this was, for about an hour after dark we found ourselves in the village which I visited yesterday, with no trace whatever of the rest of the division. Even on this short march we found out one of the troubles of medical officers in war time ; no provision whatever had been made for the conveyance of men who fell sick on the way ; in vain had we represented that such was the case to various authorities ; the only reply was that all the waggons were wanted for the commissariat. We certainly started off without a sick man, but owing to the heat of the day, the hard work the men had had, and the prevalence of diarrhoea and cholera as an epidemic in the regiment, men were constantly falling out of the ranks, unable to march a step farther ; these we must have left to the mercies of the Cossacks if we had not fortunately found two arabas on our way, in which we managed to bring them all on to our destination for the night. The above-mentioned Cossacks are terrible bugbears to our army, but they appear to do very little or no damage beyond alarming timid sentries and causing whole regiments to turn out under arms at unpleasant hours during the night ; they sometimes appear in the daytime, but always vanish on the least indication of our assuming a hostile attitude. Night alarms are often caused by a stray pony or bullock wandering too near the outposts ; one of the latter was shot a few nights ago by a valiant sentry, and there is a story (I believe true) of a bold Highlander firing twice at a bush and then charging it with his bayonet before he discovered his mistake. Wednesday, September 20. All up and under arms before daybreak, but from some cause or other we did not move off our ground till ten o'clock. It was a beautiful morning ; our route 22 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP. was across a fine open undulating country, following the line of the coast, from which we were about three or four miles distant. Our little army presented a very pretty sight as it slowly moved along, the rear and flanks protected by some squadrons of the 4th Light Dragoons, which had been left behind for that purpose. About the middle of the day we halted, and our commander, Brigadier-General Torrens, made a speech to the men, informing them that he had just received intelligence that a battle was about to be fought by the army in advance of us, and that if we marched well we should be up in time for it, etc. ; so on we went again, but the heat of the day and the weight of the packs soon began to tell on our men, many of whom were mere recruits who had never marched before in their lives. Our waggons soon filled with sick men, and others kept dropping out every minute ; however, by using threats and persuasion alternately, getting the worst ones on to the waggons, carrying packs and firelocks for others, we managed to get them all along to a village near the sea, where we left the waggons and sick and weakly men under the charge of an. officer and assistant-surgeon. This was about five or six o'clock, and we must have marched fifteen or sixteen miles ; but the General wishing to share in the glories of the battle, 1 of which we now heard the firing and saw the smoke in the distance, on we went again, at first pretty bravely, but the exhausted men began to fall out again ; but as it was getting dark, and we saw from the lights ahead that we were near our destina- tion, we left them in dozens on the ground, and as many of them were only exhausted, they came on again and joined us during the night or next morning. The lights we had first seen turned out to be, on our approaching them, a village on fire ; a melancholy sight it was, too, as we passed between the smouldering walls and blackened and demolished ruins. Here we met stragglers from the main army searching for lost comrades ; they told us of the dreadful battle that had been fought, and how their regiments had been cut to pieces; they spoke little of having gained a great victory that was a matter of course. Then a dead body of an Englishman lay across our path, cold, stiff, and bloody. 1 The battle of the Alma. II THE FLANK MARCH 23 With what curiosity our men looked at it, and what a shudder seemed to run through them at the sight ; but then came another, and another, and others with horrid wounds, groaning and crying for help, help which no one could give them. At length we came to the river ; we were half-dying with thirst, but for a long time no one ventured to taste the water which flowed through this scene of death ; but this feeling once overcome, they rushed eagerly to the stream, and very refreshing it was. We passed over a bridge the Russians had partly destroyed, but by this time repaired by our engineers, and reached our destined resting-place on the field where the battle had been raging during the day. Here we soon dropped down to sleep, not, however, before those lines of Campbell's came most forcibly to my mind When thousands had sunk on the ground overpowered, The weary to sleep and the wounded to die though we had not even the comfort of a pallet of straw. " Moved our camp from the battle-field to join the 4th Division." " Marched to the Kutchka." " Marched to the Balbec." " Travelling slowly all night through the wood." And so on till the 3 as well as by his large-minded charity and insight, always dwelling on the spirit rather than on the letter of religion. He said that Stanley was the most truly " liberal " man whom he knew. He showed notable courage at the time of the first publication of Darwin's Origin of Species. He preached in the Abbey, and took for his text, " Let there be light," maintaining that the truth must be right, even if our limited minds could not yet understand it all. We never willingly missed an opportunity of hearing Dean Stanley, whether in the Abbey or in the numerous churches where he was asked to preach. The Deanery of Westminster, graced by the best hostess of the day, Lady Augusta Stanley, became one of the most interesting and delightful houses in London. All classes from Royalty downwards, and all nationalities, I may even say all creeds, met in the Deanery as on neutral ground. Lady Augusta had the art of making every one feel happy, and inducing them to show themselves at their best. The Dean and his wife had no children of their own, but both had a real love for children the Dean once remarked that children were like the under- growth in a wood, connecting the large trees which would otherwise stand apart in isolation, and soon VII DEAN STANLEY 87 became warmly attached to the bright and pretty children at Lincoln's Inn Fields, to whom they extended a degree of affection and confidence which was thoroughly understood and returned. The Dean first instituted Children's Services on Innocents' Day in Westminster Abbey, to which the Flowers' children duly went. But he not only gave them a service. He also provided tea for those of his small relations and friends who came to hear him, and after " Abbey," as a Westminster boy would say, the cheerful little boys and girls used to pass from the dim Abbey, at the close of the short winter's day, into the bright warm Deanery and enjoy the one meal which children really regard as a social function devoid of responsibility, with all their particular friends. The Dean and his wife were godparents to two of the Flowers' children, and the youngest, who was born after Lady Augusta's lamented death, was christened by the Dean, and named after her. Speaking of Dean Stanley (says Flower in his personal memoir of Huxley contributed to the Proceedings of the Royal Society), I am reminded of a meeting which took place at my house in Lincoln's Inn Fields on November 26, 1878, just after his return from a visit to the United States. He had a great wish to see Darwin, who was one of the few remarkable men of the age with whom he was not personally acquainted. They moved in totally different circles, Darwin, owing to ill-health, having totally given up going into general society. So we arranged that they should both come to lunch. They were mutually pleased with one another, although they had not many subjects in common to talk about. Darwin said that he had a great respect for Stanley, regarding him as 88 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP. a thoroughly honest man. Darwin was no theologian, and Stanley did not take the slightest interest in, nor had he any knowledge of, natural history, although his father was eminent as an ornithologist, and President of the Linnsean Society. I once took him over the Zoological Gardens. His remarks were original and amusing, but the sole interest he appeared to find in any of the animals was to discover some human trait either in appearance or character. 1 The Dean enjoyed intensely the broader beauties of nature as shown in scenery. But the details of animal and plant life were entirely outside his sympathies. ... If I had the faculty of a Boswell I should have much worth narrating of the many little dinner-parties at one or the other of our houses, at which Huxley and the Dean were the principal talkers. A characteristic rencontre between them took place also on one of the ballot nights at the Athenaeum. A well-known popular preacher of the Presbyterian Church, who had made himself famous by predictions of the speedy coming of the end of the world, was up for election. I was standing by Huxley, when the Dean, coming straight from the ballot-boxes, turned towards us. "Well," said Huxley, "have you been voting for C. ?" "Yes, indeed, I have," replied the Dean. " Oh, I thought the priests were always opposed to the prophets," said Huxley. " Ah," replied the Dean, with that well-known twinkle in his eye and the sweetest of smiles, " but you see I do not believe in his prophecies, and some people say I am not much of a priest." The kind Dean (writes Lady Flower) used to come to see our children act small plays or scenes from Shakespeare, mount- ing right up to the nursery, where the acting took place. Scenes from Shakespeare were generally the entertainment, but Dick 1 This failure to transmit the taste is rather remarkable. Stanley on Birds, written by his father, the Bishop of Norwich, was the first book on the subject which the present biographer ever possessed, and was a lasting joy. Rather later the Bishop's gun, a well-made old single-barrelled muzzle-loader, was presented to us by an old Norfolk squire, into whose family it had come. It seems probable that he was a sportsman as well as a naturalist. THE DEAN'S ILLNESS 89 Wliittington and his Cat was a standing piece. It was a charming picture to see Stanley, after some official engagement, with his white hair contrasting with the red riband of the Bath (the Dean of Westminster being Chaplain to the Order), the youngest child raised on his knee, whilst he looked on with extraordinary zest at the acting. Indeed, he took such interest as even him- self to compose some lines for the children to add to the little play. But this delightful friendship drew to its close in 1881. On the 2yth June of that year he baptized our youngest child, giving her the name of his dear wife, " Augusta," and of her sister, Lady Frances Baillie, and cousin, Mrs. Drummond of Megginch, also Frances. He came to lunch afterwards, cheerful and keenly interested as usual, to the delight of Professor Asa Gray, the accomplished American botanist, then visiting in Europe. It was about the time of the publication of Froude's full and some- what rough Life of Carlyle, when many readers were painfully distressed by the revelations of temper and apparent discomfort of his domestic life, but the Dean was very comforting in stating that these " revelations " were overdrawn, and said that " words which in print appeared cruel and even savage were in reality so softened by the manner of saying them, or the smile that accom- panied them, that Carlyle's admirers need not be troubled about his reputation." This was the last general conversation enjoyed with the Dean, for he was taken ill a few days after- wards. He was attacked by erysipelas in the head, and on the i8th of July Arthur Penrhyn Stanley passed to his rest in the Westminster Deanery. Sunday the iyth will never be forgotten by those who attended the evening service in the nave of Westminster Abbey, when the bulletins pasted on the walls of the cloisters announced that the erst- while principal figure of those services was lying in the adjacent Deanery stricken with mortal illness. 90 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP. As the service went on the lines of Charles Wesley's hymn were sung Part of the host have crossed the flood, And part are crossing now Flower could bear the tension no longer, and whispering to his wife to remain through the rest of the service, he went into the Deanery, where he was welcomed by the devoted sister-in-law, Lady Frances Baillie, and Dr. Gerald Harper, the Dean's doctor and friend, and still more by the patient him- self, so that he remained, and relieving some of the watchers, sat up all night with him. Stanley's mind was clear, though his speech was rendered difficult owing to the swelling caused by erysipelas. Flower's medical training made him a helpful friend in this emergency, whilst, as he was not in practice, there were no difficulties of medical etiquette in his presence in the sick chamber, even had he not been a personal friend of the attending doctors, Sir William Jenner, Sir William Gull, Mr. Prescott Hewitt, and Dr. Gerald Harper. Eventually the latter, with Canon Farrar, informed the Dean that he could not recover. Flower re- mained with Stanley when Canon Farrar admin- istered the Holy Communion to the Dean, together with the relatives in the house, and some of the household, the Dean himself pronouncing the final blessing, and afterwards shaking hands with all those who had partaken with him. Later Flower read Stanley's own hymn on the Trans- vii DEAN STANLEY'S DEATH 91 figuration aloud to him, and Newman's " Lead, Kindly Light." The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Vaughan, and Canon Farrar were present, together with Flower, when the Dean passed away. "My husband," says Lady Flower, "was so greatly im- pressed by the last scenes of Stanley's life that he always said that it was ' one of the chief privileges ' of his own life to have been permitted to pass these hours with him." The earnestness which marked the whole of Flower's life and actions was not merely the out- come of a firm sense of duty, any more than his strong family affection was a mere impulse. He was by conviction and disposition religious. His early environment, though full of positive goodness, was very far from being such as was likely to assist in the development' of a mind which found its religious expression in the writings of F. D. Maurice, Charles Kingsley, the Rev. Llewelyn Davies, Dean Church, and Dean Stanley, and the most congenial companionship and comprehension in the region of spiritual matters in their society. The early history of his own family was strictly Puritan, and in strong natural opposition to the prescriptive teachings of the Church. It would be difficult to find a more interesting example of the survival of political Puritanism than in the person of his grandfather, Mr. Richard Flower, of Marden Hill, near Hertford. He was a man far in advance of his time, full of 92 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP. the political dissatisfaction, so rarely found in the county gentleman class, which inspired William Cobbett and other political thinkers of the day. Deeply dissatisfied with the position of affairs in England, he sold his large estate and migrated to America like one of the Pilgrim Fathers, though two centuries later, taking with him his family, "men- servants and maidservants, oxen and asses, sheep and goats," not forgetting six couples of fox-hounds and two Scotch deer-hounds ; and purchased a huge estate in Illinois. Three ships were chartered to carry the party, and among the first people whom the Flowers met in New York, coming up Broadway in his shirt-sleeves, was William Cobbett. When Edward Fordham Flower, the youngest son of the former Hertfordshire squire and then ranch -owner, returned to England he was of no definite religious persuasion, nor was there anything in the subsequent family developments to influence William Flower to adopt the attitude towards the Church which he did. His marriage doubtless influenced him very greatly, and probably also the examples in his wife's family show- ing that religious convictions and loyalty to the Church could be and were accompanied by vigour of intellect and thorough independence of thought and character. Apart from personal happiness, this trend of sentiment and feeling on Flower's part was of great service in allaying and removing differ- ences aroused by the combative character of some vii ADDRESS ON EVOLUTION 93 of the then leaders of science and best equipped exponents of evolution. On viewing the recent expression of opinion as to first causes by Lord Kelvin, whose acquaintance with the physical force of nature is almost unrivalled, it is interesting to note the steps taken by Flower to show the world that those whose knowledge of biology and evolution was second to none were by no means of opinion that what had been dis- covered was tantamount to a " dispensing power " giving them leave to cut the ropes tying them to older and established convictions and beliefs. In October 1883 Flower was asked to give an address at the Church Congress at Reading. The Bishop of Oxford presided, and after his address the greater part of the day was given up to the question of the bearings of science on religion as happily expounded by Flower. It was an idea, due to the authorities of Balliol College, 1 Oxford, to bring him to give an account, at once authoritative and simple, of the meaning of evolution, and of the kind of evidence on which it rests. It may well be doubted whether, if he had to deal with the same subject to-day, he would alter his statements or his conclusions. 1 Sir John Conroy, Bart., Fellow and Tutor of Balliol, was greatly im- pressed by the mischief done to many young men brought up in narrow homes, who were taught that " evolution " was "against religion." When they came up to the University and were taught the theory of evolution, they were inclined to give up their former beliefs as well, supposing that they must stand or fall together. 94 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP. In his address he said : The doctrine of continuity, or of the direct relation of an event to some preceding event, according to a natural and orderly sequence, is now generally recognised in the organic world ; and it is a curious circumstance that though the modern expansion of this doctrine, as applied to the living inhabitants of the world, appears to many so startling, and has met with so much opposi- tion, it is in a more restricted application a very old and wide- spread article of scientific as well as of popular faith. The expansion of the special branches of knowledge affecting our views upon this subject has taken place in many different direc- tions, of which I can here only indicate the most striking. 1. The discovery of enormous numbers of forms of life the existence of which was entirely unknown a hundred years ago. The increase of knowledge in this respect is something incon- ceivable to those who have not followed its progress. Not only has the number of well-defined known species multiplied pro- digiously, but infinite series of gradations between what was formerly supposed to be distinct species are being constantly brought to light. 2. Vast increase in the knowledge of the intimate structure of organic bodies both as revealed by ordinary dissection and by microscopic examination, a method of investigation only brought to perfection in very recent years. 3. The comparatively new study of the geographical dis- tribution of living things, which has only become possible since the prosecution of the systematic explorations of the earth's surface which have distinguished the present century. The results of this branch of inquiry alone have been sufficient to convince many naturalists of the unsoundness of the old view of the distinct origin of species, whether created each in the region of the globe to which it is now confined, or, as many still imagine, all in one spot, from which they have spread themselves, un- changed in form, colour, or other essential attributes, to their present abodes, however diverse in climate and other environ- ments or conditions of existence. 4. Lastly, though most important of all, must be mentioned 1883. Vll LAW OF DESCENT 95 the entirely new science of palaeontology, opening up worlds of organic life before unknown, also showing infinite gradations of structure, but mainly important as increasing our horizon of observation to an extent not previously dreamt of in the direction of time. Powers of observation formerly limited to the brief space of a few generations are now extended over ages which the concurrent testimony of various branches of knowledge of astronomy, cosmogony, and geology show are immeasurable compared with any periods of which we hitherto had cognisance. The result may be stated to be that the opinion now almost if not quite universal among skilled and thoughtful naturalists of all countries, whatever their beliefs on other subjects, is that the various forms of life which we see around us, and the existence of which we know from their fossil remains, besides the in- numerable others of which the remains do not exist or have not yet been discovered, are the product not of independent creations, but of descent with gradual modifications from pre-existing forms. In short, the law of the natural descent of individuals, of varieties, races, or breeds (which being within the limits of the previous powers of observation are already universally admitted), has been extended to the still greater modifications constituting what we call species, and consequently to the higher groups called genera, families, and orders. The barrier fancied to exist beween so- called varieties and so-called species has broken down. In fact the onus probandi now seems entirely to lie with those who make the assertion that species have been separately created. Where, in fact, it may be asked, is the shadow of a scientific proof that the first individual of any species has come into being without pre-existing parents ? Has any competent observer at any time witnessed such an occurrence ? The apparent advent of a new species in geological history, a common event enough, has certainly been cited as such. As well might the presence of a horse in a field with no other animals near it be quoted as evidence of the fallacy of the common view of the descent of individuals. Ordinary, observation tells us of the numerous causes which may have isolated that horse from its parents and kindred. Geologists know equally well how slight are the chances of more than a stray individual or fragment of an individual here and there being 96 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER first preserved and afterwards discovered to give any indication of the existence of the race. When we contrast the present know- ledge of palaeontology with what it was fifty or even ten years ago, when we see by what accident, as it were a railway driven through a new country, a quarry worked for commercial purposes, a city newly fortified all the most important discoveries of extinct animals have been made, we must be convinced that all arguments drawn from the absence of the required links are utterly valueless. The study of palaeontology is as yet in its merest infancy ; the wonder is that it has already furnished so much, not so little, corroboration of the doctrine of transmutation of species. Direct proof is then equally absent from both theories. For the old view it may be said that it has been held for a very long time by persons whose knowledge of the facts of Nature which bear upon it was extremely limited. On the other hand, the new view is continually receiving more support as that knowledge increases, and furnishes a key to the vast numbers of otherwise inexplicable facts in every branch of natural history, in geological and geographical distribution, in the habits of animals, in their development and growth, and especially in their structure. The question of the fixity or the transmutation of species is a purely scientific one, only to be discussed and decided on scientific grounds. To the naturalist it is clearly one of extreme importance, as it gives him for the first time a key to the interpretation of the phenomena with which he has to deal. It may seem to many that a question like this is entirely beside the business of a Church Congress, as it is one with which only those expert in the ways of scientific investigation and deeply imbued with a knowledge of scientific facts could be called upon to deal. This would certainly have been my view if it had not been that some who, from their capacities and education, should have been onlookers in such a controversy, awaiting the issue of the conflict while the lists are being fought out by the trained knights, have rushed into the fray, and by their unskilful inter- position have only confused the issues, casting about dust instead of light. In the hope of clearing away some of this dust the present discussion has been decided upon. It is self-evident that a solid advance of any branch of knowledge must in some way THE LOGIC OF FACTS 97 or other, and to a greater or less degree, influence many others, even those not directly connected with it, and therefore the rapid simultaneous strides of so many branches of knowledge as may be embraced under the term of "recent advances in natural science" will be very likely to have some bearing upon theological beliefs. Whether in the direction of expanding, improving, purifying, elevating, or in the direction of contracting, hardening, and destroying, depends not upon those engaged in contributing to the advance of science, but upon those whose special duty it is to show the bearing of those advances upon hitherto received theological dogmas. The scientific questions themselves may well be left to experts. If the new doctrines are not true, there are plenty of keen critics among men of science ready to sift the sound from the unsound. Error in scientific subjects has its day, but it is certain not long to survive the ordeal, yearly increasing in severity, to which it is subjected by those devoted to its cultivation. On the other hand the advances of truth, though they may be retarded, will never be stopped by the opposition of those who are incompetent by the nature of their education to deal with the evidence on which it rests. There is no position so fraught with danger to religion as that which binds it up essentially with this or that scientific doctrine, with which it must either stand or fall. The history of the reception of the greatest discoveries in astronomy and geology, the passionate clinging to the exploded pseudo-scientific views on those subjects supposed to be bound up with religious faith, the fierce denunciation of the advocates of the then new, but now universally accepted, ideas, are well worn subjects, and would not be alluded to but for the repetition almost literal repetition in some cases of that reception which has been accorded to the new views of biology. Ought not the history of those discoveries, and the controversies to which they gave rise, to be both a warning and an encouragement ? Those who hoped and those who feared that faith would be destroyed by them have been equally mistaken ; and is it not probable that the same result will follow the great biological discoveries and controversies of the present day ? In stating thus briefly what is the issue of these discoveries, as generally understood and accepted by men H 98 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP. of science, I have done all that I promised, and must leave, in far more competent hands, the part of the subject especially appropriate for discussion at this meeting. I may, however, perhaps be allowed to put a few plain and simple considerations before you which may have some bearing upon the subject. I said at the commencement of this paper that it has long been admitted by all educated persons, whatever their religious faith may be, that that very universal, but still most wonderful process, the commencement and gradual development of a new individual of whatever living form, whether plant, animal, or man, takes place according to definite and regularly acting laws, without miraculous interposition. Further than this, I believe that every one will admit that the production of the various races or breeds of domestic animals is brought about by a similar means. We do not think it necessary to call in any special intervention of creative power to produce a short-horned race of cattle, or to account for the difference between a bulldog and a greyhound, a Dorking and a Cochin China fowl. The gradual modifications by which these races were produced, having taken place under our own eyes as it were, we are satisfied that they are the consequence of what we call natural laws, modified and directed in these particular cases by man's agency. We have even gone further, having long admitted, without the slightest fear of producing a collision with religious faith, that variation has taken place among animals in a wild state, producing local races of more or less stable and permanent character, and brought about by the influence of food, climate, and other surrounding circum- stances. The evidences of the Divine government of the world, and of the Christian faith, have been sufficient for us notwith- standing our knowledge that the individual was created according to law, and that the race or variety was also created according to law. In what way, then, can they be affected by the knowledge that the somewhat greater modifications, which we call species, were also created according to law ? The difficulties, which to some minds seem insuperable, remain exactly as they were ; the proofs, which to others are so convincing, are entirely unaffected by this widening of scientific knowledge. Even to what is to many the supreme difficulty of all, the origin of man, the same vii EVOLUTION ONLY A PROCESS 99 considerations are applicable. Believe everything you will about man in his highest intellectual and moral development, about the nature, origin, existence, and destiny of the human soul; you have long been able to reconcile all this with the knowledge of his individual material origin according to law, in no whit different in principle from that of the beasts of the field, passing through all the phases they go through, and existing long before possessing, except potentially, any of the special attributes of humanity. At what exact period, and by what means, the great transformation takes place, no one can tell. If the most godlike of men have passed through the stages which physiologists recognise in human development without prejudice to the noblest, highest, most divine part of their nature, why should not the race of mankind, as a whole, have had a similar origin, followed by similar progress and development, equally with- out prejudice to its present condition and future destiny? Can it be of real consequence at the present time, either to our faith or our practice, whether the first man had such an extremely lowly beginning as the dust of the earth, in the literal sense of the words, or whether he was formed through the intervention of various progressive stages of animal life ? The reign of order and law in the government of the world has been so far admitted that all these questions have really become questions of a little more or a little less order and law. Science may well be left to work out the details as it may ; it has thrown some light, little enough at present, but ever increasing, and for which we should all be thankful, upon the processes or methods by which the world in which we dwell has been brought into its present condition. The wonder and mystery of creation remains as wonderful and mysterious as before. Of the origin of the whole, science tells us nothing. It is still as impossible as ever to conceive that such a world, governed by laws, the operation of which have led to such mighty results, and are attended by such future promise, could have originated without the intervention of some power external to itself. If the succession of small miracles, formerly supposed to regulate the operations of nature, no longer satisfies us, have we not substituted for them one of immeasurable greatness and grandeur ? CHAPTER VIII LATER WORK AT LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS IN 1863 Professor Owen resigned the Hunterian Professorship at the Royal College of Surgeons, which he had held since he had relinquished the Conservatorship of the Museum two years previously. On Friday evening, April 25, Flower wrote to Huxley, with whom he was on terms of steady friendship, which lasted till the Professor's death : MY DEAR HUXLEY At a meeting of the Court of Examiners this evening, it was unanimously decided that " there's not a man in all Athens that can discharge Pyramus " (i.e. the Hunterian Professorship) but you. Will you therefore take steps to obtain the necessary qualifications ? Perhaps you can come here some day soon and talk to the Secretary about what certificates will be required ? The President told me that he should endeavour to make the examination itself as comfortable as possible for you under the circumstances, but the formalities must be complied with. You can come up the week after next, any evening that suits you best. I am exceedingly rejoiced myself at the prospect of the new " Hunterian Professor," though I don't know what our illustrious predecessor will say. Huxley was elected to the post, which brought him and Flower into close professional as well as friendly relations for some years. 100 CHAP, vin HUNTERIAN PROFESSORSHIP 101 In 1864 Flower was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, on the Council of which he several times served, and of which he was Vice-President twenty years later. " My dear Darwin," Huxley wrote on January 18, 1864, " I have had no news of you for a long time, but I reasonably hope you are better. Have you any objection to putting your name to Flower's certificate for the Royal Society herewith enclosed ? It will please him much if you will ; and I will go bail for his being a thoroughly good man in all senses of the word, which, as you know, is more than I would say for everybody." Five years later Huxley, whose tenure of the office of Hunterian Lecturer while Flower was " Con- servator " of the Museum had increased the friendly regard and mutual respect of the two in no common degree, wrote to him from Jermyn Street, June 7 : Private, Confidential, Particular, MY DEAR FLOWER I have written to Quain to tell him that I do not propose to be put in nomination for the Hunterian Chair this year. I really cannot stand it, with the British Association hanging over my head. So make thy shoulders ready for the gown, and practise the goose step in order to march properly behind the Mace, and I will come and hear your inaugural. Ever yours, T. H. HUXLEY. The choice of the Council fell on Flower, as Huxley had anticipated. What occurred is told in the following letter to his mother : Now I must tell you something about myself. You probably know that when the Hunterian Museum was placed by the Government in the care of the College of Surgeons, one of the 102 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP. conditions attached was that a course of lectures on Comparative Anatomy should be given annually, illustrated by the preparations. This was the origin of the professorship, which Owen held for more than twenty years, in addition to the Conservatorship of the Museum. It was afterwards thought that the two offices were incompatible ; at all events it was thought advisable to separate them, that the Conservator might give his undivided attention to the Museum. So Huxley was appointed Professor, and has given the lectures ever since I have been Conservator. Now he finds that he can go on no longer, having so many other engagements, and has sent in his resignation. At the Council meeting last Thursday candidates had to be put in nomination, as the election takes place at the next meeting, July 7. Before the meeting the President called on me to ask whether I would undertake the office if I were put in nomination? I told him that I was not particularly anxious to do it, but that I would leave it entirely in the hands of the Council, and reminded him of the former reso- lution, etc. Well, next day he told me that I had been proposed and seconded in words such that "my warmest friend, if he had been present, could not have wished anything more said," and that no one else was even thought of. So the appointment is virtually made, though it will have to be confirmed at the July meeting. The duty consists of giving eighteen lectures in the months of February and March, and the subject being a wide one, I can very much choose what branches of it I take up. The lectures each year have to be different, at least they must not be repeated for some time. I think it will do me a great deal of good on the whole, as I shall have to put my knowledge and ideas in a definite shape. ... If I had got my book out first I should not have hesitated at all, but I hope to be able to work them somehow or other together. The demands upon his time and brain were already becoming severe. Writing to his mother in April 1869, he says : We have now a little respite from the incessant occupation of last week, just enough, however, to have leisure to become aware vin PRESSURE OF WORK 103 of the increase of work of various sorts that keeps accumulating around. Life is a combat with a hydra-headed monster when one head is disposed of two seem to spring up in its place. Not that the disposing of them is, as a general rule, by any means an unpleasant or painful process, rather the contrary. But there is so much of it. Now they are asking about that book of mine. Macmillan has just sent me an invitation to dine on May i, and compare notes with the other authors of the series, and I have nothing satisfactory to report in the way of progress. Whai a contrast to the life Professor van Beneden leads at Louvain ! A lecture from 8 till 9 in the morning, and after that nothing to do but what he likes ; no society, no distractions. His ten days in London was a great change, and he enjoyed it much. . . . Above all, he was surprised at the cultivation and charm of English ladies, and to hear them talking about science and art and at the same time attending to their family and household affairs. But then he saw favourable specimens in Mrs. Smyth and her daughters. It was very curious. One day he asked me if I could tell him about an English lady who had published some drawings of small marine animals, which had interested him extremely, but of which he had not been able to find any further information. So I took him one evening to Inverness Road, where he found all the original drawings and specimens, which they have let him have to take back to Belgium to work at. The drawings in question were by Ellen Toynbee, sister of Flower's wife. His inaugural lecture at Lincoln's Inn Fields took place on February 16, 1870, before a distin- guished audience. He declared that had John Hunter's papers been preserved they would prob- ably have proved the most valuable contribution ever made by one man to the science of Comparative Anatomy. Passing to the present, he affirmed his belief that the Darwinian hypothesis was now firmly 104 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP. fixed as the basis of future research, and that science, which was the handmaid of truth, could lead to nothing opposed to the best and highest instincts of mankind. Owen and Huxley were both present among the audience. His first course of lectures (on the " Anatomy of the Mammalia ") followed, and continued through February and March. These formed the substance of his Osteology of the Mam- malia, published late in the year, and in a second and third edition in 1876 and (with the collaboration of Hans Gadow) in 1885. It was not every one who could have succeeded in interesting audiences used to Huxley's lectures. But Flower not only did this, but developed the subject-matter of the first course, for the use of future students, into a com- plete guide to the bony structure of the mammals, illustrated by more than a hundred original figures. The arrangement and treatment were so complete that almost any question as to the skeleton of any mammal could be readily answered from it. In the concluding chapter the correspondence between the bones of the hind and fore limbs was considered. Dr. Philip Lutley Sclater, F.R.S., kindly writes in regard to this book : Among the publications of Sir William Flower, his well-known Introduction to the Osteology of the Mammalia is one of the most useful, and has been widely employed as a text-book. In 1870 Flower gave a course of lectures before the Royal College of Surgeons on this subject, and those who were fortunate enough to be able to attend them (of whom the writer of these lines was one) will not easily forget the clear and instructive manner in vm 'OSTEOLOGY OF THE MAMMALIA' 105 which they were delivered, and the excellent drawings with which they were illustrated. After the lectures were over they were re-written in a somewhat changed form, so that they might serve better as a "Handbook" for students, and were published by Macmillan & Co. in September of the same year. The Hand- book, which is of convenient size, and illustrated by drawings placed in the text, met with a very favourable reception from teachers and students of zoology, and attained a large circulation. A second edition was called for and published in 1876, and a third edition appeared in 1885, in preparing which Flower, being at that time overburdened with work, obtained the assistance of Dr. Hans Gadow, F.R.S., of the University of Cambridge. As regards the general scheme of this excellent piece of work, it need only be said that, after a general chapter on the classi- fication of mammals, the author discusses the skeleton and its component parts in separate essays, pointing out the modifications in the different organs which take place in the various members of the series, and concludes with a chapter on the correspondence between the bones of the anterior and posterior extremities, which has always been a favourite subject of discussion. The whole work, it may be truly said, although it is very difficult, if not im- possible, to avoid technicalities in writings of this character, is compiled in plain and understandable language, and will no doubt long continue to serve the useful purpose for which it was intended. The subjects chosen by Flower for his Hunterian lectures for the next twelve years illustrate the course of his own personal investigations in the field of zoology. It will be noticed that they all deal entirely or mainly with the history and structure of mammals, and that five are concerned with the natural history of the highest of all mammals, namely, man. In 1871 he lectured on the Teeth and Allied Organs of Mammalia, in 1872 on the Digestive Organs of the Vertebrata, in 1873 on io6 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP. the Osteology and Dentition of Extinct Mammalia, and in 1876 on the Relation of Extinct to Existing Mammals. From 1877 to 1880 he dealt with the Comparative Anatomy of Man. In 1881 he lec- tured on the Anatomy, Physiology, and History of the Cetacea. In the following year he took for his subject the Horse and its Allies ; and in the last course he endeavoured to classify man in a series of lectures on the Principal Types of the Human Species. In 1879 he received the distinguished honour of being unanimously elected President of the Royal Zoological Society. The Marquis of Tweeddale, who had held the office, having died, the question of appointing his successor was not without diffi- culties. Hitherto the office had usually been con- ferred by the Fellows of the Society on one of their number distinguished, not only for his interest in the Society's work, but also for high rank. But on this occasion the tradition of electing a peer to be president was departed from, and Flower received the office by a unanimous vote. He was regularly re-elected for twenty-two years, and during that time never failed to attend and preside at the meet- ings, unless prevented by unavoidable circumstances of work or health. His wife remembers how continually she had to decline invitations to dinner because it was a Twsday, the evenings of the Society's scientific meetings ; and however interesting the occasion promised to vin CORRESPONDENCE ARGYLL 107 be, it was still the rule to decline, the first duty being to the Zoological Society. As showing the interest which his lectures aroused among men of " all-round " accomplishments who were not specialists, we may take the following portion of his correspondence with the Duke of Argyll. They refer to various lectures and papers of Flower's, and are fair specimens of his epistolary style : THE DUKE OF ARGYLL TO PROFESSOR FLOWER October 21, 1878. I think I heard you say that the skull of the Tasmanian is the only skull on which you could pronounce with certainty as to the race to which it belongs ; that it is so separate from all others by marked characteristics that it can never be mistaken. On the other hand, I think I have heard you also say that there is no skull, however exceptional, which cannot be occasionally matched by individual skulls among other races. May I ask whether this last generalisation holds good of the Tasmanian skull as well as of others ? That is to say, whether skulls with all the characters of the Tasmanian (square orbits, etc.) do not occasionally occur among the higher races ? Among the Australians especially I should suppose that, if anywhere, individual cases would occur of skulls of the Tasmanian type. The race which inhabited Tasmania must, almost certainly, have originally crossed from Australia. It would be very strange if they had left no trace behind them on the large island. I think you read a paper on the subject at the late Belfast meeting. If you could send me a copy I should be very much obliged to you. io8 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP. PROFESSOR FLOWER TO THE DUKE OF ARGYLL 39 LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, W.C. October 26, 1878. The Tasmanian skull is by no means the only one which can be distinguished from all others. The Eskimo, for instance, is certainly quite as characteristic. I do not think that a genuine Eskimo skull could possibly be mistaken by any one conversant with the characters of the race for one of any other family of men. The same may almost be said of the Australian, the Andaman, and, in fact, of many other races which have retained their purity. As in everything else of the kind, very much depends upon the skill and powers of observation of the person examining the skull skill and powers which only become developed by long familiarity with the objects examined. The possibility of finding a skull exactly similar to that of a typical Tasmanian among people of other races, I could no more believe in than I should in that of finding a man with the thick lips, woolly hair, and black skin of an African negro born in an English village of English parents ! You might look through any number of European skulls and certainly would never find one which could be mistaken by a competent observer for either a Tasmanian, Australian, Eskimo, or Andaman, and I might even say Negro, American, Polynesian, Chinese, etc. I fancy such statements must have arisen among people who have only considered some few points, as the comparative length or round- ness of the cranium, etc., and not the tout ensemble of the char- acters of skull and face. It may have been said, for instance, that the Eskimo has a very long head (index 71), the Lapp a very short head (index 82); you may find among Europeans (a much mixed race) skulls as long as the former and others as short as the latter, therefore the character is of no value this conclusion is a complete mis- take, the European skull which may resemble the Eskimo in its length will differ from it in numbers of other points. We are still, however, very far from an exhaustive knowledge of these subjects. I am only a beginner myself at Craniology, but I am VIII CRANIOLOGY 109 strongly impressed with the idea that race characteristics are as strongly indicated in the bones of the cranium, including those of the face (hitherto much neglected), as they are in the external features, colour, hair, proportion of limbs, stature, etc. ; but at the same time none of the varieties amount to what, speaking zoologically, I should call "specific." A well-known advocate of the " polygenitic " view of man's origin cites the skull of a New Hebridean in his collection, declaring that such a skull has such strong specific characters as could by no possibility be found in an English graveyard. I perfectly admit the premises, but not the conclusion, illustrating my objection by saying that it would be equally impossible to find a cranium having the char- acters of a bulldog in the burying-ground of a kennel of fox- hounds ! The relation of the Tasmanian to the Australian race is a great difficulty at present, involving the question of the import- ance of hair as a race characteristic ; by the hair the Tasmanians are allied to the Melanesians and Papuans, and separated from the Australians. These may have been the primitive inhabitants of the whole of Australia, and the Australians (from wherever derived) may have occupied that great continent at a subsequent date, driving out the woolly-haired people, who survive only in the islands, and of whom traces are still said to remain in some parts of Australia. But we have not yet the data to discuss this theory. Among collections of Australian skulls, we find some tending to the Tasmanian type, but whether these belonged to individuals having curling hair, and other Tasmanian charac- teristics, or even came from the localities where that race might have been supposed to linger, we unfortunately do not know. As I hope, whenever opportunities permit, to continue to work at these questions, I shall be much pleased if at any time I can be of use to your Grace in regard to them. THE DUKE OF ARGYLL TO PROFESSOR FLOWER ARGYLL LODGE, KENSINGTON, October 28, 1878. Many thanks for your very interesting letter, which will be of great use to me. I see in the paper you sent last week that no SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP. craniologically the Tasmanian has many strong affinities to the Australian, such as to make it quite probable that the kinship is not distant. As regards woolly hair, I confess I have no belief in its even approaching a specific character. But indeed, as regards the specific unity of the human race, tested by all zoological arguments universally admitted as appli- cable to other animals, the case seems to me so strong that the Polygenists have not a leg to stand upon. You mention the native " dingo " or Australian dog. Can you tell me whether anything is known of its origin ? There is no native dog in Australia ; that is to say, no non-marsupial mammal in the native fauna of Australia. Man must have brought the " dingo " with him, as he naturally would do. I don't know whether the Tasmanian had any dog ? I am very sorry to hear that you are still so unwell. I hope I don't give you too much trouble in asking you these questions. PROFESSOR FLOWER TO THE DUKE OF ARGYLL 39 LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, W.C., October 29, 1878. I think that there can be no doubt about the native dog or dingo having been introduced by man into Australia, although there is no direct evidence upon the point. Nearly all the islanders of the South Seas, including the New Zealanders, had their domestic dogs when first discovered by Europeans ; but the Tasmanians had none. This seems proof of their long and complete isolation from the rest of mankind, especially as there was nothing, either in the climate or nature of the people, antagonistic to dogs : for when these animals were introduced by the English settlers they soon multiplied, and nearly all the wild natives, already before their extinction, had become possessed of and made companions of them. The strongest, and in my mind fatal, objection to the poly- genist view is that none of its advocates have been able to agree upon the number of species into which man should be divided. Some say two, some three, some twelve, some sixteen, some sixty. Surely if the , divisions were so trenchant as they assert, v.n DEVELOPMENT OF CETACEA in there would by this time be some approach to a concord on the subject. I have just received a quantity of skulls and bones of the Andaman islanders, a most singular race, combining woolly hair with round heads and other cranial characters not found in any other Ulotrichi. I want to work out their affinities, as I think they may throw some light upon the classification of man, or perhaps dispel some false light, which is the next best thing ; but I am disabled at present, having had to undergo a surgical opera- tion, and shall be confined to the house for about another week. I shall always, now or afterwards, think myself fortunate if I can be of any use to you in your researches in these subjects, more especially as, if you will allow me to say so, I am very grateful to you for all that you have said and done of late in reference to public and international affairs. When this flood of feeling, which has taken possession of the public mind, has subsided, with what satisfaction will it be felt and recorded that there were voices, and those not of the least wise or able of our country, raised in protest and warning against national folly and injustice. PROFESSOR FLOWER TO THE DUKE OF ARGYLL LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, February 16, 1883. I think there can be little doubt that the rudimentary pelvis and hind limbs of the whale are parts that are dwindling away in consequence of having lost their function. Recently Professor Struthers of Aberdeen has described very minutely these struc- tures in a number of examples which he got the whalers to bring him from the Northern Seas, and he has shown not only three distinct bones, representing pelvis, femur, and tibia, with well- formed joints and ligaments connecting them, but, what is more remarkable, a complete set of muscles, the counterpart, in a reduced and functionless condition, of those found in mammals with perfect hind limbs. His observations are published in the Journal of Anatomy and Physiologv, 1881. All this seems to confirm many other indications that the Cetacea were originally terrestrial mammals which have been ii2 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP. specially modified and adapted for an aquatic life. The fore limbs in the same way retain all the elements of the typical mammalian limb, not only in the bones, but also in muscles no longer functional, and developed in different degrees in different species. The foetal teeth of the whalebone whales, the rudiments of a hairy covering, and especially the organ of smell, all point in the same direction. The latter is very conclusive ; it is not, as in fishes, adapted to perceive odorous substances floating in the water, but, as in land mammals, is only acted upon by the air as it passes by in the process of respiration ; but as in this form it can be of very little use to an animal passing its existence almost entirely under water, it has become quite rudimentary, and in many of the dolphins and porpoises all trace of it is lost. Among the different groups of Cetacea there are various stages of perfection of the pelvic organs. In one, the Tlatamista of the Ganges, there appear to be none ; in the common dolphin, porpoise, etc., there are only simple styliform pelvic bones, but no trace of anything that can be called a hind limb. Among the large whales all have the pelvic bone, some a mere rudimentary nodule of cartilage representing the femur, some with a larger bony femur, some with both femur and tibia, with muscles, etc., as just mentioned. The seals afford no help to the origin of the whales ; their resemblances are analogical ; they have all complete hind limbs and pelvis (though small) as in ordinary mammals. They swim by their hind legs, the tail being rudimentary ; the whales swim by the greatly developed tail, the hind limbs being rudimentary. I do not believe that a Cetacean can be a further stage of a seal, as some seem to fancy, because when an animal had obtained such a perfect adaptation to its mode of life as a seal has, by means of (its) hind limbs being so specially modified, it is difficult to imagine their function being transferred to the tail. On the other hand, it is far more likely that an aquatic animal with a large tail already of some use in swimming, like a beaver or an otter, might have this organ expanded and perfected, when the legs would gradually cease to be of use the more exclusively aquatic the animal became. There are several points about the anatomy of the Cetacea which make me think they are rather allied to the ORIGIN OF LIMBS 113 Ungulata than the Carnivora, and that there is some truth in the old expression sea-hog or sea-pig, Meerschwein, Marsouin applied to the porpoise itself, I believe derived from Porc-poisson. Their origin is, however, at present a complete mystery, and palaeontology throws very little light upon it. The earliest known Cetaceans, the Gengloda of the late Eocene, are still imperfectly known, although certainly in some points about the dentition and cranium more generalised mammals than any existing forms ; of their limbs we know next to nothing. The Sirenia (Dugongs and Manatees) form a totally distinct type, with nothing to do with either Cetacea or seals, except in adaptations to similar conditions of life the mere resemblance of a bat to a bird. Their pelvis is also very rudimentary, and no existing species has any trace of hind limb ; the extinct Holitherum, however, had a little pelvis and small styliform femur. I cannot form the slightest guess at present as to what other mammals they are related to. Palaeon- tology does not help us here either ; but when we consider the enormous advances that have been made in this branch of the subject as regards certain groups the Ungulata of North America, for instance within so few years, we can hardly say what may not be still to be discovered. I think that I have answered all your questions as fully as I am able. PROFESSOR FLOWER TO THE DUKE OF ARGYLL June 8, 1883. I think that I was able to answer satisfactorily the question you once asked me, as to whether the rudimentary hind limbs were disappearing or incipient structures ; they must certainly be the former. Limbs always commence by their most distant or superficial parts appearing just as folds or outgrowths of skin this is the only form in which they could be of any use to the animal afterwards they get strengthened by the internal struc- tures and connected with the skeleton. In all the higher verte- brates they are developed in this way. In disappearing the process would naturally be the reverse. The outer part would go first, or when once so shrunken as to I n 4 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP. be of no inconvenience to the animal, one can imagine rudiments of the proximate bones remaining for a very long time after they had become functionless, as in the whalebone whales. These animals are full of points of interest, and furnish more arguments than any I know for the theory of transmutation. THE DUKE OF ARGYLL TO PROFESSOR FLOWER June II, 1883. I am very glad if my questions have directed your attention with definite results to the curious problem as to the prospective or retrospective character of rudimentary organs in the Cetacea as well as in other animals. I am not sure that I quite understand your argument. But it will be best understood by seeing specimens, and I should be very glad some of these days to attend at the Museum and see any that you could show me. In the processes of ordinary generation it is quite clear that the future organs must be in the germ, and must in time have incipient parts, whether they are visible or not. Transmutation involves the supposition that the whole line of future development must be similarly present in all germs potentially at least with beginnings of actual structure, visible at certain times. A priori, therefore, one would expect such structures to appear in any complete series of organisms. If they do not appear, I suppose we must take refuge in that convenient " bolt-hole " the " Im- perfection of the Record." That all limbs should begin with integumentary foldings, unsupported by any internal structure, seems very strange. THE DUKE OF ARGYLL TO PROFESSOR FLOWER June 30, 1883. I have read with great care your most interesting lecture, so far as published [the lecture on " Limbs "] . I see that the principle for which I am looking as probably to be found in Biology is virtually involved in a fact which has long been recognised in Comparative Anatomy, and which you specially dwell upon as exemplified in the whales. That fact ORIGIN OF WHALEBONE 115 being this : that in all cases of highly specialised organs they are nothing more than an abnormal development of rudimentary structures always to be found in the generalised forms. Thus you trace the baleen, which is a most peculiar specialisation, to a development of certain " papillae " which are to be found in the palate-structure of all the mammalia. I need not say that this (so far as it goes) agrees with my idea that, on the evolution hypothesis, we ought to find structures on the way to functional importance, as well as structures on the way to final disappearance and extinction. Of course mere papillae are mere germs, but they are germs with a "potential" value, and are, as it were, the roots of growths which could not have arisen without the previous establishment of the roots. Probably there may be other cases when the roots will be found " sprouting " and giving rise to growths which are of com- paratively slight functional use. Such may be the case with those Cetacea which I saw, in which the baleen was present fairly developed, but still in a minor degree. May I ask whether the palatal papilla? are really present in all mammalia ? PROFESSOR FLOWER TO THE DUKE OF ARGYLL ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS OF ENGLAND, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, W.C., July 2, 1883. I do not think that it would be correct to say that the " palatal papillae " are really present in all mammalia, as the palate is some- times quite smooth. But the tissues of which they are formed are there. In the rough diagram I enclose the red part represents the vascular membrane covering the bone of the palate, corresponding to, and in fact continuous with, the true skin, derm or corium, which covers the external surface of the body. The blue is the non-vascular epithelial layer, corresponding to the epidermis of the surface, which is modified into nails, hair, horns, etc., in particular regions. In No. i the surface is smooth. In No. 2 small ridges (there seen in section), as in the human palate, are shown. In No. 3 n6 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP. the ridges are larger, as in the dog, pig, etc. In No. 4 they are still larger, and develop conical papillae on their free surface, as in the ox and giraffe (the "forked" end of the lamina is only diagrammatical, as it is impossible in such a view to show a view of papillae side by side along the edge). In No. 4 we see the evolution of whalebone in its simpler forms the ridges or lamina longer, the papillae greatly extended, and the epithelial covering " mere differentiations of a continuous but not very conspicuous epiplastic thickening, which is probably the rudiment of a lateral fin." In the chick " the limbs appear as outgrowths from a slightly marked lateral ridge which runs on the level of the lower end of the muscle plates for nearly the whole length of the trunk." The progress of development of an organ before it becomes of actual use to its possessor always seems to me one of the great difficulties in endeavouring to account for such progress by the principle of natural selection alone ; such rudimentary limbs, however, mere flaps of skin, would, especially when muscles are developed within them, soon aid in progression through the water, and then might become defined in form, and strengthened by the growth of supporting structures within, first as mere fin rays, afterwards extending inwards as the bones which connect the outer part of the limb to the axial skeleton. This is my idea of the process of growth or development of the limb of a vertebrate animal, and it is pretty well borne out by what we see in the adult condition of many fishes which possess the distant but not the proximate part of the member the reverse condition to that of the whales. THE DUKE OF ARGYLL TO PROFESSOR FLOWER INVERARAY, January 13, 1884. 1 write a line to congratulate you on your removal to a wider sphere of usefulness, a change in which the public will gain more largely than yourself. 1 I have been reading over again your lecture on whales. I recollect when I first asked you the question 1 His appointment as Director of the Natural History Museum. See next chapter. vin ORIGIN OF LIMBS 117 whether the pelvis was a relic or only a rudiment you replied that this was a question which nobody could answer. You seem to be quite sure now, and I think you are very likely right. But I am not sure that I follow the argument that limbs growing from the inside are inconceivable. As a fact they may all arise externally. But the internal growth to meet the external excrescence, and to support it, is in itself quite as difficult to conceive as the opposite or reverse process. This is all a matter of evidence as to fact, and not a question of greater or less difficulty of conception. I do not know what amount of evidence you have that hind limbs do always begin in internal appendages. You can't get rid of the theoretical difficulty that every organ must begin before it is fit for use ; and this applies equally to all organs, whether they be internal or external. If all organic beings have been developed gradually, there must be innumerable specimens of incipient as well as of decaying structures. Yet they never seem to be recognised or pointed out. PROFESSOR FLOWER TO THE DUKE OF ARGYLL 39 LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, W.C., January 28, 1884. I will bear in mind your criticism about the limbs. There is still much to be done in the way of working out their embryology in detail. Balfour says, speaking of the elasmoid fishes, "The two pairs of limbs appear as being the nearest to the parent stock the youngest because the least aberrant from the original mammalian type, so far as limbs are concerned. If so, how does this doctrine apply to the appearance and development of whale- bone as opposed to teeth? Clearly as regards them, the whalebone whales are the most aberrant, the most differentiated, from the original type. Whilst, as regards the limbs^ they are the least differentiated, the least aberrant. You showed me some whale skeletons in which the whale- bone was combined with teeth in full functional use, some in which the whalebone was quite subordinate as regards use. Are we to conclude that these are on the road to be full whalebone n8 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP. whales, or are these again cases of aborted and dying-out remnants of growths which were once more fully developed ? As regards functional use, I can't believe that small fringes of whalebone are at all required for the capture of ordinary fish-prey. Whalebone is a marvellous adaptation for the capture of minute organisms, but for this alone ; and therefore the half-whalebone whales look very much like creatures having a special develop- ment beginning before its utility, or at least its necessity, has actually arisen. Until we can come to some conclusion on these questions we may be quite sure, indeed, of the general facts of evolution, but we can know nothing of the tracks which it has followed. In marine animals, if anywhere, the record may be comparatively complete, and in the whales we may possibly recognise the lines the development has followed. THE DUKE OF ARGYLL TO PROFESSOR FLOWER Aiigust 7, 1887. Can you tell me whether, anatomically, there is any physical cause why monkeys should not be able to utter articulate sounds as well as parrots? You may have seen Max Muller's book on the Science of Thought. He makes speech the one great distinction between man and the beasts, and says that without speech thought is impossible. If by speech he means conversation, of course that involves thought. But I maintain that thought comes before speech the latter being only the embodiment of thought. But he has a passage indicating that physiologically speech is impossible to the Quadrumana from the absence of all adapted organs. I don't know how this is. I was struck lately with the human movements of a monkey's tongue and its " licking its lips " in expectancy of food. Some vocal cords it must have, though probably less complete than man's. PROFESSOR FLOWER TO THE DUKE OF ARGYLL RlEDERALP, August 14, 1887. Your letter of the ;th has reached me here very lately, so I have not been able to answer it before. VHI VOCAL ORGANS OF APES 119 I quite agree with you that thought must come before speech, at least before anything like conversation. Knowing what slight modifications in structure are often associated with enormous differences in function and vice versa, it would be very rash to say that an ape's vocal organs (so closely resembling man's as they are) might not under the proper stimulus be developed or cultivated into producing articulate sounds. Some of the higher apes, especially the gibbons, have a loud and very human-like voice, and the remarkable chimpanzee now at the Zoological Gardens, called " Sally," does something that sounds very like talking. But I have no doubt but that the question you put to me would be answered differently by different persons whose know- ledge was based upon precisely the same data, according to the bias of the mind to see resemblances or differences. This is at the bottom of the whole of the " Man and Ape " controversy, and we shall never get to the end of it. PROFESSOR FLOWER TO THE DUKE OF ARGYLL BRITISH MUSEUM (NATURAL HISTORY), CROMWELL ROAD, LONDON, S.W., October 6, 1887. The description which you have sent of the strange bird is so full and graphic that there can be no doubt about it. It is the roller, Coratias garrula. It is a bird of Eastern Europe, but many instances are recorded of its occurrence in Scotland, and it is included in all the lists of British birds. Your specimen may be in immature plumage ; the " chestnut- red " back is quite right. The pictures of the bird in books are generally over-coloured. THE DUKE OF ARGYLL TO PROFESSOR FLOWER INVERARAY, ARGYLLSHIRE, September 26, 1888. I have just come home from a drive in which I have made a grand discovery organic remains in one of the quartzite beds of this neighbourhood. 120 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP. For fifty years I have passed and repassed this rock and never seen its contents. Close to the road and to the shore, so that I have passed it on one side in boats and on the other side in carriages. So true is it that one can only see what the mind leads one to notice. My late cruise in the north, where a. few of the quartzites are fossiliferous, led me again to examine the few beds of similar material among our mica slates. A road surveyor had broken off some fresh surfaces to make " metal " for the road. I saw it freshly broken, and the very first fragment revealed what I take to be // T 34J meeting with Dean Stanley, 87 ; letter from Huxley, 101 ; statue of, in Natural History Museum, 155 D'Aumale, Due, 218 Davey, Lord, 218 Davidson, Most Rev. Randall, Arch- bishop of Canterbury, 151, 188, 203 Davies, Rev. Llewelyn, 91 Davis, Barnard, anthropological collection, 75, 191 INDEX 267 Descent, law of, 95 Diary, Sir William Flower's, extract from, in the Crimea, 16-24 Dillon, Viscount, expresses apprecia tion of services of Sir William Flower by Trustees of Natura History Museum, 225 Dingo, Australian dog, 1 10 Dohrn, Dr., of Marine Laboratory a Naples, 163 Doran, Dr. Alban, Assistant in Hun terian Museum, 57, 58 Drummond, Mrs., of Megginch, 89 Duff, Right Hon. Sir Mountstuart E Grant, 218 Dufferin, Marquis of, 218 Durham University, Sir William Flower receives degree of D. C. L. , Edgbaston, school, at, 5 Edinburgh University, Sir William Flower an LL.D. of, 224 Edward VII., King, interest in Natural History Museum, 123, 231 ; at unveiling of Darwin's statue, 155 ; letter to Sir William Flower, 234 Egypt, visit to, 82 Elgin, 7th Earl of, 85 Emin Pasha, 144, 198 ; letter from, 199, 200 Erichsen, Sir John, 136 Eschricht, Professor, 176 Etheridge, Robert, F.G.S., 121 Ethnological Museum formed at Cam- bridge, 196 Ethnological Society, 192 Evans, Arthur, 196 Evolution, Sir William Flower's con- tribution to the understanding of, 64-68 ; address on, at Church Congress, 93-99 ; structure of whales in reference to, 161 Fagan, Charles E., Secretary of Natural History Museum, 204, 233 ; letters to, 219-223 Farrar, Canon, 90 Felixstowe, summer residence at, 80 "First aid" in the seventies, 39 Fishes, electric organs of, 121 Fishmongers' Company assists in estab- lishing Marine Laboratory at Plymouth, 164 Fletcher, L., F.R.S., 127, 140 . Flower, Richard, of Marden Hill, Hertfordshire (Sir William's grandfather), i ; migrates to America, 91, 92 Flower, Edward Fordham (Sir William's father), his early life and marriage, I ; settles at Stratford-on-Avon, I ; changes to London, i, 2 ; letter to, from Sebastopol, 31 ; urges his son to accept Curatorship of Hunterian Museum, 50 ; opposition to bear- ing reins for horses, 215 Flower, Celina (Sir William's mother), 2 ; letters to, 6, 7, 8, 12, 24, 26, 27, 29, 36, 101, 102, 171 Flower, Richard (Sir William's eldest brother), 2 Flower, Charles Edward (Sir William's brother), founder of Shakespeare Memorial, 2, 82 Flower, Edgar (Sir William's youngest brother), 2; letter to, from Se- bastopol, 25 Flower, Sir William Henry, birth of, i ; parents, I ; brothers, 2 ; early life, 2 ; devotion to natural history, 3 ; first museum and collections, 3 ; delicate health of, 5 ; school- days, at Edgbaston and Worksop, 5, 6 ; enters University College, London, 6 ; walking tours, 9, 10 ; reads his first paper, before Zoological Society of London, 10 ; appointed House Surgeon to Middlesex Hospital, 10 ; passes examination for membership of Royal College of Surgeons, 10 ; undertakes curatorship of Middle- sex Hospital Museum, 10; joins Army Medical Staff, 12; Assist- ant Surgeon at Templemore, 14 ; joins 63rd Regiment and sails for the Crimea, 15-17 ; extracts from his diary, 17-24; letters from the Crimea, 24-34 ; invalided home from Crimea, 35 ; decorated for services, 3 7 ; returns to civil life, 37 ; takes diploma of F.R.C.S., 37 ; appointed Assistant-Surgeon 268 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER Flower, Sir William, contd. and Lecturer on Comparative Anatomy in Middlesex Hospital, 37 ; meets his future wife, 40 ; his marriage, 43 ; children, 45, 47, 74 > completion and pub- lication of Diagrams of the Nerves of the Human Body, 45 ; retires from professional life as a surgeon, 47 ; appreciation by Governors of Middlesex Hospital, 47, 48 ; appointed Conservator of Hunterian Museum, 5 1 ; at meet- ing of British Association (1862), 66 ; home life at Lincoln's Inn Fields, 74 et seq. ; recreations, 77 ; holidays at home and abroad, 80, 8 1 ; ill-health, 82 ; visit to Egypt, 82 ; friendship with Dean Stanley, 84-91 ; present at death of Dean Stanley, 90 ; religious dis- position, 91 ; address on evolution at Church Congress (1883), 93- 99 ; elected a Fellow of Royal Society, 101 ; appointed Hun- terian Professor, 101; inaugural lecture, 103; subjects of lectures, 105, 1 06 ; elected President of Royal Zoological Society, 1 06 ; correspondence with Duke of Argyll, 107 - 122 ; appointed Director of Natural History Museum, 125; Times on appoint- ment, 128; his memoir of Sir Richard Owen, 133 ; removes to Stanhope Gardens, 136; resigns Curatorship of the Hunterian Museum, 136; opens the Booth Museum at Brighton, 146 ; Keeper of Zoology, 147, 184; at unveil- ing of Darwin's statue, 155 ; elected Trustee of the Hunterian Museum, 158; distributes school prizes in Birmingham Town Hall, 1 59 ; lectures at Bethnal Green and Wellington College, 1 59 ; lectures at Royal and London Institutions, etc., 158-161 ; holi- day in Switzerland, 160 ; honour ofC.B. conferred, 163; honours and degrees, 163, 224, 231 ; opens Marine Biological Labora- tory at Plymouth, 163 - 165 ; Flower, Sir William, contd. President of British Association (1889), 180 ; visits Tennyson at Aldworth, 204-209 ; later days at Natural History Museum, 210 ; made D.C.L. of Durham Uni- versity, 211 ; visits to Duke of Northumberland and Earl of Tankerville, 211, 212, 228; lectures at Royal Institution, 212 ; at Civil Service dinner, 212 ; created K.C.B., 215 ; invited to Balmoral Castle, 217; elected a member of "The Club," 218 ; elected President at International Congress of Zoologists at Leyden, 224 ; resigns Directorship of Natural History Museum owing to failing health, 225, 232 ; ap- preciation of his services by Trustees, 225 ; his last years, 227-242 ; death, 243 ; memorial service in St. Luke's Church, Chelsea, 243 ; unveiling of me- morial bust, 1 88; memorial tablet in meeting -room of Zoo- logical Society, 224; list of works, Appendix III. Hospital surgeon, 10 Army surgeon, 12 et seq. Lecturer on Anatomy, 37 Curator of Hunterian Museum, 52 ; arrangement of specimens, 54 ; aids to study of anatomy, 55 ; character of his system, 57 ; " wet " preparations, 59 ; in- genious labelling, 61 ; casts of skulls, 63 ; study of brains of apes, 65 ; method non- contro- versial, 67 ; taxidermy, 69 ; views on animal painting, 71 ; osteological catalogue, 191 Hunterian Professor subjects of lectures, 105, 106, Appendix II. Director of Natural History Museum, 137 ; arrangement of cases in Great Hall, 138 ; his classifica- tion, 140 ; taste in arrangement, 152 ; popularising the Museum, 1 S^, 157; completion of "Whale Room," 230, 232 Cetacea, first studies, 166 ; essays and lectures on whales and whale INDEX 269 Flower, Sir William, contd. fisheries, 168 et seq. ; "whaling excursions," 169; exhuming a whale, 169 ; visits Leyden, Utrecht, and Lou vain, 170; note on right whale, 175 ; on destruc- tion of whales, 177 Museums, essays on early museums, 181 ; on organisation of Natural History Museums, 182; "re- search " and " instructional " arrangement, 182-185, 187; taxidermy, 1 86 ; remuneration of curators, 189 Anthropology, study of, 1 90 ; natural history of man, 193 ; evolution of race, 195 ; Anthro- pometry, 1 96 ; on primitive man, 197, 198 ; on pigmy races, 20 1 ; essay on " Fashion in Deformity," 20 1 Horse, lectures on, 159, 213-215 Publications, 185, and Appendix III. Flower, Lady, marriage, 43 ; tributes to her husband, 44, 227 et seq. ; children, 45, 47 ; describes life at Lincoln's Inn Fields, 76 ; sketch- ing in Egypt, 82 ; on friendship with Dean Stanley, 86, 88 ; on Sir William's work at British Museum, 138 ; on visit to Bal- moral Castle, 217 ; on visit to Windsor Castle, 218 Flower, Arthur Smyth (Sir William's eldest son), birth, 45 ; marriage, 213 Flower, Mrs. Arthur, 213 Flower, Captain Stanley (Sir William's second son), 159,211; appointed to management of Zoological Gardens at Cairo, 223, 236 Flower, Victor Augustine (Sir William's youngest son), i ., 159, 212, 242 Flower, Caroline Mary (Sir William's eldest daughter), birth, 47. See Shann, Mrs. Flower, Vera (Sir William's second daughter). See Biddulph, Mrs. Flower, Geraldine (Sir William's third daughter), 160, 234, 243 Flower, Augusta Frances (Sir William's youngest daughter), 87, 89, 235, 243 Flower, James, Assistant in Hunterian Museum, 68, 169 Foster, Sir Michael, 238 Foster, Dr. Michael, 238 Fox, Charles James, 218 Fritsch, Gustav, 121 Froude's Life of Carlyle, Dean Stanley on, 89 ; Story of the Armada, 240 Fry, Mrs. Elizabeth, 81 Fry, Right Hon. Sir Edward, 7 "Fucoid Bed" of Sutherland quartz- ites, 1 20 Gadow, Dr. Hans, assists with third edition of Osteology of the Mam- malia, 104 Galton, Francis, F.R.S., 196, 197 ; tribute to Sir William Flower, 202 Garrick, David, 218 Garson, Dr. J. G., Assistant in Hun- terian Museum, 57 Geikie, Sir Archibald, 224 Germany, Emperor of, confers order "Pour le Merite" on Sir William Flower, 224, 231 Gibbon, Edward, 218 Gladstone, Right Hon. W. E. , 1 58, 2 1 8 ; and Natural History Museum, 126, 133 ; Tennyson on, 206, 209 Godman, F. G., presents collection of birds to Natural History Museum, 144, 145 Goltstein, Baron Van, Minister for the Netherlands, 232 Goschen, Viscount, 218 Gould, John, his collection of hum- ming birds, 134 Grant, W. Ogilvie, 70, 148 Gray, Captain David, " King of the Whalers," 153, 154 Gray, Dr. J. E., 131 Gray, Professor Asa, 89 Greaves, Amelia (Sir William Flower's aunt), letter from, 4 Greaves, Celina. See Flower, Celina. Greaves, John, of Radford Semele, War- wickshire (Sir William Flower's grandfather), 2 Greenhow, Henry, 9 Gregory, Mr., M.P. for Galway, 133 Gull, Sir W r illiam, 90 Giinther, Dr., 70, 145, 147, 184, 186 Gurney, Mr., 169 270 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER Haden, Sir Francis Seymour, on dis- posal of the dead, 170 Hamilton, Lord George, 158 Hanbury, Sir Thomas and Lady, visit to, at " La Mortola," 237 Hanham, Lady, 232 Hannen, Lord, 157 Harper, Dr. Gerald, 90 Heldenmaier, Dr., headmaster at Worksop School, 5, 6 Herbert, Sir Robert, 218 Herring, John F., painter, 71 Herschel, Sir William, 197 Hewitt, Mr. Prescott, 90 Hippocampus minor, 66 Hohenlohe, Prince Victor of, 158 Holland, summer tour in, 81 Holmes's System of Surgery, 38 Hooker, Sir Joseph, 64, 67, 124 ., 224, 243 Hornchurch, Essex, summer residence at, 8 1 Horse, The, a Study in Natural History, 159, 213-215 Hugel, Baron A. von, first Curator of Ethnological and Ethnographical Museum at Cambridge, 196 Hunt, Mrs. Holman, 233 Hunter, John, founder of Hunterian Museum, 49, 167 Hunterian Museum, 49 ; Sir William Flower elected Conservator of, 51 ; work in, 54 et seq. Hunterian Professorship, Sir Richard Owen resigns, 100 ; Professor Huxley elected to, 100 ; Sir William Flower succeeds Pro- fessor Huxley, 101 ; inaugural address, 103 ; resigns his appoint- ment, 136. Set. App. II. Huxley, Professor, 48, 51, 82, 104, 124 ., 218 ; at Cambridge meeting of British Association (1862), 66; friendship with Sir William Flower, 85 ; meeting with Dean Stanley, 88 ; letter from Sir William Flower, 100 ; elected Hunterian Professor, 100; letter to Darwin, 101 ; letters to Sir William Flower, 125, 163 ; unveils statue of Darwin, 155 ; his interest in Marine Bio- logical Association, 164, 165 ; at Dublin meeting of British Associa tion (1878), 191 Indian Institute encourages interest in races of Eastern Empire, 196 Inkerman, battle of, 27 ; heavy losses of 63rd Regiment at, 27 Italy, travels in, 81 Jenner, Sir William, 90 Jeune, Sir Francis and Lady, 233 Johnson, Dr. Samuel, 218 Johnston, Sir Harry, study of primi- tive races, 198 Kelvin, Lord, 93, 218, 224, 231 ; visit to Natural History Museum, 232 Kensington Clergy Club, 161 Kimberley, Earl of, 158 Kingsley, Rev. Charles, 80, 91 Knowles, James, editor of Nineteenth Century, architect of Lord Tenny- son's house at Aldworth, 204 Kolliker, Albert von, his Manual of Human Histology translated, 86 Kuch Bahar, Maharajah of, present to Zoological Society, 162 Lambeth Palace, garden parties at, 216 Landseer, Sir Edwin, 71 Lankester, Professor E. Ray, 164, 165 ; contribution to Nature on Sir William Flower's work, 172 Lansdowne, Marquis of, 218 Lawrence, Sir Trevor, visit to, 228 Lecky, Right Hon. W. H., 218 Lectures, as Hunterian Professor, 104- 106. See Appendix II Leighton, Lord, 148, 218 Lilford, Lord, 124 . Limbs, origin of, 113 et seq. Lincoln's Inn Fields, home life at, 74 ; description of, 76 ; distin- guished visitors, 79 Linnaeus, his four primitive types of man, 197 Lister, Lord, 7, 67, 231 Longfellow, H. W., 79 Louise, H.R.H. Princess (Marchioness of Lome), 218 Lowell, J. Russell, 79 INDEX 271 Lyall, Sir Alfred, 218 Lydekker, Richard, F.R.S., assists Sir William Flower with Intro- duction to the Study of Mammals, 213 Lyell, Sir Charles, 64, 67, 134 Ludlow, Lord, 232 Macaulay, Lord, and Sir Richard Owen, 130 M'Intosh, Professor, F.R.S., 165 n. Mackarness, Right Rev. J. F., Bishop of Oxford, 93 Mackay, Alexander, of Uganda, 199, 200 " Mammalia, Anatomy of the," course of lectures on, 104 Mammalia, in Natural History Museum, 141 Mammalia, Osteology of, 104 Marazion, 221, 229 Marine Biological Laboratory at Plymouth, opening of, 163-165 Markham, Sir Clements and Lady, 233 Marlborough House, garden parties at, 216 Maurice, Rev. F. D., 91 Middlesborough Natural History Society, 161 Middlesex Hospital, Sir William Flower's service in, 10, 37, 47, 48 Middlesex Hospital Museum, Sir William Flower undertakes Curatorship of, 10 ; receives thanks of Court of Governors, 47 Millais, Sir John E.,hispre-Raphaelite pictures, 71 Mimicry among insects, 146, 147 Mineralogy, in Natural History Museum, 127, 140, 144 "Modern Science Series," 213 Morgan, Campbell de, of University College, 7 Morris, Lady, 233 Muller, Professor Max, Science of Thought, 118 Mundella, Right Hon. Anthony J., 158 Murie, Dr., Assistant in Hunterian Museum, 57 Murray, George, R. M., F.R.S., 147, 187 Murray, Sir John, 231 " Museum Organisation," subject of Presidential address to British Association (1889), 180 et seq. Museums, early, 181 ; management of, 182-187. See Natural History Museum and Hunterian Museum Museums, Essays on, 3, 44, 197 Nansen, Dr., 157 , National Sunday League, 150 Natural History Museum, memorial for change in administration, 124 n. ; Sir William Flower ap- pointed Director of, 125; removal to South Kensington, 131 ; Central Hall, 139-145 ; popular interest in, 141, 148, 157, 203 ; opening of, on Sundays, 150^ distinguished visitors to, 157, 158, 204, 232, 233 ; first General Guide issued, 161 ; Sir William Flower resigns Directorship of, 225, 232 ; memorial bust of Sir William Flower, 188 Newcastle, meeting of British Associa- tion at (1889), 1 80 Newstead Abbey, visit to, 228 Newton, Professor Alfred, 124 . Northbrooke, Earl of, 158 Northcote, Lord, 158 North Repps, exhumation of whale at, 169 North Sea Marine Laboratory, 165 Northumberland, Duke and Duchess of, visits to, 211, 228 Norwich, Bishop of, 88 . Osteology of Mammalia, 104 ; Emin Pasha's appreciation of, 200 Osterley, garden parties at, 216 Owen, Sir Richard, Hunterian Lecturer to Royal College of Surgeons, 49, 53, 104, 129, 226 ; reads paper on brains of apes at meeting of British Association (1862), 65 ; resigns Hunterian Professorship, 100, and Super- intendentship of Zoological Departments of British Museum, 123, 125; his death, 123; his connection with British Museum, 272 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER 130 ; advocates removal of Natural History exhibits to South Kensington, 131-135 ; memoir by Sir William Flower, 133 ; statue of, in Natural History Museum, 150, 222 Oxford, Bishop of, 93, 218 Oxford, meeting of British Associa- tion at (1894), 1 9 2 Oxford University, "Readership" in Anthropology established, 196 ; Sir William Flower receives de- gree of D.C.L., 224 Paget, Sir James, 51, 67, 80, 124, 136 Palaeontology, growth of knowledge of, 96 Paris, " School " of Anthropology at, 193 Pearson, W., Assistant in Hunterian Museum, 52, 61 Peel, Lord, Speaker of the House of Commons, 124 Penzance, remains of whales at, 210 Pettigrew, Professor, Assistant in Hunterian Museum, 57 Pickhardt, Mr., his lifelike taxidermy, 187, 220 Plant-remains, 1 20, 121 Plymouth, Marine Biological Labora- tory at, 163-165 Powell, Sir Richard Douglas, 229, 240 Quadrumana, study of, 65 Quain, Professor, 101 Que, M., 196 Quckett, Dr., Curator of Hunterian Museum, 49, 53 Ramsay, Professor Andrew, 124 . Ramsay, Mr. Wardlaw, 144 Reade, Rev. J. B., Vicar of Stone, 43 Reinhardt, Professor, 176 Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 218 Rivers, General Pitt, 195 Riviera, Sir William Flower winters in, 234, 235 Riviere, Briton, R.A., 71 Roberts, Dr. 196 Roller (Coradas garrulus), 119 Rolleston, Professor, 67, 192 Romanes, Professor G. J., 122 Rosebery, Earl of, 218 Rosherville Gardens, whale at, 169 Ross, Sir James, 177, 178 Royal College of Surgeons, Sir William Flower passes examination for membership, 10 ; takes diploma of, 37 ; becomes Curator of Hun- terian Museum in, 5 1 ; appointed Hunterian Professor, 101; resolu- tion by Council on resignation of Curatorship, 136 Royal Institution, popular lectures at, 212 Royal Society, Sir William Flower elected a Fellow of, 101 ; Vice- President of, 101 Ruskin, John, contributions to Minera- logical Department of Natural History Museum, 144 St. Levan, Lord, 229 St. Quintin, W. H., presents antlers of stag to Natural History Museum, 142 Salisbury, Marquis of, 2 1 8, 231 ; letter, from, intimating honour of C.B., 163, and K.C.B., 215 Salvin, Mr., presents collection of birds to Natural History Museum, 144 San Carlos, Marquise de, 233 San Remo, 235 Schleswig-Holstein, H.R.H. Prince Christian Victor of, 217 Schliemann, Dr., 79 Sclater, Dr. P. L., F.R.S., on Osteo- logy of the Mammalia, 1 04 Scutari, hospital at, 36. See App. I. Sebastopol, siege of, 23 et seq. See Appendix I. Seebohm, Henry, 146 Selborne, Earl of, Lord Chancellor, 124 Shakespeare Tercentenary, I Shann, H. C., of Micklegate, York, 238 Shann, Mrs. H. C. (Sir William Flower's eldest daughter), early life at Lincoln's Inn Fields, 75, 77-80, 190; letter to, 235 Sharpe, Dr. Bowdler, 70, 148 INDEX 273 Sharpey, Dr., of University College, 12 Sherbrooke, Lord, 126 Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 218 Siam, King of, 79 Sibley, Septimus, 9 Sidlesbarn, grampus caught at, 171 Sion College, lecture on whales at, 161 Sloane, Sir Hans, herbarium of, 134 Smith, Adam, 218 Smith, Right Hon. W. H., 158 Smyth, Captain John, founder of Vir- ginia, 41 Smyth, Admiral William Henry, K.S.F., family of, 40, 41 ; his offices and scientific pursuits, 42, 43 Smyth, Sir Warington, F.R.S., 41 Smyth, Lady Warington, 229 Smyth, Charles Piazzi, Astronomer- Royal for Scotland, 41 Smyth, General Sir Henry Augustus, K.C.M.G., Governor of Malta, 41, 229 Smyth, Henrietta, wife of Rev. Pro- fessor Baden-Powell, 41 Smyth, Ellen, wife of Captain H. Toynbee, 41, 103 Smyth, Georgiana Rosetta. See Flower, Lady Sperm oil, commercial value of, 175 Sperm whales. See Whales Spottiswoode, Dr. William, 180 Stanhope, Earl, 158 Stanhope, Right Hon. Edward, 158 Stanley, Arthur Penrhyn, Dean of Westminster, 79, 91, 217; Sir William Flower's friendship with, 84 ; marriage, 84 ; attitude to Darwin's Origin of Species, 86 ; love for children, 86, 89 ; meet- ing with Darwin, 87 ; repartee, 88; baptizes SirWilliam'syoungest child, 89 ; opinion of Froude's Life of Carlyle, 89 ; death, 89 Stanley, Lady Augusta, marriage, 84 ; tribute by Lady Flower, 85, 86 ; Sir William Flower's youngest daughter named after, 87 89 Stanley, Capt. Owen, of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, 84 Stanley, Sir H. M., 200 Stanley, Right Rev. Edward, Bishop of Norwich, 88 n. Stephen, Leslie, 219 . Stewart, Professor, Curator of Hun- terian Museum, 52 Stratford-on-Avon, birthplace of Sir William Flower, I Struthers, Professor, on structure of whales, 1 1 1 Stubbs, Bishop, 231 Switzerland, tours in, 8l, 160, 211, 221, 228 Syon House, garden-parties at, 216 Tankerville, Earl of, visits to, 212, 228 Ta.smanian skull, 107-109 Taxidermy, Sir William Flower advo- cates lifelike work in, 69, 186 Taylor, Lady Jane, 233 Temple, Most Rev. Frederick, Arch- bishop of Canterbury, 234 Tennyson, Lord, visits Natural His- tory Museum, 204 ; Sir William Flower visits, at Aldworth, 204- 209 Tennyson, Lady, 205 Tennyson, Hallam (2nd Baron), 205 et seq. Thomas, Oldfield, F.R.S., 148 Thompson, Sir Edward Maunde, 221, 233 Thomson, Professor A., on Physical Anthropology, 196 Tollemache, Lord and Lady, visit to, 228 Torpedo, electric organs of, 121 Toynbee, Captain H., 41 Toynbee, Mrs., 41, 103 Tristram, Canon, 124 n. Turner, Sir William, 172 Tweeddale, gth Marquis of, 106; collection of bird skins in Natural History Museum, 144 Tylor, Dr. E. B., works on Anthro- pology, 192 ; lectures at Oxford, 196 University College, London, 7 Ventimiglia, 237 Veterinary College, Sir William Flower appointed examiner, 56 T 274 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER Victoria, Queen, presents war medal to Sir William Fowler, 37 ; lends cottage in Richmond Park to Sir Richard Owen, 123 ; Jubilee celebrated by Zoological Society, 161 ; presents insignia of K.C.B. to Sir William Flower, 216 ; Sir William's visit to, at Balmoral, 217 Virchow, Professor, 79, 157; describes Sir William Flower as the " Prince of Directors," 187 Walden, Lord Howard de, 124 . Wallace, Alfred Russel, 64, 124, 134 Wallace, Sir Donald M., 218 Walsingham, Lord, 123, 220; pre- sents collections to Natural His- tory Museum, 142, 144 Ward, Rowland, his lifelike taxidermy, 187 Waring, Captain, his whale charts, 1 76 Warington, Annarella, wife of Admiral W. H. Smyth, 41 ; inci- dent at dinner to Lord Nelson, 41, 42 ; her accomplishments, 42 Warington, Thomas, English Consul at Naples, 41 Wartz, his Anthropologie der Natur- volken, 192 Waterhouse's Life Histories of Insect s t 220 Wellington College, lecture to boys at, 159 Wellington, Duke of, reminiscences by Duke of Argyll, 207 Westminster Abbey, services in, 86 ; Innocents' Day in, 87 ; service on evening of Dean Stanley's death, 89 Westminster, Dean of, 243 Whalebone, origin of, 115 Whale fisheries British and Colonial, 172, 174; Basque, 173; Cruise of the "Cachalot," 174, 241; right, 174, 176; sperm, 175 Whale Room in Natural History Museum, 230, 232 Whales, studies of, 1 66 et seq. ; sperm, 167, 171, 175; Greenland, 168, 176; narwhal, 168; Chinese dolphin, 1 68 ; Berardius, 168 ; essays and lectures on, 168 et seq. ; " whaling excursions," 169; white whale, 171 ; bottlenose, 175 ; right, 175 et seq. ; habits of, 177 ; jaw-bones used as gate- posts, etc., 178, 179 Wharncliffe, Lord and Lady, visit to, at Wortley, 160 White-Cooper, Dr., 240 Wickham, Dr., Headmaster of Wel- lington College, 159 Wilson, William, his herbarium, 134 Windsor Castle, Sir William and Lady Flower conducted through by Princess Louise, 218 Wolf, Joseph, painter, 71 Wolseley, Viscount, 212, 218 Woodward, Dr. A. S., F.R.S., 148 Worksop, school at, 5, 6 Writings, List of, by Sir William Flower. See Appendix III. York, meeting of British Association at (1881), 192 Zoological Gardens, visits to, 78, 79 Zoological Society of London, Sir William Flower elected Fellow of, 10 ; elected President of, 106 ; Jubilee garden party in Society's Gardens, 161 ; summary of its history (1887), 162; memorial tablet to Sir William Flower in Society's meeting-room, 264 Printed by R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, Edinburgh. Works by Sir WILLIAM HENRY FLOWER, K.C.B., D.Sc., etc. Crown &vo. IQJ. 6d. AN INTRODUCTION TO THE OSTEOLOGY OF THE MAMMALIA BEING THE SUBSTANCE OF THE COURSE OF LECTURES DELIVERED AT THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS OF ENGLAND IN 1870 With numerous Illustrations. Svo. i2s. net. ESSAYS ON MUSEUMS AND OTHER SUBJECTS CONNECTED WITH NATURAL HISTORY A THEN&UM. " Many of the essays possess permanent value, and all were well worthy of being printed afresh." DAILY CHRONICLE." There is, in short, a large mass of interesting and solid information in the volume ; and we think that Sir William Flower has been well advised in collecting together these several fugitive articles and addresses. They cannot fail to interest and instruct a wide public." GUARDIAN. "Supply interesting and valuable reading as well as practical instruction." MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD., LONDON. THE CAMBRIDGE NATURAL HISTORY. Edited by S. F. HARMER, Sc.D., F.R.S., and A. E. SHIPLEY, M.A. Medium 8vo. 175. net each. VOLUMES NOW READY. VOL. II. WORMS, ROTIFERS, AND POLYZOA. By F. W. GAMBLE, M.Sc., Miss L. SHELDON, A. E. SHIPLEY, M.A., M. HARTOG, M.A., W. B. BENHAM, D.Sc., F. E. BEDDARD, M.A., F.R.S., and S. F. HARMER, M.A. VOL. III. MOLLUSCS AND BRACHIOPODS. By Rev. A. H. COOKE, A. E. SHIPLEY, M.A., and F. R. C. REED, M.A. VOL. V. PERIPATUS, MYRIAPODS, INSECTS. Part I. By A. SEDGWICK, M.A., F.R.S., F. G. SINCLAIR, M.A., and D. SHARP, M.A., F.R.S. VOL. VI. INSECTS. Part II. By D. SHARP, M.A., F.R.S. VOL. VIII. AMPHIBIA AND REPTILES. By H. GADOW, M.A., F.R.S. VOL. IX. BIRDS. By A. H. EVANS, M.A. VOL. X. MAMMALIA. By F. E. BEDDARD, M.A. (Oxon.), F.R.S. (Prosector to the Zoological Society). IN PREPARATION. VOL. I. PROTOZOA. By MARCUS HARTOG, M.A., D.Sc.; SPONGES, by W. J. SOLLAS, Sc.D., F.R.S. ; JELLY-FISH, SEA-ANEMONES, ETC., by S. J. HICKSON, M.A., F.R.S. ; STAR-FISH, SEA-URCHINS, ETC., by E. W. MACBRIDE, M.A. VOL. IV. SPIDERS, MITES, ETC., by C. WARBURTON, M.A. ; SCORPIONS, TRILOBITES, ETC., by M. LAURIE, B.A., D.Sc. ; PYCNOGONIDS, by D'ARCY W. THOMPSON, M.A., C.B. ; LINGUATULIDA and TARDIGRADA, by A. E. SHIPLEY, M.A. ; CRUSTACEA, by W. F. R. WELDON, M.A., F.R.S. VOL. VII. BALANOGLOSSUS, ETC., by S. F. HARMER, Sc.D., F.R.S. ; ASCIDIANS and AMPHIOXUS, by W. A. HERDMAN, D.Sc., F.R.S.; FISHES, by T. W. BRIDGE, Sc.D., and G. A. BOULENGER, F.R.S. [In the Press. MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD., LONDON. A 000040115 8