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<Dth September, when, owing to inflammation of
the eyes, brought on by exposure to the cold by
night and to the sun by day, 1 Flower was ordered
to the hospital ships Hydaspes and Gertrude, where
he remained till the i3th October, when he re-
turned for duty to his regiment, which was now
engaged in the siege of Sebastopol, the bombard-
ment of which commenced four days later.
Balaclava, October u, 1854. . . . Things are going on
very quietly. We have not yet fired a shot, but are silently and
(apparently) slowly making our preparations for opening a
tremendous and simultaneous fire on the devoted city; they
1 Flower never fully recovered the sight of his right eye.
24 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
keep up a constant cannonading at us, doing very little damage,
however. I am very glad to hear that all the inhabitants appear
to have left the town, and as we are going to attack them only
on one side (the south), the Russian soldiers will have a back
door to escape at ; and if they do it early they will save a good
deal of trouble both to themselves and to us. ...
CAMP, HEIGHTS ABOVE SEBASTOPOL,
Sunday, Octpber 22, 1854.
DEAREST MOTHER I have just received your letter of the
22nd ult. You describe the home with the kettle on the
hearth and you wonder what are my surroundings. They are
different indeed. I am writing lying on the ground in a tent,
also occupied by Drs. Lewins, Mills, and O'Dell, our only furni-
ture being a railway rug, a blanket, and a great-coat apiece.
The sun shining brightly outside, but instead of sounds of peace
and comfort there is " the cannon's deafening roar " ; such an
eternal booming and banging, whirring of rockets and whistling
of balls through the air you can scarcely imagine. This is the
sixth day this has been going on without interruption, except a
partial lull at night. Our camp is beautifully situated on a hill
commanding a view of the whole town, and of our works too,
just out of range of the balls, so we see everything that goes on ;
and an extraordinary sight it is, one set of men behind a wall of
earth pounding away for a week at another set of men behind
another wall, who return the compliment vigorously, but appar-
ently with very little effect on either side a curious way of
settling the affairs of the world and restoring peace to the
nations of Europe. ... As the Avon has not yet come up, we
are still totally destitute of baggage, even of a change of clothes,
so that we are about as comfortless as may well be imagined,
and heartily pray for the end of the campaign. It was very
annoying to see " The Fall of Sebastopol " announced in large
letters in the Times, when here we are and Sebastopol looking
as lively as ever notwithstanding our six days' bombardment.
I do not know what the result of the siege will be, but there
seems to be a great mistake somewhere, as every one believed
that it was to be the work of a few days, or even hours, that
BATTLE OF BALACLAVA 25
when our batteries began to play on the town they must sur-
render at once ; but instead of that, the more we fire at it the
less likely we seem to make any impression on what must
certainly be one of the most formidable places in the world. If
this expedition should prove a failure, it would be a great blow to
the English and French alliance, as they are sure mutually to
throw the blame on each other.
The weather continues summerlike, though cold at night.
Since the first night of our landing we have scarcely had a drop
of rain. I do not know what would have become of us if it had
been otherwise. I think this hard mode of life will do many of
us a great deal of good. It is curious to see noblemen, officers
of the Guards, etc., men brought up in every' luxury, leading
precisely the same life and feeding on the same rations as the
common soldiers, but, of course, exercising the Englishman's
privilege of grumbling and growling at everybody and everything,
more especially at the Czar Nicholas, the author of all our
troubles, who, of course, is duly anathematised by every officer
and soldier in the army at every convenient time and oppor-
tunity. . . .
CAMP ON HEIGHTS ABOVE SEBASTOPOL,
27, 1854.
DEAR EDGAR I wrote home last on the 22nd. Since then
very little change has taken place up here. We have a beautiful
bird's-eye view of Sebastopol from the camp ; it appears a very
handsome town, the buildings all very substantial and good-
looking of white stone, but we seem as far off as ever from seeing
the interior of them. The pounding match continues with as
much vigour as ever on both sides, and with so little apparent
effect that it is beginning to lose all interest ; however, we are
kept in a constant state of excitement by the Russian army in
our rear, who are now disagreeably near to us. The day before
yesterday was a most deplorable one for our army. 1 Some
1 Battle of Balaclava. This inaccurate account shows, as Flower himself
often pointed out, how little the eye-witnesses were really able to see and
understand what was going on until they read the news afterwards in the
Times.
26 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP-
batteries beyond Balaclava, put up to protect the rear of our
position, mounted with English guns but manned by Turks, were
surprised by the Russians early in the morning and the guns
taken; the Light Brigade of Cavalry (4th and isth Light
Dragoons, 8th and gth Hussars, and i;th Lancers) were ordered
to charge the enemy and drive them out. This they did
gallantly, but, pursuing too far, fell into a sort of ambush
between three Russian batteries and were literally cut to pieces ;
of the last-named regiment I believe there are scarcely a dozen
men left, and the others are said to be nearly as badly off. You
will see a fuller account of this disastrous affair in the papers, I
suppose. Our division were marched out to the scene of action,
though too late to be of any use ; the field looked like a second
Alma. Yesterday there was another encounter, though it ended
more fortunately, a few companies of infantry and artillery having
put to flight, with considerable slaughter, a large number of
Russians. . . . There are a good many amateurs here, come out
to see what is going on ; they live comfortably on board ship,
and annoy us by turning out clean with immaculate shirt collars
and shining boots, reminding us forcibly of Hotspur's friend with
the pouncet-box. There is also a lady, wife of a cavalry officer,
who rides about and seems to enjoy the sight of powder and
death amazingly. Your very affectionate brother,
W. H. FLOWER.
CAMP NEAR SEBASTOPOL,
November 2, 1854.
DEAREST MOTHER Another month has come round and we
are still in the same position, the only change being that the fine
summer weather which we had for so long has turned to weather
equally fine but intensely cold, especially at night. There is very
little of novelty or interest since my last, though we are expect-
ing something more active will be done in a few days. Indeed,
if this cold weather continues or increases, as it probably will, we
shall hardly be able to go on with the siege operations and tent
life. . . . There is no news yet of our baggage. Nearly all the
other regiments have got theirs, but the Avon most obstinately
keeps out of the way. You will just know from this that I am
ii THE 63RD AT INKERMAN 27
alive and quite well so far, and with best love to all at home, am,
as always, your very affectionate son,
WILLIAM HENRY FLOWER.
CAMP NEAR SEBASTOPOL,
November 7, 1854.
MY DEAR MOTHER . . . Since I wrote last we have had
some stirring events in the regiment, which I may as well tell you
about first. On Sunday last (Gunpowder Plot day) the Russians
made a great attack upon us, but were repulsed after a very long
and desperate battle. Our regiment is said to have gained great
laurels, though they were dearly bought, as the loss was very
severe. 1 The battle, I believe, is to be called " Inkerman," as
it took place on heights of that name, not a mile from the camp.
I saw very little of it but smoke, having quite enough to do to
attend to the wounded, who were brought up to hospital almost as
soon as they fell. The continual rattling of musketry and roar of
artillery was quite astonishing. . . . The Colonel 2 is a great loss
and very much regretted. Many a man whose wounds I was
dressing said, " I don't care for myself, but to think of the poor
Colonel." He was gallantly leading the regiment on to the
charge at the time when he fell. Poor Clutterbuck, too, a very
fine lad ; he was carrying the colours, and, seeing the men falter
under the very heavy fire, he unfurled them round his head, call-
ing out, " Come on, Sixty-Third ! " and almost the same instant
was shot down. It is a very melancholy thing to see men whom
one has lived with so long and intimately so fearfully injured or
killed. But great as our own immediate loss has been, it has
been nearly, if not quite, as much in the other regiments of the
division the General, Sir George Cathcart, killed; Brigadier-
General Goldie, since dead of wounds ; and our Brigadier,
Torrens, severely wounded in the chest. Out of thirteen general
officers present, eight were killed or wounded ; among the latter
is Sir George Brown, very severely, I fear, a loss we can ill
1 Out of sixteen officers of the 63rd Regiment engaged at Inkerman three
were killed and eight wounded.
2 Lieut. -Colonel E. S. T. Swyny.
28 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER
afford, as he is a brave old soldier with the energy and courage
of a lion. General Strangways, of the Artillery, is also a great
loss. On the whole, the "butcher's bill" is more heavy than
that at Alma, though the battle will be productive of very little
effect, as we were merely maintaining a position, and, I am
afraid, will bring us no nearer the end of our woes, viz. the
taking of Sebastopol. The loss of our Colonel is greatly felt in
the regiment, the more so as his successor is very unpopular,
being a great martinet, and having only lately come into the
regiment. He had the great bad taste, if it should not be called
by a worse name, to assemble the men the morning after the
battle where they had fought so bravely, and before the late
Colonel was buried, to tell them that they were a most undis-
ciplined, disorderly set, but that now he had the honour to com-
mand them he was going to make all sorts of reforms, etc., etc.
. . . However deficient the medical arrangements might have
been at Alma (and they were undoubtedly so), things were done
here admirably, and I think that, considering the circumstances,
no one can find fault. The ambulance waggons (which had not
arrived in time for Alma) were most useful, and it is almost
unprecedented that before night the whole of the wounded
(nearly 600 in this division alone) were removed from the field,
deposited in their respective hospitals, and (I can answer for all
those in our own regiment at least) their wounds attended to.
We had great work ; in fact, I have not had a minute to
spare since, and am now obliged to write in a great hurry. I
am sanguinary-minded enough rather to have enjoyed this last
two days, especially as I got the opportunity of performing
several amputations which, I am happy to say, went off with
great eclat and complete success. At all events, wounds are
more satisfactory to treat than sickness, where so little can be
done with many lying in tents without proper warmth or diet
or anything requisite for their recovery ; under such circum-
stances medicines can be of very little good. We shall be
relieved of the greater part of this sudden influx of work
to-morrow, as the wounded are going down to Balaclava on
their way to Scutari. . . .
The heads of the medical departments do not seem to have
ii THE USE OF CHLOROFORM 29
sufficient authority or weight with the generals to carry out what
they wish (this is, of course, much their own fault), there being
rather a disposition in the British army to snub the doctors and
not give them fair-play. 1 Dr. Hall seems, as far as I have seen
of him, a clever and straightforward man, quite the best who
could have been selected. In spite of his advice, we give chloro-
form in every operation in this regiment, with the best possible
results.
I wish I had time to write more fully. Ever your affectionate
son, with best love to all, W. H. FLOWER.
CRIMEA, Wednesday, November 22, 1854.
DEAREST MOTHER Again the old well-known thin envelopes
and the old paper; 2 this tells a tale of happiness or at least
comfort to me ; at length we have got our baggage and are able
to change our clothes and keep ourselves a little decent and clean
again after more than two months of wretched privation.
The other day (Tuesday week), while we were comfortably
asleep just about daylight, there was a crash and a flop of wet
canvas, and we woke and found ourselves in the open air,
exposed to a most bitter north wind, or rather hurricane and
sleeting snow. Our first impulse was to look at each other and
burst out laughing, the situation appeared so sublimely ridiculous,
especially as all the other tents around were one by one sharing
the same fate, exposing the inhabitants within in the most
merciless way ; but as all our few articles of furniture were being
scattered by the wind or spoilt by the wet, matters became
serious and we had to get up to see what was to be done, but we
found we could do nothing, the wind blowing so as to prevent
the possibility of putting up the tent, so we stowed ourselves
away as best we could. O'Dell and I got into a sort of hovel of
turf, covered over with boughs (which soon blew off), and
wrapped in all the blankets we could muster, lay and awaited
1 Older army surgeons learnt nothing and objected to new methods.
2 This was the first letter written on ordinary writing-paper since
September 16. The others were written on odd scraps, old envelopes, etc.
3 o SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
our fate, expecting to be frozen to death. 1 Here we had to stop
till the following morning, when the tents were able to be put
up again, and a fine day restored all to its wonted serenity. The
sufferings of the men were very great, especially of the poor
wretches in hospital, five of whom died ; this was increased by
the stoppage of food and rum, which could not be issued on
account of the weather. . . .
The siege drags its slow length along, and we seem in for a
regular winter campaign, which is considered a great sell and is
talked of with very long faces, especially if such little episodes as
that of Tuesday last are to occur again. Then there will be the
difficulty of getting up provisions from Balaclava now the roads
are so dreadfully heavy and the storms on the sea wrecking the
ships. But it will not do to anticipate evils, though it is rather
amusing to read the Times articles about the beginning of the
campaign, where they abuse the Russians and Prince Menschikoff,
and make out that everything they did were blunders, and that
Sebastopol was so easy to be taken ; whereas we find them most
respectable opponents. The defence has certainly been success-
fully conducted so far, and it is strange that, with our boasted
civilisation and progress in the arts and sciences, our only
superiority over the Russians seems to be in the greater courage
and mettle of the men, while in those very departments in which
the most civilised nation should excel, they beat us, as in their
artillery, engineering, and in the arming, clothing, and equipment
of the men. On the whole, I have a great respect for Russia
and the Russians from the Czar downwards, and I think this war
is decidedly one against civilisation and progress. What would
the Crimea have been if left to its original Tartar possessors or
given over to the Turks? Where would have been such
magnificent towns as Sebastopol and Simferopol are said to be,
the beautiful and well -furnished country houses, comfortable
villages, vineyards, etc., but for the Russian Emperor? And
now, by spreading the horrors of war, we are stopping and
1 Such a dreary scene as the camp presented this evening I never saw,
and such a night as we passed. Myself sick with feverish attack and feet
frost-bitten. (Diary, November 14, 1854.)
ii RUSSIAN INFLUENCE FOR GOOD 31
destroying all this. Though the Czar may be a great despot, yet
I think, throughout this semi-barbarous country, Russian influence
is for good, and unless we can supply a better (which the Turkish
influence certainly is not) it is a pity to destroy it. ... I am
your very affectionate son, WILLIAM HENRY FLOWER.
CAMP ABOVE SEBASTOPOL,
December i, 1854.
DEAR FATHER Your letter of October 29 arrived only the
day before yesterday. It was a very great pleasure to me to hear
from you. I know that you have so many other things to do that
you cannot often spare time to write, but the Mother is such an
excellent correspondent that her letters seem to come from you
both. I rejoice to hear of your being all well and of all you
say, except your constant anxiety abolit me ; the thought of that
amid all the hardships, I may say miseries, of this life, is the
only one that really troubles me ; I want to think of you always
happy and cheerful and comfortable, but then I know and
picture to myself the " all-absorbing anxiety " and alarm which
prevents this, and of which / alone am the cause, and I feel
myself a culprit. Strange that your trouble should be me out
here and mine be you at home ; but so I suppose it is with all
similarly circumstanced. I often think now of your backwoods
life and the roughs and privations you must have gone through,
to which, I daresay, these are trifles, but still there are hardish
times on the heights above Sebastopol, better to look back upon
than to have about one ; still I look steadily forward with perfect
confidence to scrambling out of them and lighting on my legs
safe and sound again, whatever may become of the rest, for we
seem to be in a precious mess somehow or other.
War is not all such plain -sailing work as it seemed at the
outset ; at all events it is a game at which two can play, as the
Russians have shown. Our position here seems daily becoming
more critical, not that it seems probable that the enemy can
ever drive us out of it, as its natural and artificial strength seems
capable of resisting any attack, but the difficulty of keeping men
alive and in working order when they are surrounded by every
3 2 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
circumstance that tends to an opposite result appears insurmount-
able. The reinforcements that are sent from England go a very
little way even towards keeping up the present effective state.
These continued rains (it is pouring now, and nearly always, as
hard as it can) are most trying to the men, and their work
becomes harder as their numbers diminish by sickness. They
have to be out all night in the trenches, often two nights out of
three, and very seldom get two clear nights in camp ; their food
and grog is served out very irregularly now when it is wanted
most, and as the bad weather continues we are always in dread
of a total cessation of supplies. To show how little the nominal
force has to do with the real effective condition of an army, this
regiment which brought out over 1000 men could scarcely
number 300 now fit for action, and I believe it is the same with
all the others. 1
The horses suffer as much as the men ; it is miserable to see
the poor animals picketed outside the tents with nothing to
protect them from the wind and rain, and sometimes no forage
for three days on end ; I can see a group of ponies from my tent-
door standing with their backs to the wind and their feet all
gathered together, surrounded by a sea of mud, looking images
of resignation and misery. That reminds me of your inquiries
after the fate of my rough little Cossack ; it was the common one
of them here ; he was stolen one night while I was on board ship,
and I daresay he has changed hands a dozen times since.
I suppose the Russians, who are in the field in our rear, are
as badly off as ourselves, or worse, as they have further to convey
their provisions, etc. ; it is a consolation to think that this may
be the case. I hope our alliance with the French will last ; they
are fine fellows, true soldiers every inch, so active, intelligent,
and quick and always cheerful ; very different to the stupid,
hulking-looking creatures many of ours, especially the recruits,
are ; but the courage of the English before the enemy is quite
astonishing. I do not think it so much courage exactly as sense
of duty which causes a most total disregard of life and everything
1 The total number of officers and men of the 63rd Regiment who were
killed, died of wounds, or were invalided home during the Crimean campaign
was 947. See History of the 6jrd West Suffolk Regiment, p. 167.
a FIELD SURGERY 33
else. I really do not think there is any nation like them in this
respect ; they have certainly kept up the old character nobly in
this campaign, that perfect steadiness under the heaviest fire,
either when standing still or advancing to the charge.
It seems a great pity that the Fleet is commanded by such an
old muff as Dundas, while there is such a man as Lyons, who
seems one of the old Nelson sort, and is almost worshipped by
the men, but being only second in command, his hands are much
tied. . . .
You think that the most horrid part of this must be after a
battle, when the surgeons are at work. Now by a strange, and
perhaps happy, difference of taste this is just the time when I am
in my glory ; it is worth weeks of discomfort and inaction, and
only comes too seldom ; in fact, the battle of Inkerman and
stray cases during the siege are the only surgery we have had.
At Alma the regiment was suffering so fearfully from the cholera,
nearly a hundred sick at once, that we had enough to do with
them, but as soon as I could get a little time to spare (about the
middle of the day after the battle) I went down to the General
Hospital to see what was going on. I found a number of low
buildings surrounding a yard ; on nearly every part of the floor
and ground were lying men, English and Russians, with every
conceivable sort of horrid wound, and others were being brought
in and laid wherever they could find room. In a small hovel a
man was having his leg cut off while lying on a heap of straw on
the ground, the surgeon and his assistant nearly breaking their
backs as they did it. A surgeon in a regiment I knew a little of,
seeing me, asked me to assist at several operations which had
been waiting some time as he could not get any help. To this I
gladly assented, but as we were going to begin, one of the Deputy-
Inspectors came up and said he wanted an assistant surgeon to
go with some wounded men down to the ships, and that I must
go, and the operations must wait ; so, accordingly, I had to
trudge off by the side of half a dozen araba waggons filled with
wounded men three miles down to the beach, an occupation in
which I could not be of the slightest earthly use either to the
wounded men or any one else, as when they got down there the
naval assistant surgeons were ready to receive them. I found
D
34 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
several other assistant surgeons who had been performing the
same useless pilgrimage, which in some measure accounted for
the want of efficient medical aid. As I turned homewards
(resolved carefully to avoid the General Hospital and all the
Deputy-Inspectors for the future) I fell into conversation with
a French officer, who asked if I would like to see their
" Ambulance," which he said we would pass close to ; so I went
in with him, and soon introduced myself to one of the doctors, of
whom there were eight or nine, all very civil, pleasant men,
including the principal one. They took me round and showed
me everything, the waggons beautifully fitted with splendid sets
of surgical instruments. There was not a patient left, except a
few Russians, the rest having all been taken on board ; they
regretted that most of their operating was finished, but if I would
wait there was a Russian to have his leg off and they would do
it at once. Accordingly, the patient was brought into a tent
regularly fitted like a Paris or a London operating theatre, with
proper table and everything convenient, and the amputation was
done with as much neatness and propriety as it could be at
home. After thanking them for their kindness, I found my way
back to our camp, certainly most favourably impressed with the
French arrangements, especially in comparison with ours. . . .
I must soon close this rambling letter. I have applied to be
sent down to Balaclava for a week or so to get away from this
cold and damp, which has given me one or two slight feverish
attacks and makes me feel rheumatic, but a couple of days' fine
weather would make me all right.
Now, my dear father, again thanking you for your letter, and
with my best love to all, ever your affectionate son,
WILLIAM HENRY FLOWER.
Though writing cheerfully to his father and, so
as not to alarm him, making light of his "one or
two slight feverish attacks," Flower was, when he
wrote, and had been for the past six days, laid up in
his tent with both feet frost-bitten and a severe
RED TAPE v. HEALTH 35
fever. On the 2nd December he was recommended
fourteen days' leave to Balaclava; the order was
signed by the Surgeon, but had to be sent round to
be countersigned by the Staff- Surgeon of the
Division, the Commanding Officer of the Regiment,
the General Commanding the Division, and the
Adjutant-General at Headquarters. On this round
the order somehow got lost, so Flower did not get
his leave. Meantime, with the continual cold and
rain, his health was getting worse, and on the
recommendation of a Medical Board he was given
"leave of absence to proceed to England for the
recovery of his health," and sailed on board the
Victoria from the Crimea on the 1 2th December.
From his own letters we learn nothing of his
work under fire, but from other sources we hear
how that before Sebastopol he went from the shelter
of the camp in broad daylight across the shot-swept
ground to the assistance of some of the wounded
men in one of the forward trenches, and how, at
Inkerman, he and some other surgeons "made
themselves remarked for their coolness and devoted-
ness to their professional duties ; nothing deterred
by a hot fire, they pressed on, regardless of danger,
to give their services to the wounded." 1
On the 1 5th December the Victoria arrived in
the Bosphorus, in which neighbourhood he had to
pass a month before he could get a passage to
England.
1 History of the 6jrd West Suffolk Regiment, p. 116.
36 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP, n
CONSTANTINOPLE, December 28, 1854.
DEAREST MOTHER . . . The transport service does not
seem well managed, as there are numbers of steamers waiting
here doing nothing, and yet they cannot get enough for the
exigencies of the war. They come down here full of sick from
Balaclava, have to wait four or five days before the sick are
landed, then remain doing nothing for a week or two, then
perhaps are filled with convalescent patients, then wait four or
five more days, then go back to Balaclava or England, as the
case may be ; they might have made a dozen journeys in the
time.
I went over the hospital at Scutari yesterday. Whatever may
have been the sufferings and neglect of the patients there at first,,
now the cleanliness, comfort, and almost luxury they live in
surpasses that of any hospital at home. It must be a Paradise
after the camp. I was much pleased to find a man whose leg I
cut off after the battle of Inkerman and to hear that he was
going on very well indeed. . . .
At length he got a passage on the Harbinger
(auxiliary screw steamer), and after a long and
rather rough passage landed at Southampton on the
5th February 1855.
wer.
CHAPTER III
MARRIAGE AND EARLY PROFESSIONAL LIFE
FOR his services as Assistant-Surgeon to the 63rd
Regiment during the war, Flower received the
medal with clasps for Alma, Inkerman, Balaclava,
and Sebastopol direct from the Queen's hand, as
well as the Turkish medal later. Recent experience
of the devoted service of medical men of all ages
and position who volunteered for the South African
War has familiarised us also with their return to
active civil life and the resumption of their profession
in London. Flower's position was an analogous one.
After his health had recovered from the temporary
breakdown caused by the hardships of the campaign,
he resigned the army, and in 1857 took the diploma
of F.R.C.S. 1 In 1859 he was appointed to the
office of Assistant -Surgeon to the Middlesex
Hospital, to which duties were added those of
Lecturer upon Anatomy and Curator of the Anatomi-
cal Museum of the Hospital.
But his work at this time was not identified
1 On January 3, 1856, he notes, " I took my first fee, i : is., from Uncle
John Greaves for curing his finger."
37
38 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
with the activities by which he won fame later. He
was a rising young surgeon, and while specialising
from the speculative side in Comparative Anatomy,
was marking the beginning of what promised to be
a brilliant career in the active exercise of his pro-
fession. He acquired a reputation as a successful
operator, especially in affections of the eye. He
had, as might be expected from his physique and
equable temperament, the steady and yet fine hand
necessary for such delicate work. Before five years
had passed, and when it became a question whether
he should divert his energies from surgery to pure
science, he was assured by one of those most
competent to judge, that he " could make more
thousands as a surgeon than he ever would hundreds
as a man of science." But the accumulation of
money had no great attraction for Flower at any
time as the chief end in life. At this time he pub-
lished some original observations on the Injuries of
the Upper Extremities, in Holmes' System of Surgery,
in which he incorporated his own researches on the
various dislocations of the shoulder joint. His
diagrams illustrating certain of these became
standard illustrations in text-books, and are familiar
to most of those who have studied injuries to bones.
While continuing his regular work at the Hospital
he gave effect to some of the impressions left on
him by the war. He had learnt by experience
that military surgery was ill-taught in the United
Kingdom. Men suffering from frightful injuries,
in "FIRST AID" IN THE SEVENTIES 39
improperly treated, were still common objects in
the country. In February 1859 he delivered at
the United Service Institution a lecture on the
importance of a knowledge of the elements of
practical surgery to naval and military officers. By
these elements he meant not so much a rough
knowledge of anatomy, but such matters as are
now called "first aid," which have now become
part of the knowledge not only of officers, but of
many privates, and are embodied in military text-
books.
Here, for instance, is what was then deemed an
enlightened suggestion for carrying a badly wounded
man, made by a general of the day. " A single
pole, eight or nine feet in length, a branch of a tree,
an oar, or anything of the sort that can be procured,
is laid down beside the wounded man, who is lashed
firmly to it from head to foot with handkerchiefs,
belts, clothes, or blankets torn in strips. It is then
lifted up and carried on the shoulders of two men, or
may even be dragged for some distance, with one end
resting on the ground, by a single man ! " Flower
showed that with the progress in the art of destruc-
tion there had been a corresponding advance in the
means adopted for the preservation of wounded men
from the after effects of their injuries, and from the
accidents inseparable from war. He then showed
how bleeding, burns, frost-bite, exposed wounds and
the like might be treated, or prevented from becom-
ing worse until the surgeon was at hand, and gave
40 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
a number of practical examples and advice as to
what can be done to preserve health in campaigns,
in exploration, and in surveying distant countries.
It was while on a walking tour in Wales during
his early student days that Sir William met the
family of Admiral W. H. Smyth, whose youngest
daughter, then only fifteen' years of age, was destined
afterwards to become his wife. The Admiral, who,
among other rigorous rules of life, held that no
man could need more than five hours of sleep, and
only took four himself during his naval career,
was favourably impressed by learning that the tall
young man whom they met at a dance at Tanyralt
proposed only to change his clothes, and then to
walk twenty miles across the hills to join the coach
at Carnarvon.
The acquaintance was continued, and before long
Flower found himself a guest at St. John's Lodge
(in the village of Stone, in the Vale of Aylesbury),
where Admiral Smyth carried on his astronomical
observations, researches, and publications in the
midst of his family, and surrounded by the ordinary
social life of the country.
There Flower found an atmosphere of scientific
and intellectual activity of the most congenial kind,
in which every member of the family took an interest
and in some degree shared. There was plenty of
time for amusements too, but the environment was
certainly of an unusually vigorous character, both
mentally and physically. The eldest son, afterwards
Ill
ADMIRAL SMYTH 41
Sir Warington Smyth, the celebrated geologist and
mineralogist, had rowed in the Cambridge " eight "
which defeated Oxford in 1839. Another, Charles
Piazzi Smyth, was for many years Astronomer- Royal
for Scotland, and well known for his researches in
the Great Pyramid ; a third is General Sir Henry
Augustus Smyth, K.C.M.G., sometime Governor
of Malta ; whilst a daughter, Henrietta, married the
Rev. Baden Powell, Savilian Professor of Geometry
in the University of Oxford, and counted among
her children Sir George Smyth Baden -Powell,
M.P., and General Robert Stephenson Smyth
Baden-Powell, C.B. Another daughter, Ellen, be-
came the wife of Captain H. Toynbee, who has
worked so devotedly in the cause of seamen,
especially in helping to establish Sailors' Homes.
Admiral Smyth, who claimed descent from Captain
John Smyth, the founder of Virginia, married at the
conclusion of the great war with France, at Messina
in Sicily in 1815, Annarella, the only child of Mr.
Thomas Warington, English Consul at Naples, a
lady as remarkable for her beauty and accomplish-
ments as for her charming disposition. 1
As an instance of the touch which the present
may have with the past, it may be mentioned that
Mrs. Smyth had been present, as a little girl, and
figuring as the only lady there, at a dinner given by
her father to Nelson and his captains after the
1 She was an accomplished artist, and bequeathed the taste to many of
her children and grandchildren.
42 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER
battle of the Nile. One of them gave her a kiss,
which she did not altogether approve of, and Nelson
said, "You must not mind, my dear. His name is
Hardy, and he is the captain of the Audacious''
Sir Charles Lyell says of her and her husband
in his diary :
Captain Smyth called, and said his letters from France have
disgusted him with the manner in which the eminent scientific
men have thrown up their pursuits and turned place-hunters, even
Arago. Smyth has an ardent love for science for its own sake, in
which his wife sympathises most strongly, and I know no people
who have less worldly-mindedness or low ambition or more real
happiness and contentment with a small income.
And again later :
When I called yesterday on Mrs. Smyth I caught her making
abstracts from La Place's Astronomy of those facts and specula-
tions which could be made intelligible to persons not mathe-
maticians. Her selection is so beautiful and striking that when
it is finished I shall get a copy.
That many-sided scientific sailor Admiral Smyth,
after much active service in Indian, Chinese, and
Australian waters in the great naval wars of the
time, had made charts of the Mediterranean Sea,
charts which are the working basis of those now
in use, and had been President of the Royal
Astronomical Society in 1845-6. He was also
one of the founders of the Royal Geographical
Society and of the United Service Institution,
and Vice-president and Foreign Secretary of the
Royal Society, Vice-president and Director of the
in
HIS MARRIAGE 43
Society of Antiquaries, and an honorary or corre-
sponding member of at least three-fourths of the
scientific and literary societies of the world. He
was also a distinguished numismatist, and an
indefatigable and prolific writer. His children, when
quite young, used to help him in any way in which
they could, cutting new books, and even in proof-
reading, when they were paid at the rate of a " penny
for four," for any mistakes in spelling, misplaced
letters, etc.
Flower's work as a surgeon steadily increased,
and on April 15, 1858, his marriage took place at
Stone Church, he being then in his twenty-seventh
year, and his bride just twenty-three. " On the
1 5th inst., at Stone, near Aylesbury, Bucks, by the
Rev. Baden Powell, brother-in-law of the bride,
assisted by the Rev. W. Airy, Vicar of Keysoe,
and the Rev. J. B. Reade, Vicar of Stone, William
Henry Flower, second son of E. F. Flower, Esq., of
the Hill, Stratford-upon-Avon, to Georgiana Rosetta,
youngest daughter of Rear- Admiral Smyth, K.S.F.,
D.C.L., and of St. John's Lodge, Stone." So runs
the Times paragraph. Flower and his bride left
for Dover, and spent the honeymoon in Flanders,
Brussels, Louvain, and thence went up the Rhine,
the first of a series of journeys abroad together
which formed an almost annual pleasure for very
many years. They repeated the honeymoon journey
after their silver wedding, twenty-five years later,
taking two of their children with them.
44 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
Lady Flower says of this time, " One of the great
pleasures during this, our first journey together, was
the beauty of the spring flowers abroad, where all
the fruit-trees were in blossom, and listening to the
birds in full song. My husband knew the notes of
all, and delighted in teaching me to learn the different
sounds or to identify their flight and movements.
Our visits to the old historic towns, in which his
interest in architecture, history, and the paintings of
the old masters had full play, were equally delightful.
His appreciation of these subjects remained and
grew all his life, side by side with his master passion
for science."
Thus began the new era. Flower wrote of his
marriage as " the most important and happiest event
of my life," a feeling to which he remained constant
to the last, and to which a faithful and touching
tribute will be found in every line of the last
chapter of this memoir. 1
The dedication of his last book, the Essays on
Museums, published in 1898, is written in the
following words :
To her who for forty years has been my never-failing counsellor
and support in all difficulties and perplexities this collection of
fugitive thoughts upon subjects closely associated with the greater
part of our joint life's work is lovingly dedicated.
It was on May 19, 1858, that they came back
to England, and arrived at 15 Queen Anne Street,
1 By Lady Flower.
. /
in FIRST CHILD 45
V
Cavendish Square, which had been purchased for
them by Flower's father, and which was to be his
home until his appointment to the Hunterian
Museum.
On May 22, 1860, their first child was born a
son who was christened in Stone Church, Arthur
Smyth Flower. Flower maintained that this was
the " proper scientific way of naming children."
There might be other "Arthur Flowers," but by
placing the name of the mother before the name of
the father the chances of confusion were rendered
less, while at the same time information was con-
veyed as to the parentage on both sides.
While holding the offices of Assistant- Surgeon
to the Hospital and Lecturer on Comparative
Anatomy his work entitled Diagrams of the Nerves
of the Human Body was completed and published.
It was translated into French in 1888, and into
Italian in 1890. It was received with warm com-
mendation by the profession. The diagrams were
a successful effort, on what was Flower's invariable
plan later, to let the eye see, as easily and compre-
hensively as possible, what verbal memory finds it
difficult to recall. The distribution of the nerves
was so clearly displayed as to be a useful guide and
reminder both to the expert and the student. In
June 1860 his brother-in-law, the Rev. Professor
Baden Powell, died. His relations with Flower
had been of the most cordial nature. His ability and
high character, as well as his liberal attitude towards
46 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
the scientific discoveries of the day, were of the kind
which Flower appreciated in a Churchman who was
also a man of science, and his death was subject for
sincere regret.
Nor did Flower confine himself to lamenting the
loss of a friend endeared to him alike by judgment
and personal regard. No one of the writers in
Essays and Reviews had been more consistently
misrepresented than Baden Powell. His dislike
of violence in speech or print did not let him
follow the example of the critics by an equally
violent defence. But when an eminent Churchman
allowed himself to say that Mr. Baden Powell had
died " without any ministrations of religion," Flower,
who was with him for the last three days and nights
of his life, just as later he spent the last of Dean
Stanley's nights on earth by his bedside, wrote to
say that "as long as he was able Mr. Baden Powell
regularly attended divine service at St. Andrew's,
Wells Street, and received the Holy Communion,
and read the Liturgy of the Church of England
with his family." Flower stated that " never did
one single expression escape him that did not tell
of peace, of resignation to God's will, and of faith in
the religion in which he had been brought up, in
which he had always lived, and in which he was
then dying." He also wrote a short obituary notice
of him which throws a light on Flower's own
attitude at a time when many less clear heads
were so seriously affected by the new discoveries
HI DEATH OF PROF. BADEN POWELL 47
that they could not reconcile them with the founda-
tion of old beliefs. He said of Baden Powell :
The congregations of several of the principal London churches
had the opportunity of hearing his sermons, which were remark-
able for the masterly manner in which important Christian truths
were enunciated with the clearness and precision of a mathe-
matical demonstration. His principal efforts were to define the
limits between the objects of faith and of knowledge, and to
show that the progress of modern scientific discovery, although
necessitating modifications in many of the still prevailing ideas
with which the Christian religion became encrusted in the days
of ignorance and superstition, is in no way incompatible with a
sincere and practical acceptance of its great and fundamental
truths.
The year 1861, which saw the birth of the
Flowers' second child, Caroline Mary, on Sep-
tember 12, proved the last of his professional life
as a surgeon.
During the exercise of his profession at the
Hospital he had steadily kept up his interests in
Comparative Anatomy and Zoology. Besides read-
ing papers before the Zoological Society, he had
worked with such freshness and success in the
Middlesex Hospital Museum that the general Court
of Governors sent to him a resolution, passed
unanimously, that " the best thanks of this Court
be conveyed to W. H. Flower, Esq., for his eminent
services during the past year (1860) as Curator of
the Museum of the College." The reports of the
Museum Committee stated that " he has manifested
no less judgment in the selection of valuable new
48 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
specimens, and no less delicacy of manipulative
skill in their preparation and display than in
former years. They can add, however, that
they have never before had the gratification of
reporting such a large addition of new and in-
structive specimens as was exhibited to them by
Mr. Flower to-day. They desire, therefore, to
record their especial thanks to him for the zeal
which has stimulated and the intelligence which
has directed his labours during the past year."
In another communication the governors added to
their thanks to Flower a word of courteous appre-
ciation of his wife's interest and help in the Museum.
There is no profession in which good work is so
quickly recognised as in that of surgery and medicine.
Flower's extra work in the Hospital Museum of
Comparative Anatomy was also much appreciated,
and his interests in zoology were well known to the
authorities who controlled the great surgical insti-
tutions of London. He read several very original
papers before the Zoological Society on animal
anatomy, attended Huxley's lectures, visited the
"Zoo" very frequently, and in one week we find
him lecturing to the men in his father's brewery at
Stratford-on-Avon on the " Relation of Men to
Animals," and also that his paper on the " Brains
of the Quadrumana," read before the Zoological
Society, had been reprinted in an improved form
by the Royal Society. This paper on the " Brains
of Monkeys," which was probably inspired by the
m THE HUNTERIAN MUSEUM 49
controversy aroused over Darwin's Descent of
Man, was destined to bring the writer into public
prominence in an interesting manner. For the
present let us leave it, where Flower did, in print
and ready for use.
It will be clear from the above that Flower
had already made a name as a comparative
anatomist, a surgeon, a zoologist, and as having
new and original views as to the management of
museums. The opportunity for further advance-
ment came, in a specially appropriate way, from
the leaders of the surgical profession, yet on the
lines for which his museum work had shown his
particular qualifications. By a happy coincidence the
great Corporation of the Royal College of Surgeons
possessed one of the best museums of a special
kind in England. It contained 'the collections of
John Hunter, with many subsequent additions. It
was finely housed, and the Conservator was paid a
not illiberal stipend, besides enjoying the use of a
good house adjoining the buildings of the Royal
College of Surgeons in Lincoln's Inn Fields. The
post had been held by Professor Owen, who was
also Hunterian Lecturer to the College. Professor
Owen resigned the Conservatorship to take up
the duties of the new post of Superintendent of
Zoology in the British Museum, though he kept
the office of Hunterian Lecturer. Dr. Quekett
succeeded Owen, and it was his death which caused
the post to become vacant.
E
50 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
Of Flower's life at the time when this occurred
Lady Flower writes :
At the hospital he took the greatest personal interest in the
patients, especially in the poor patients, as well as in the purely
scientific work of his Anatomical lectureship and Anatomical
Museum. His interests in zoology also steadily increased. But
in regard to his surgical work he felt so keenly for the patients in
the wards that he would lie awake at night considering whether
everything was being done that was possible for them. He would
be called to the hospital at any hour of the night in cases of
danger, and he always felt more particularly anxious when the
cases were those of poor people, the fathers or mothers of young
children, to whom the death of the parents must always be almost
irreparable. Altogether, I think he preferred practising among
the poor rather than among the rich, and he had an unpro-
fessional objection to taking fees ! All this prepared him for
giving up practice, and when the opening came he had little
doubt as to making the application.
His father, who was devoted to his clever and
scientific son, quite shared that view. He wrote :
Both of us (i.e. Mrs. Flower and himself) came to the con-
clusion at once, without consultation, that it will be a happy
thing if you can obtain the appointment. It places you in a
high and honourable position at once, suited to your peculiar
tastes and talents, which is rarely attainable at any time of life.
... I hope, my dear Will, never to be in circumstances during
my life to do less for you than at present, and afterwards I trust
that you will have something more. Taking all sides of your
position into view, we have no doubt in our minds about the
matter.
It will be seen from his father's letter and reference
to his son's prospects that in following the natural
bent of his talents Flower was doing no injustice to
in APPOINTED CONSERVATOR 51
his family, even had he not been destined to reach
later a post of greater emolument. But his case
is an instance of the favourable effect, as regards
the choice of a life's work, which a considerable
independence in prospect, and the encouragement
which it gives, may have on a scientific career.
There were nearly fifty candidates for the post of
Curator to the Hunterian Museum, of whom Flower
was the youngest. But he received the warm sup-
port not only of leaders of the medical profession,
like his friend James Paget, but of men of pure
science, and especially of Professor Huxley. On
Thursday, December 19, 1861, he was unanimously
elected by the Council of the Royal College of
Surgeons to be Conservator of the Museum, and
received notice to attend on the following Tuesday,
which was Christmas Eve, to be formally admitted
to the office. On New Year's Day 1862 he started
from Queen Anne Street to take up his new post,
in which he remained engaged successfully and
happily for the next twenty-two years.
CHAPTER IV
LIFE IN LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS THE HUNTERIAN
MUSEUM
IN the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons
Flower has left his impress in such clear and sub-
stantive form that it almost tells its own story.
To the specialist it speaks directly. But as the
originator of this luminous order himself said, in
his first address when appointed to succeed Huxley
as Hunterian Professor, that he must be, and in-
tended to act, as the " mouthpiece of his specimens/'
so, while they tell their own story and uses, they
cannot tell the story of what Flower did and how he
did it. The writer must therefore endeavour to do
this, aided by the opportunities afforded of seeing
his work by Professor Stewart, his successor, the
present Conservator, and by some of those who
were assistants in the Museum at the time, more
especially Mr. W. Pearson. 1
1 Mr. J. W. Clark, Registrary of Cambridge University, who was engaged
in the arrangement of the New Museum at Cambridge, constantly saw Flower
during his Conservatorship, and has kindly given much information of a
peculiarly useful kind.
52
CH.IV FLOWER'S PREDECESSOR 53
Every institution like the Hunterian Museum
has its eras and phases of development, conditioned
partly by the limits of knowledge at the time, partly
by the particular branches in which work is going
on most keenly at the moment, and what in less
serious pursuits would be called the "fashion" of
the day. The particular sphere in which the head
of the Museum more especially shines and is
interested will also naturally come to the front
during the period of his charge. Sir William's
immediate predecessor, Mr. Ouekett, was a very
eminent microscopist, and devoted to his work ; but
he only held the appointment for five years. 1
Sir Richard, then Professor Owen, who had
previously controlled the fortunes of the Museum,
was by bent and acquirements an osteologist and
palaeontologist, but except in strictly popular lectures
appealed to the scientific public mainly.
Flower was in feeling somewhat democratic and
very practical. As a surgeon he belonged by
position and inclination to a progressive science ;
and though he relinquished the active practice of
that art on his appointment to the charge of John
Hunter's Museum, he steadily addressed himself
to providing material for its advancement, and
to arranging this in such a form as might shorten
the labour, and stimulate rather than weary the
brain of all earnest workers in the field. To attain
this end he deemed no thought too continuous and
1 His name and memory are preserved by the Quekett Microscopical Club.
54 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
no detail unessential. The invention of movable
type for printing, as the result of a clear aim at a
principle and great object, benefited the whole world
by one mechanical aid to knowledge. Flower
determined that in future museums Nature itself
should be printed in movable type and illustrate its
own story, subject only to the intervention of man
as Naturae minister et interpres. In the chambers
and galleries in Lincoln's Inn Fields, as he found
them, the skeletons were the books, the bones the
pages, and the "preparations" of particular parts
the illustrations ; but it was a library which needed
almost re-creating. To begin with, the " books "
were inaccessible and the " pages " could not be
turned. The galleries and cases were filled with
the frames of the mammalia, from men to mammoths,
and from mammoths to mice. But the larger books
were out of reach. The skeletons stood on high
stands, and no one could compare the skull or the
bones of one animal with those of another unless a
pair of steps were available. The skeletons were
also rigid, all the parts being fastened together.
Thus, at a time when comparative anatomy was
engaging earnest attention, there were few or no
facilities even for looking first at a part in one species
and laying it beside a corresponding part in another,
and much that required examination was practically
out of sight. One of the earlier improvements made
by the new Conservator was to reduce the height of
the stands to as low as six inches or a foot, so that
iv NATURE TO TELL ITS STORY 55
in every case the specimens were easily seen and
examined. As one visitor in the old days remarked,
" Before I could only look up at them on their
pedestals ; now I feel that I could even converse
with them." But even so there was no means of
examining the portions of the frame separately.
To make this possible they were re-set, so that
each bone could be detached, examined, and re-
placed. It became at once possible to detach the
shoulder of an antelope, for example, in order to
compare or contrast it with that of a horse, or of a
swimming animal, or a burrowing animal, and by
merely handling the parts of the skeleton, learners
were enabled to gain a truer knowledge of facts as
a basis for theory.
The " point of view " always limits men's know-
ledge of anatomy as well as of other things, and as
there are many people who cannot readily recognise
a map of India or Scotland if presented to them
upside down or sideways, so it would be quite
possible for students of the shape of bones, muscles,
or ligaments to make mistakes about "the wrong
side of them," i.e. the side which was not commonly
presented to them in specimens. Flower took this
into consideration, and was at the utmost pains to
let students learn all sides, and so to get true views
without ever forming the erroneous ones which a
stereotyped aspect of presentation naturally causes.
He knew that in what forms the basis of the medical
art, book-learning alone was insufficient, but that
56 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
the mechanical difficulties of supplementing it had
not yet been overcome. To give an instance ; his
interest in the anatomy of the horse was well known,
and he was appointed examiner to the Veterinary
College. He asked one of the candidates in a
viva voce examination the places of certain principal
nerves, questions which were all answered correctly.
So were the subsequent queries as to the termina-
tions of the nerves. He then asked through what
route a certain nerve passed from one point to the
other. This also was correctly answered, the reply
being that it went through a certain " foramen " or
hole in a bone. All this was known from a careful
and conscientious study of books ; but Flower,
anxious to feel certain as to the state of knowledge
of the examinee, asked him kindly to point out the
place on the skeleton. This he was quite unable to
do. From that time Flower was more than ever
convinced that his theory of the work that lay
before him was the right one.
He developed it on principles which are now
almost universal and recognised, but which were
then new and original, and as unexpected as they
were welcome. Instead of sending the learners
round to compare parts of whole structures, he
resolved to illustrate particular parts by separating
them from the whole, and making a complete series
devoted to each part in turn, showing the modifica-
tions to meet particular needs, and the adaptations
and changes in the same member or organ, by
iv CHARACTER OF HIS SYSTEM 57
development or suppression, as the case might be.
We see the system in the highest degree of
perfection reached at the time of writing in the
Central Hall of the Natural History Museum,
where the range is wider than at the Hunterian
Museum. But the idea of the work at Lincoln's
Inn Fields is equally good ; its execution is in many
cases not inferior, and from the fact of its being a
practical school of anatomy, the collection of pre-
parations of the softer parts, such as muscles, liga-
ments, and interior organs, is naturally much larger.
This, it should be noted, was begun, put in hand,
and rapidly completed more than forty years ago. 1
The first of the series were the bones of " hands "
of every kind, showing the extremities of the front
limbs of all the existing mammalia and of fossil
species then, or from time to time, discovered.
Some of the very first specimens to begin the
series were prepared by Flower himself. But
though he was an elegant worker in this department,
he mainly confined himself to initiating and explain-
ing what he wished done. The practical work was
in the hands of very able expert assistants, whose
skill he thoroughly appreciated. Among these were
Professor Pettigrew, Dr. Murie, Dr. Alban Doran,
and Dr. J. G. Garson. 2
An instance of the patient getting out of minute
details of structure for comparison is to be seen in
1 See pp. 64-65, and 66-68.
2 Now Secretary to the British Association.
58 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
the centre of the south gallery of the central room
of the Museum. Every mammal, from man down-
wards, has three very small bones in the ear, as
delicate as the machinery of a watch, and, like the
machinery of a watch, worked by springs and levers.
As the membranes are very sensitive, the whole
apparatus is perhaps more comparable to the
mechanism of an aneroid barometer. But its
delicacy can be guessed. The three bones are
called the hammer, the anvil, and the stirrup, and in
man the stirrup bone is about the size of the letter
A in the type here used. Sometimes two of these
bones become united. But they are a very in-
teresting and constant feature in the mammalia.
All of these bones are set out in small round boxes
on a black ground, from the ear bones of the whales
to those of the smallest shrew, mice, and jerboas.
The work was done by Dr. Alban Doran.
Passing round these galleries the visitor of
to-day may read the story of Flower's work there
in its sequence both of logic and of time. What he
does not necessarily gather is the novelty and
originality of this at the time when it was done. It
was practically the provision of a new and synoptic
work of graphic reference. The development and
difference of the outer and inner skeletons, the
various joints, and their modifications in the whole
mammalian race, the ligaments which hold up and
tie the parts together, the muscles which work
the joints, the organs of sense which suggest when
iv "WET' PREPARATIONS 59
this shall be done, the brain which receives the
news, the nerves which transmit the message,
all these were selected, graded, and exquisitely
prepared to be set before the new generation
of students. To give them one and all the
means to acquire exact knowledge, by seeing the
train of evolution of every part, Flower applied
the same process of selection to every important
factor in the mammalian frame. No order was
omitted from these synoptic pictures. The whales,
seals, primates, carnivora, deer, horses, antelopes,
rodents, edentata, and others all took their due
place in the line. Contemporaneous discoveries of
new fossil mammals made an interesting addition.
He next turned his attention to what are known
as " wet " preparations, or examples of the soft parts
of biological specimens, involving not only the most
careful and difficult preparation by cutting into
sections, dissecting, colouring, and labelling, but
presenting the additional problem of preservation
from decay. This last is and generally has been
achieved by keeping the objects in clear spirits of
wine in sealed glass vessels. This plan had so far
answered that in the Museum there were many
preparations which had been made and put up by
John Hunter himself. Hunter died in 1793, so
these were more than eighty years old, and still in
good condition. There were also some examples
prepared by Reish in the days of Peter the Great,
dating from 1717. To improve upon methods so
60 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
well understood, which had also stood the test of
time, three possibilities presented themselves. New
ideas might be evolved. New material might be
found, either to keep the preparations from decay
or to replace the glass vessels in which they were
contained. Lastly, a new and suggestive order of
arrangement and classification might be evolved.
The last was part of Flower's general scheme and
principle. For the first he was ready with a plan
for labelling every essential part of the objects in
the liquid in which they were suspended. The use
of new material was also to some extent practised,
and in very ingenious fashion, though it was found
that the old-fashioned spirits of wine were in the
main the most suitable medium for preservation.
The next object after securely preserving the speci-
mens was that the glass and the liquid containing
them should be absolutely colourless, like water.
When improved methods of glass-making rendered
it possible, flat-sided glass cases were used, and the
tops fastened on and hermetically sealed. Even in
this there were occasional difficulties. When india-
rubber, which formed part of the sealing solution,
became scarce and dear, an inferior preparation was
supplied by the trade, the use of which might have
endangered specimens designed to last for ever.
Consequently the Museum authorities began the
practice of purchasing- the ingredients for the sealing
substance themselves, and making it up in their
own laboratory. Labelling the different parts of
INGENIOUS LABELLING 61
the objects in the spirits was a great need, but one
extremely difficult to meet. If any one will con-
sider how, before suspending from a substance like
glass, in a fluid like spirits of wine, an elaborate
section of a part of the respiratory or circulating
system of a large mammal, he would proceed to
affix labels to all the different parts, that these
labels might remain perfectly legible, fixed, and
without corrosion or decay, he will possibly begin
to feel the difficulties of the problem. The matter
was keenly discussed between Flower and his
assistants. The former suggested fastening small
and light numbered labels of enamelled metal to
the different parts. These numbers could then be
made to refer to a book of names corresponding, to
be attached to the outside of the glass case. Mr.
W. Pearson, to whose province these preparations
more particularly fell, suggested that the spirit would
probably not affect printed paper, provided that the
paper and ink were of the very best, as it preserved
such very delicate animal substances. Flower
recommended him to try some for a year in spirits
and to note the result. In doing so he was careful
to select the very best paper and printing, and to
that end cut up some portions of the Zoological
Record, the chief scientific production of the Royal
Zoological Society, which is printed with ink on
paper intended to last. The result was quite
satisfactory. Since then the parts of the prepara-
tions were all labelled and described in ordinary
62 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
print on slips of paper. These improvements in
detail may not seem of importance, in comparison
with that of the principles which they illustrated.
But in the work which Flower had set himself to do,
clearness of detail and setting out was of the essence
of the matter. The objects shown in "wet"
preparations are all suspended in spirit, and not
placed on fixed rods fastened to the top or sides, or
the movements of the fluid might injure them in
time. The means of suspension needed improve-
ment. The rods, or whatever passed through the
portions, must be made of some substance which
the spirit could not affect in any way. At the same
time it was necessary that these rods should be of
the lightest possible material. Flower at first used
thin rods of glass, often not thicker than a knitting
needle. These were passed through the specimen,
and suspended from either end by almost invisible
threads. Later, a neater invention improved upon
this. Instead of glass rods, minute tubes of glass
were used as suspending rods. The threads were
passed through these tubes from end to end, and
the method of suspending the specimens made at
once easy and perfectly safe after the ends of the
little tubes had been rounded in the blowpipe for a
moment to take off the sharp edge which might
have cut the threads.
By these means it was easy to suspend two or
three specimens in the same case, and so to present
the same organ from different points of view, as
iv CASTS OF CRANIA 63
may be seen, for instance, in various cases containing
the brains of monkeys.
What may be termed comparative brain shapes
and measurements were and are matters of the first
importance, both in respect to brain surgery and in
questions as to the relations of size and shape of
brain to intelligence. It was a subject to which
Flower gave particular attention, merging it
gradually in his general interest in the study of
Anthropology or the Natural History of man. One
of the great difficulties in the way of such com-
parison and inference was that the brains of all the
extinct animals had. perished for ever, while those
of many existing creatures seldom came, after their
deaths, into the hands of scientific men. The
skulls, on the other hand, were generally available,
both of living and extinct animals. As the general
form of the brain corresponds pretty closely to the
shape of the portion of the skull which holds it,
Flower had the happy idea of taking casts of this
interior. Such casts were fairly representative of
the brain which once occupied the void, and made
it possible to render the series in a measure complete.
NOTE. In reference to the exposition of Darwin's theories in
the Museum, it should be said that Flower was on terms of
personal friendship with the former, and both he and his wife
from time to time spent the end of the week at Darwin's country
house in Surrey, to their very great interest and pleasure.
CHAPTER V
THE HUNTER1AN MUSEUM Continued
IN estimating the value of Flower's work, begun in
1862 at the Hunterian Museum, it should be re-
membered that comparative anatomy was in a great
measure in its earlier days the basis of the theory of
evolution. That new and leading idea was attracting
the greater part of the speculative interest of the time
when Flower began to illustrate in concrete form
and logical series the facts on which it rests. To
show how quickly he was in the field, it will be
remembered that it was not much more than three
years before his appointment that Charles Darwin
wrote in his introduction to the Origin of Species :
My work is now (1859) nearly finished ; but as it will
take me many more years to complete it, and as my health is
far from strong, I have been urged to publish this abstract. I
have more especially been induced to do this as Mr. Wallace,
who is now studying the natural history of the Malay Archipelago,
has arrived at almost exactly the same general conclusions as I
have on the origin of species. In 1858 he sent me a memoir on
this subject, with a request that I would forward it to Sir Charles
Lyell, who sent it to the Linnaean Society, and it is published in
the third volume of the journal of that Society. Sir C. Lyell
and Dr. Hooker, who both knew of my work, the latter having
6 4
CHAP, v THE BRAINS OF APES 65
read my sketch before, honoured me by thinking it advisable
to publish, with Mr. Wallace's excellent memoir, some brief
extracts from my manuscript.
While the facts and details of the modifications of
animal structure were only known to a few, most
of whom, like Charles Darwin, Owen, Huxley, and
Flower himself, had been intended for the surgical
profession, the ordinary student and the outside
world could form no judgment, and were largely
without material for learning. It was this want
which the system so early begun by Flower in a
great measure supplied.
As an example of the need of illustrating the
principles of the then new theory of evolution
by facts and objects, may be cited Flower's inter-
vention in the celebrated meeting of the British
Association at Cambridge in September 1862.
Before his appointment to the Hunterian Museum
he had made a careful study of the brains of
the Quadrumana, which was communicated to the
Royal Society, and reprinted in a fuller form in
November 1861. These investigations were studied
by Huxley. At the British Association meeting of
1862 Owen read a paper, in which he maintained,
from specimens of the human brain in spirit, and
from a cast of the interior of a gorilla's skull, that in
man the posterior lobes of the brain overlapped the
cerebellum, whereas in the gorilla they did not.
He stated also that these characteristics were con-
stant, as was also the presence of a portion called
F
66 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
the hippocampus minor in the brain of man which
was not found in the brain of the apes. Huxley,
relying largely on Flower's investigation of the
latter, took a different line, and was able to refer
his hearers to his authorities. But it was clearly
a case in which "seeing is believing." It was
at this juncture that "a Mr. Flower, one of the
audience," to quote the Times, " rose up and said,
' I happen to have in my pocket a monkey's brain,'
and produced the object in question."
For twenty- two years his exposition and com-
parison of the modifications of limbs, bones, organs
of sensation, organs of nutrition, and organs of per-
ception went on, the results being set out in the
cases of the Museum. It must not be lost sight of
that this labour was positive, not merely illustrative.
It was the counterpart and completion of the written
work of the first evolutionists. It gave a " corpus "
of the facts, all arranged in due and logical order,
without which written treatises, however cogent and
convincing, could not satisfy practical students eager
to make fresh discoveries, or to combine and use
the new suggestions and new principles for the
benefit of humanity or even the exercise of pure
reason.
It would probably be conceded to-day that this
substantive contribution to the spread of knowledge
and conviction as to the processes of evolution
places Flower in the front rank of those engaged
in the practical advancement of knowledge in his
v METHOD NON-CONTROVERSIAL 67
day. It explains, apart from attraction of character
and sympathy of pursuits, the steady and lasting
regard in which he was held by Sir Charles Lyell,
Charles Darwin, Professor Huxley, Professor
Rolleston, Sir Joseph Hooker, Lord Lister, and
Sir James Paget, and accounts for the conviction
of such bodies as the Trustees of the Royal College
of Surgeons, and later of the Trustees of the British
Museum, that there was a " something " in what he
did which was absolutely the best, and could not be
replaced. The terms in which each of these bodies
expressed themselves when Flower relinquished the
work in which he had been engaged go beyond
anything which even a warm and hearty apprecia-
tion of services rendered usually elicits from the
necessary reserve and caution of responsible control.
The documents will be found in their due place in
these pages.
Another aspect of the work done should not be
omitted in any effort to appreciate now what was
done then. Flower's contribution was not only
positive, but non-controversial. The facts and story
he set out convinced without speaking. The library
of natural volumes grew and grew. Any one could
consult them. But they neither argued nor tried
to prove a point. At the same time they offered
themselves ungrudgingly for cross-examination and
consultation, for genuine inquirers to form their
own conclusions from. This was particularly valu-
able in the earlier days, when attention was some-
68 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER
what diverted from the peaceful and progressive
study of the phenomena which the theory of evolution
illuminated, by the feeling and temporary aberration
of sympathy caused in some minds by an imperfect
appreciation of what it all meant. If minds agitated
by the question, " Is man an ape or an angel,"
chose to engage themselves in the contemplation
of Flower's object lessons in Lincoln's Inn Fields,
they were pleasantly and soothingly convinced that
a good many years would probably elapse before
we had learnt the complete premises necessary for
speculating whether we were either the one or
the other.
It has been mentioned that Flower did not
greatly occupy his time with the articulation or
preparation of the immense number of illustrative
objects at Lincoln's Inn Fields. He mainly con-
fined himself to initiating and explaining what
he wanted done. Sir William always and uni-
formly gave credit to his early assistants in this
department. In an address at South Kensington
in July 1876 he said that "Great advances in the
art of preparing specimens for the purposes of
teaching had been made at the Royal College of
Surgeons by his namesake, Mr. Flower, who had
worked at the Museum for so many years, and was
by far the most skilful skeleton-maker in Europe.
Mr. Flower and himself had invented a method of
articulating skeletons in such a manner that any
single bone, or set of bones, could be removed from
TAXIDERMY 69
a skeleton without disturbing the remainder. He
showed this by removing first the arm and then the
leg of the skeleton of a Pangolin ; restoring these
members, he then took out the vertebral column
entire, in fact he took to pieces and then refitted
the whole skeleton." We are so used to-day to
seeing all the parts of natural objects or of whole tribes
and orders exquisitely arranged and set out, that we
are apt to forget that none of this analytic illustra-
tion of modifications of natural structure or of the
beauties of natural ornament then existed, and that
Flower, without having stated a programme, was
trying to convince the public as well as scientific
men, by very gentle persuasion and practical
example, that a change of teaching was needed and
was possible. That was not the time when half a
million people yearly would have visited a zoological
museum, as happened in the last year of his director-
ship of the Natural History Museum. In the
address mentioned above, he took occasion to say
a word or two on the great importance of such a
matter as the proper stuffing of skins, and especially
of bird's skins, so that they should be lifelike works
of art. He urged that taxidermy, or "stuffing," was
an art which deserved much more attention than it
received. A bird-stuffer then was little better than
a mechanic ; nor could it very well be otherwise
when he was so badly paid, even if he did good
work. He was often horrified to see the collections
of stuffed birds in local museums. He might
7 o SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
possibly have added " in the British Museum " also,
had he thought it desirable ; and he urged that it
would be far better to pay a high price for a few
well-stuffed specimens than to have cabinets full of
monstrosities. It would be better merely to have
the birds' skins in drawers. There was very much
more in this address which was at that time new to
the public ; and it is very interesting to see how
Flower gradually carried most of his points and
made them part of what may now be called general
policy in such matters. Except in the cases of British
birds and their nests, which originated with Dr.
Giinther, improved taxidermy remained to the end
largely an unfulfilled desire as far as the Natural
History Museum was concerned, simply because there
was not enough money forthcoming to pay for these
works of art. But he was able to make a beginning
by employing- some of the few real artists in the
business. When there was a little spare money he
caused a few artistically stuffed birds to be set in
the wall cases, where the series of families and sub-
families are shown. Contemplating some of these,
which looked almost alive among the old specimens
from Bloomsbury, he remarked that he hoped that
they would convert the public by contrast. They
seem to have convinced the Trustees in any case,
for the progress lately made, on the lines which
Flower marked out, and under the care of Dr.
Bowdler Sharpe and Mr. W. Ogilvie Grant, has been
rapid. But this belongs to the period not of con-
v ANIMAL PAINTING 71
version but of realisation. In 1876, at the time of
the address referred to above, even artists seem to
have thought that the impossible stuffed birds and
beasts in museums were lifelike presentations of
reality. Flower took the trouble to go round the
Royal Academy Exhibition to look at the animal
paintings there. Whether he took the idea from
Frank Buckland, or whether Buckland, who attended
and was much delighted with the address referred
to above, took the idea from him and made it
one of the annual features of Land and Water,
does not appear. But what Flower saw so sur-
prised him, that he took his audience into his
confidence, remarking that though he had seen many
beautiful landscapes and other paintings, they con-
tained representations of absolutely impossible birds
and beasts, which never could exist or have existed,
and that these were apparently copied from the
stuffed objects accepted as being representative of
nature. The indifference of the time to this very
obvious side of truth to nature is rather striking,
because Landseer was painting his best at that
period, and also Wolf and Herring, as well as Mr.
Briton Riviere, whose works Flower much admired.
But some other great artists seem to have been
blind to facts of the kind until their attention was
drawn to the defects. Readers who visited the first
and best collection of Millais' works ever brought
together may remember his very early pre-Raphaelite
pictures. In one of these, in which Ariel is
72 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
whispering in Ferdinand's ear, the transcript of
nature is so minute that the holes eaten by cater-
pillars in the chestnut leaves are carefully painted.
Yet in a painting of nearly the same time, " The Pot
of Basil," a badly-stuffed falcon, which looks as if it
had been straightened out in a box and then put on
a stand without adjustment, is perched on the back of
one of the young men's chairs. It is so faithfully
painted that any one might imagine that a stuffed
falcon was part of the dining-room furniture. The
advances made subsequently in what is practically a
new art owe much to his encouragement and later
advocacy of the necessity for true and artistic and
lifelike work of this kind. At the time they were
uttered his remarks also made a considerable
impression. Frank Buckland, in concluding an
account of the address, said :
I should like to make one or two remarks on my own account.
The employment of women is one of the questions of the day,
and I really do not see why some of the lady students at South
Kensington should not study taxidermy as well as painting and
drawing. It is an art which requires great delicacy of touch,
combined with taste, and there is always a sale for well-mounted
objects of natural history, particularly birds. When I was a boy
I remember quite well that it was fashionable for ladies to make
wax flowers. This seems now to have quite died out, and I
should like to see the art of bird-stuffing taken up by some ladies.
The demand for well-set-up specimens is now
very much greater than it was then, and as the skins
are generally obtained from the collectors before
they are stuffed, there is nothing unpleasant in the
THE HUNTERIAN MUSEUM 73
work for ladies to do, and Frank Buckland's
suggestion seems quite as valuable at present as
it was then.
Enough has been said to show that Flower was
essentially a reformer in matters connected with
museums. Mr. J. W. Clark, Registrary of the
University of Cambridge, says :
Of all the changes which Flower introduced in the
Hunterian Museum none was so startling, and none, it may
be added, more admirable, than his abolition of the line of
demarcation hitherto drawn between recent and extinct forms.
Professor Owen had advocated this course in a report ad-
dressed to the Museum Committee, dated 2ist December 1841,
and the Committee had accepted his views in a resolution
dated loth February 1842, but for various reasons the change
had been deferred. In 1883, however, Flower was able to
announce that the old series of " fossils " had been broken
up, each specimen placed among its allies, according to its
zoological affinities, and recorded in its new position in the
catalogue then in progress. Prejudice dies hard, and strati-
graphical considerations have still so strong an influence, that
this is probably the only museum in which so enlightened an
arrangement has been adopted. Here, however, he who runs
may read the important truth that there has been no break in the
continuity of life upon the earth.
CHAPTER VI
FAMILY LIFE IN LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS
THOUGH Flower began his work at the Hunterian
Museum on January i, 1862, it was not till April 15,
the fourth anniversary of their wedding-day, that he,
Mrs. Flower, and the two children began to reside
there, a day of good augury for the twenty -two
" perfectly happy years " which they were destined
to spend there before his appointment to the
British Museum of Natural History brought them
to live in Stanhope Gardens, to be near the scene of
the day's work. There five more children were
born to them, making in all a healthy and happy
family of seven, who grew up together, and were
able to be the companions not only of their mother,
but of their father, to a degree which does not
always occur when the head of the family is deeply
engaged in successful work.
After the lapse of a few years the echoing
chambers and gallery of the Museum were often
converted into a playroom for a family of delighted
children " after office hours." What used to happen
is perhaps best quoted from a letter from Flower's
74
CHAP. V1 CHILDREN IN THE MUSEUM 75
eldest daughter, now Mrs. Shann of Micklegate,
York :-
When we were all small, and very happy and energetic, the
Museum of the College of Surgeons was a most familiar place to
us, as we lived in the house next door, and my father used to
enter it at all hours, and often take us with him. We delighted
in these visits, and had our special favourites among the exhibits.
These selections were of course personal, and not scientific.
The most exciting were the tall skeleton of the Irish giant, and
that of the little Polish dwarf with her tiny shoe and thimble,
which had long been among the treasures of the collection.
Another great object of our admiration was the remains of the
Siberian Mammoth, with its real skin and hair, and the monkeys.
These on certain wet half-holidays we were allowed to have out
to play with instead of a doll, whilst we paid and received visits
from and in our respectives " houses " under the big whale or
the giant sloth, which still are conspicuous and formidable
figures in the collection. I always recall the odour of fresh paint
and varnish (on the cases and stands) and the peculiar smell of
the carefully prepared and whitened bones. Occasionally we
were allowed the excitement of a good run round in the upper
galleries " all among the bottles." One of the strongest desires
of my childhood was to be allowed to spend a night in the
Museum ! This naturally was not gratified. But later I spent
many evenings there aiding my father in the rather laborious
work of measuring the great number of skulls in the Barnard
Davis Anthropological Collection. It was rather weird work,
going into the great empty halls, our footsteps and voices echoing
through the silence, and then sitting with the light of a lamp
falling on rows of skulls which one by one were filled with seed
as the elaborate measurements were taken.
Flower's temperament and constitution were so
equable and so happily related to his mental
characteristics that he was able to enjoy family
life and society to the full while engaged in active
76 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
and steady application to his congenial but engross-
ing work. His house, which, like many others in
Lincoln's Inn Fields, was large and old-fashioned,
after the good and spacious style of 200 years
ago, was next door to the fine building of the Royal
College of Surgeons, of which the Museum is a
part. It had an old-fashioned and handsome stair-
case, carved doors and shutters, and a view looking
right over the beautiful gardens of the " Fields,"
the largest square in London, and containing the
finest and oldest plane trees in the Metropolis. An
opening to the west showed all the beauty of
London sunsets. The lawns and timber of the
gardens made a charming playground for the
children, while their beauty was a constant source
of rest and refreshment merely to look upon.
Lady Flower says :
" It was like living on an island ; the crowded noisy streets
of Holborn and the Strand lay at no great distance north and south
of us, yet the green oasis of the gardens, and the perfect quiet,
especially in the mornings and evenings, were never interfered with.
After the closing of the offices of the solicitors and other men of
business who frequented Lincoln's Inn Fields during working hours,
there were no sounds except the curfew bell of Lincoln's Inn
Chapel, which, though in the centre of the great city, reminded
one of Oxford or Cambridge. We had a most interesting link
with the past of the ' Fields ' in Mr. Balfour, then eighty years
of age, the veteran Secretary of the Royal College of Surgeons.
He remembered the days when Lincoln's Inn Fields were still
one of the residential parts of London. Seven peers had houses
there, and lived in the old-fashioned state of the previous genera-
tion. One of his great admirations as a boy was the sight of the
' coaches ' with four horses standing outside the gates. Later, the
vi WALKS IN LONDON 77
occupiers moved gradually westward, and the fine old stone-pointed
houses with their panelled walls and elaborate ceilings became
the home of the principal physicians and surgeons of the day.
Several of the judges also had houses there. Later still in Mr.
Balfour's lifetime, these too moved westwards, and the houses
were turned into legal offices and lawyers' chambers. Then
when we came to live there, Mr. Balfour having passed his ' four
score' years, ours was the only house in which a family was
resident, and ours almost the only children beside those of some
of the city clergy who played under the big plane trees in the
gardens."
Later in life, when asked by the publisher of
Whos Who to describe his recreations, Flower gave
as answer, "Walking and reading aloud." He
delighted to walk both in London, in the country,
and abroad, with his children as companions. So
long as they remained in the family circle, and
whether as children or when grown up, they found
this one of their greatest enjoyments, as did their
father.
At Lincoln's Inn Fields (Mrs. Shann writes), even through
the busiest times of his London life, it was our father's custom to
take a walk every fine day between leaving the Museum and
dinner, and it was our special delight to accompany him.
Sometimes it was a stroll along the Embankment or round the
gardens of different squares. More often there was some
definite place to go to, perhaps to the fascinating animal shops in
the Seven Dials, or to Covent Garden market Then we would
perhaps turn up some side street or court and enter an old
building, once a fine house in the days of Charles II. or Queen
Anne, with wide staircases and carved doorways, now half
dilapidated, dark, and dusty. But when we had penetrated into
some inner room, we would find some printer or lithographer
at work, as often as not upon the illustrations of a scientific
78 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
treatise or contribution to natural history, which he was either
publishing himself, or which some friend was bringing out, and
which he was supervising or helping in. Among our regular and
much-appreciated expeditions were our visits with him to the
Zoological Gardens. We generally went on a Sunday afternoon,
often walking both there and back, and sometimes going on to
tea with some of his friends near, especially the Henry Pollocks,
or to the Huxleys, where there was generally a pleasant gathering
of friends concerned either in science or art. What interested
my father more particularly at the Gardens were some of the
inmates of the small mammal house, and the ant-eaters and sea-
lions. We were never tired of watching the latter, with their
clever old French keeper Lecompte. Each of us had of course our
special animals which we always wanted to see ; and we never
thought a visit complete unless we were taken "behind the
scenes" of the bison and cattle sheds, where we could peep
into their stalls from the back. Nor did we ever consider that
we had done our duty there socially to our animal friends until
we had been lifted up over the elephant railings to feed them
with the "crunchy" biscuits which the keepers can always
provide in any number from their pockets. What my father
liked best, and would have done much to further were it possible,
was to see every animal as far as possible in its natural state.
He would always stand watching an elephant taking a bath, or
the little beavers on the rare occasions on which they came out
of their house by day and swam about.
The monkey and parrot houses were not so often visited.
But the old reptile house, near the kangaroo sheds, was always a
favourite resort. My sister and I used to delight in having some
of the harmless snakes out, and in being allowed to handle them
and let them twine round our necks, often startling the other
visitors who happened to be near. My father was greatly amused
one day. While we enjoyed ourselves in this manner, an officious
but well-intentioned old gentleman remonstrated with him on
the danger we were running. It was explained to him that these
were harmless, non-poisonous snakes. " Excuse me, sir," was the
reply, " but you can never trust those serpents. You never know
when they might turn venomous ! "
VI
AT THE "ZOO" 79
In later days, when he had been elected President, he always
did his best to encourage the better housing of the animals.
The building of the new lion house and the new reptile house
were both a source of great satisfaction to him. The nocturnal
animals, as every visitor regrets to find, are, as a rule, almost
invisible or very torpid by day. For the benefit of some special
friends who were really interested in the subject he formed a
party to visit the Gardens at night in order to see the nocturnal
creatures in their waking hours. He always thoroughly enjoyed
taking people to the Gardens who showed a real interest in or
appreciation of what they saw. I think amongst the very last
whom he so conducted was the King of Siam, the titular " Lord
of Elephants " in his own country.
Occasionally things from the Gardens found their way to our
house. Once it was an ostrich egg, fresh laid, which was to be
cooked. It took half an hour to boil, and then the shell was
found to be so hard that it had to be cracked open with a
hammer. Finally it was decided that it should be placed on a
salad and sent up in that form. It was considered by us a great
success. A baby tiger which died was also sent to Lincoln's
Inn Fields. It was stuffed and kept as our ne plus ultra nursery
schoolroom toy. Unfortunately a puppy destroyed it one day
when we were out.
I mentioned our visits to the Museum in the evening when
we were children.
I often think of the contrast between our mode of enjoying
ourselves there and the different form of pleasure found by the
guests whom our father and mother used to ask there to the
many parties which they gave in the Museum, when the whole
place was brilliantly lighted up and full of "grown-ups" in
evening costume enjoying the novelty of meeting in such
unusual surroundings. We used to see a good deal of many of
the visitors to our house. I remember the poets Longfellow,
Lowell, and Browning; Dean Stanley, who was one of the
closest friends of the family; Charles Darwin, and such dis-
tinguished foreigners as Virchow, Schliemann, Agassiz, and the
black King George of Bonney.
One day, coming in from our play in the gardens, we found a
8o SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
tall grave visitor there, who not only accepted one of the daisy
chains we had just made, but, to my sister's satisfaction, walked
out with it round his neck. That was Charles Kingsley.
Flower's holidays were always shared with his
family. Sometimes his friends used to ask, rather
dubiously, " Oh, but what did you do ? " He always
found that his amusements and those of the boys
and girls happened to be very much the same.
His second daughter, Vera, now the wife of Colonel
Biddulph, of Rathrobin, King's Co., writes character-
istically of their younger days with her father :
I have just been reading the life of a distinguished bishop,
and am struck by the fact that in it his wife and family are never
mentioned unless it is in case of illness and in letters of
condolence, which gives an unpleasant impression that they were
always ailing ! Now in Sir James Paget's life there are constant
allusions to their happy family circle, which I think gives a much
truer impression certainly in his case of what his daily life was.
We constantly went away with our father and mother for short
visits to the country, and generally for a holiday with them at
Easter. But it was the six weeks in August and September that
we most enjoyed, and most keenly looked forward to. It was
generally on Trinity Sunday that our father, with our mother by
his side, used to unfold some delightful plan for the summer
holiday. Sometimes it was a tour abroad. Sometimes it was
to take a country house in an interesting part of England or
Wales. One summer we spent in the old "Cliff House" at
Felixstowe, before railways made it crowded. Close by were
the red crag cliffs, full of fossils of a comparatively recent
date, in which all kinds of remains of fishes, shells, cetacea,
and other creatures were in perfect preservation, and easily
detached and collected. With him we made a fine collection
of sharks' and other teeth, and crag animals generally. Another
year a house was taken near Dartmoor. There we had the whole
VI
HOLIDAY TIME 81
moor next the park to roam over, with its tors and bogs to
examine, and stones and plants to hear about. On the other
side was Plymouth. There the naval connection of our mother's
family came in to make things more delightful. They could
take us over their own ships, or round the dockyard and up the
Sound.
One summer we rented a house at Hornchurch, Essex, owned
by Mr. Fry, the youngest surviving son of Mrs. Elizabeth Fry.
Most of the owners of the houses which we rented became lifelong
friends later. My father had the gift, not common to every one,
of quickly getting into a " holiday humour " ; he was soon in the
best of spirits, composing nonsense rhymes about our adventures
on our journey, and illustrating these by pictures of the kind we
appreciated. Three summers we spent in Holland, one in the
region of extinct volcanoes on the Rhine. Several were spent
in Switzerland, one divided between Normandy and Brittany,
another in the Engadine. When we had grown old enough we
explored with him the whole neighbourhood on foot, sometimes
prolonging these excursions for three or four days. During these
walks he told us and showed us all the interesting points which
occurred to him as to the natural history and geology of the
delightful places we walked through. He was very well up in
the political history too, which we picked up from him in this
pleasant and easy way. It is infinitely easier to remember what
you have heard among things which you see, than to retain what
has only been read in a book. It has always been a matter of
surprise to me how he managed to have most of the internal
history of some small German or Italian state at his finger ends,
as if political, not natural history, were the subject of his
profession.
When the journeys were too far for the children,
they were welcome guests with both the grand-
parents in Warwickshire and Buckinghamshire,
whilst Flower and his wife travelled together
in Germany and Italy, delighting in all the
interests of Venice, Florence, and Rome. But
G
82 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
their most important journey was in 1873, when
hard work had begun to tell so seriously on
Flower's health that his friends were alarmed,
and strongly urged a period of rest in a warm
climate. The Council of the College of Surgeons
met, and unanimously voted him six months' leave
of absence. Sir James Paget and Professor Huxley
warmly advocated Egypt as far superior in climate,
as also in interest, to the Riviera or Algiers. The
chief anxiety was then about the children, soon
solved by Flower's father and mother undertaking
the care of the elder ones, whilst his brother,
Charles Edward Flower, and his wife kindly
invited the younger ones to their charming house
by the river Avon.
" Thus Flower and his wife," says one who has
kindly contributed a reminiscence of this time,
"started in November 1873 across Italy, and taking
the P. & O. steamer at Venice for Alexandria,
remained five months in Egypt, going up the Nile
in the sailing dahabeeah of kind friends as far as
the First Cataract, and returning home by the long
sea-route in May 1874. He wrote some valuable
notes on the climate at the time, and enjoyed
drawing birds and animals in the water-colour land-
scapes taken by his wife, it giving him positive
delight to see the cranes, flamingoes, pelicans,
spoonbills, hoopoos, and other birds enjoying
wild life, which he had hitherto only known in
Zoological Gardens and Museums.
VI
EGYPT 83
"Altogether they found the climate most bene-
ficial for health, and that the art and history of
ancient Egypt, as well as its present beauty,
with the glory of its sky, enriched their whole future
lives."
-After their return from Egypt an innovation
was made at the Museum by inviting ladies as
well as gentlemen to evening parties held there by
Professor and Mrs. Flower.
CHAPTER VII
CHARACTER AND FRIENDSHIPS
A STRONG friendship with Dean Stanley played an
important part in the lives of both Sir William and
his wife.
The friendship began spontaneously, yet there
was, as is often the case, a kind of common link,
which possibly aided the first acquaintance inci-
dentally. Captain Owen Stanley, a brother of
Arthur Stanley's, had been commander of H.M.S.
Rattlesnake, on board which Huxley sailed on the
four years' surveying cruise round the world during
which Owen Stanley died. "The fact that Huxley
had sailed under Captain Owen Stanley brought
him into very friendly communication with the
Captain's brother, the late Dean of Westminster,"
Flower wrote in some reminiscences of Professor
Huxley " the Dean as many of us liked to, and
still do call him, just as the first Duke of Wellington
was always called the Duke." Notwithstanding the
great differences of their interests and pursuits, they
remained in the closest intimacy, Stanley's marriage
only increasing the friendship. In 1863 he married
8 4
CH.VH PROFESSOR HUXLEY 85
Lady Augusta Bruce, fifth daughter of the Earl of
Elgin (who had enriched the British Museum with
the Greek sculpture popularly known as the
"Elgin Marbles"). Lady Flower writes : "She
had a charming personality and was highly accom-
plished ; brought up in Court, she had the most
perfect manners, but in her case they were only the
outward sign of the warm heart and high character
within. The chosen friend of Queen Victoria and
beloved by the Royal Family, Lady Augusta yet
devoted herself to the poorest of the poor in West-
minster, and entered heart and soul into her husband's
arduous life, showing a fine courage in supporting
him when his great liberality of thought brought
fierce attacks on him from those who could not
understand that the width of his views was due,
not to indifference to church tenets, but to depth of
feeling and the endeavour to lead men's thoughts
back to the simpler Christianity of the Apostolic age."
Flower's first acquaintance with Huxley was not
through the Stanleys, but arose from his early
friendship with Professor George Busk, who, after
being Surgeon to the Seamen's Hospital on the
Dreadnought, settled in Harley Street. Busk had
been the first person to encourage Huxley when he
returned from his Rattlesnake cruise. He was a
man of distinction in his profession, and became
President of the Royal College of Surgeons, but
his principal pleasure was in purely scientific
pursuits, and he, jointly with Huxley, translated
86 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
and edited Kolliker's Manual of Human Histology.
While Huxley knew and was fast becoming a warm
friend of Flower's, and also knew the Dean, the
first notice of the latter in connection with Flower
is an entry in Lady then Mrs. Flower's diary,
that they " attended the service in Whitehall
Chapel, and heard Dr. Stanley preach." " Arthur
Penrhyn Stanley, when Dean of Westminster,
became later our greatest friend," Lady Flower
writes.
My husband was impressed by Stanley's views and sympathies >
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 //<a/-remains possibly fucoid in
red oxide of iron, beautifully contrasting with the pure white
silicious grains of the rock.
The fossil form consists of small tubular branches, with berries
or seed-vessels at frequent intervals, seeming to me to indicate
higher vegetable forms than fucoids. The seed-vessels are on
small stalks. I don't think I can be mistaken, for under a
pocket-lens I can see vascular structure on the walls of the tubes,
where they are broken so as to show the inside.
Will you send me some small example of the " Fucoid Bed"
of the Sutherland quartzites for comparison. 1 These I have never
seen, but I know the worm-casting fossils of Sutherland quartzite
well. The " Fucoid Bed " I have never met with, and don't
know its appearance.
THE DUKE OF ARGYLL TO PROFESSOR FLOWER
INVERARAY, ARGYLLSHIRE,
September 28, 1 888.
I have had a careful examination of the rock whence I got
the first specimen of plant-remains two days ago. The result
is of great interest. The plants are only well seen on a few
weathered surfaces where structure comes out clearly. But the
due, once given, leads farther. We recognise the ferruginous
spots which mark the spore-cases, or capsules, all through the
quartzite bed, and passing from the top of it into pure mica
schists, where they are seen in quantity, spotting the rock with
innumerable spots of red oxide of iron.
1 (We have no examples. W. H.F. )
v.ii ELECTRIC ORGANS OF FISH 121
This interpretation will, I suspect, hold good in many localities
where the origin of such spots was unknown. I think the plant
was a moss. But if so, very different from any existing moss, so
far as I know. The flower, or what stands in the place of a
flower, a sort of leafy or fibrous capping to the spore-vessel, is
seen in only one specimen I have yet found. But the stalks,
or branching stems, are all apparently tubular. In some cases
where the tube has been opened by the rupture of the upper
side, the internal wall exhibits a striated surface like a dried
vascular tissue. I am setting about making a regular collection.
Tell Etteridge. Would he like to come down to see them ?
I should be delighted to see him. But I leave this to-morrow
for a few days, returning here on Wednesday next. If he could
come down to Greenock by the night train from London on
Tuesday, he could catch the steamer Lord of the Isles, by
which I return myself. It is the last day of that boat for the
season, and takes us here at 2 P.M.
This discovery is an important one. It bears on a peculiar
form of primeval vegetable life and on the phenomena of meta-
morphism, which are so obscure.
PROFESSOR FLOWER TO THE DUKE OF ARGYLL
i
BRITISH MUSEUM (NATURAL HISTORY),
CROMWELL ROAD, LONDON, S.W.,
February 2, 1893.
In the Museum of the College of Surgeons is a beautiful set
of models in wax of the electric organs of the torpedo, which
were made by order of one of the Grand Dukes of Tuscany for
Professor Owen while he was Conservator of the Museum, being,
I believe, exact copies of those you saw at Florence. I do not
know whether you have yet received Professor Ewart's memoir
on the electric organs of the skates ? It is just published in the
Philosophical Transactions.
In Nature of January 19 there is an article by Gustav
Fritsch of Berlin on the electric organs of various fishes. These
all tend to show that these organs are modifications of some
other structures which existed previously in the animal, but how
122 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP, vm
the modification commenced is as difficult as ever to under-
stand.
Romanes is still in Madeira. He is not able to do any work,
but a letter from his wife this morning to mine says that he is
greatly improving in health.
I hope that you read some account of the meeting on the
2ist for the Owen Memorial. It was generally considered very
successful ; the best report was in last week's Nature.
CHAPTER IX
APPOINTMENT TO THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM
AT the close of the year 1883 Sir Richard Owen,
being then in his eightieth year, placed his resigna-
tion of the post of Superintendent of the Zoological
Departments in the hands of the Trustees of the
British Museum, and retired to the pretty cottage
near the Sheen Lodge in Richmond Park, lent
him by the late Queen, where for nine years more
he continued to enjoy the calm and beauty of the
congenial surroundings of his new home, until he
died, literally of old age, on December 18, 1892.
The appointment of his successor lay, according
to statute, not with the general body of the Trustees
of the British Museum, but with three principal
members of that eminent body, the Archbishop of
Canterbury, the Lord Chancellor, and the Speaker
of the House of Commons. Among the other
Trustees of the institution were the King, who
as Prince of Wales took a keen interest in the
welfare of the great national institution in the
control of which he was associated, the Duke of
Argyll, and Lord Walsingham. The three chief
123
124 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
Trustees were Archbishop Benson, Lord Selborne
(Lord Chancellor), and the Speaker of the House
of Commons, now Lord Peel.
There seems to have been little hesitation as to
their choice, though Sir Edward Bond 1 seems to have
entertained some doubt as to whether Flower wished
to leave the Hunterian Museum, and he was right,
for Flower was much attached to it and to his home
in Lincoln's Inn Fields ; he also felt leaving his
great friend Sir James Paget, who urged him to
remain, even offering to get the salary increased if
he would. Flower felt that the British Museum
had the strongest claims. From his boyhood he had
an enthusiasm for this national institution, so that
when the opportunity came to serve it he had no
hesitation in applying for the post. 2 While expert
opinion, including that of Sir E. Bond and of Huxley,
was earnestly in Flower's favour, the prospects of his
appointment soon took almost the form of certainty.
On December 3, 1883, Huxley wrote:
1 The Chief Librarian of the British Museum.
2 Among "things not generally known" is the following. In 1866
twenty-five of the most distinguished representatives of all branches of
science in London presented a memorial to the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
praying that " the administration of the Natural History Museum should be
separated from that of the Library and Art Collections of the British Museum,
and placed under one officer, who should be immediately responsible to one
of the Queen's ministers." In other words, they desired to terminate the con-
trol of the Trustees of the British Museum. Among the memorialists were
George Bentham, William Carpenter, Professor Huxley, Sir Joseph Hooker,
Lord Lilford, Professor Alfred Newton, Professor Andrew Ramsay, Mr. Alfred
Wallace, Lord Howard de Walden, and Canon Tristram. Flower, when
invited to sign this document, declined. Eighteen years later he became the
servant of the Trustees.
APPOINTED DIRECTOR 125
" Privatissime."
MY DEAR FLOWER I was very glad to get your letter, and
now see my way more clearly.
I have just come from a meeting of the Finance Committee
of the British Museum, and can report that affairs are marching.
Owen has readily assented to the proposal of the Trustees, and
the vacancy will soon be declared.
Next I broached the question of the house for the Superin-
tendent, and this was so well received that I have no doubt that
the standing committee to whom we report will urge strongly on
the Treasury the propriety of giving one that is, of building one.
They have already fought the battle for the keepers, and the
Treasury obstinately refused ; but I do not despair on that ground.
It would be everything to get Childers' mind properly impressed
on this subject, but unfortunately I have never met him, though
I believe I know every other member of the Government.
Unfortunately I do not drink beer, or I would go so far as to
bet you a pint that you are in office in three months.
The formal appointment as Director was not
sanctioned until the close of June 1884, some six
months after Huxley wrote ; but he did not " speak
without the book," to quote one of his own phrases,
as Flower actually began his work at the Natural
History Museum on March 14, 1884.
Leave for the change of title from Superintendent
to Director was obtained from the Trustees at a
meeting in March. But Treasury sanction had to
be obtained not only for this, but for the increase of
the stipend from ^800 to ^1400, at which it was
ultimately fixed. It may be added that Sir Edward
Bond was among the first to urge that the post
should be properly paid, though a less zealous or
less generous nature might have feared that the
126 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
post might be in some measure a rival to his
own.
The following letter from Sir Edward, then Chief
Librarian of the British Museum, a post which
was and is equivalent to that of head of the great
national institution, was received on June 22, 1884 :
DEAR PROFESSOR FLOWER I have the great pleasure of
reporting that I obtained the Archbishop's signature to your
appointment as Superintendent of the Natural History Museum
this afternoon, and that I expect to have the addition of the
Chancellor's name to-morrow. The appointment cannot be
acted upon until Treasury sanction has been received for its
being made, under Clause VII. of the Order of Council providing
for the case, and I hope to obtain on Saturday morning instruc-
tions from the Trustees to apply for it.
I need hardly add that the completion of the appointment
will be a matter of the utmost gratification to me personally, and
I fully believe to all who take interest in the Museum. Very
truly yours, EDW. A. BOND.
The proposal that the Director should have a
house attached to the Museum was partly due to
the advantage which every one had noted in the fact
of Flower's residence next door to his work in
Lincoln's Inn Fields. He was able to step into the
Museum at all hours, and often almost lived there.
The idea was placed before the Government not by
Mr. Childers but by Lord Sherbrooke, but was
negatived by Mr. Gladstone, who, in an elaborate
and curiously didactic letter, dated from his own
official residence in Downing Street, proved con-
vincingly the iniquity of granting official residences
ix THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM 127
in general, and of attaching them to Museums in
particular.
The post to which Flower was now appointed
was one for which, both by instinct and training,
he seems to have been intended by nature.
While the Hunterian Museum and the work
there had primary and practical reference to man, to
the study of whose form and the well-being of
whose body it was destined by express intention to
contribute, the scope of the Zoological Department
of the British Museum was as wide as life itself.
Neither was it limited to the collection and setting
out of the forms of life of to-day or of the laws to
which they conform, whether of plants or animals.
The life of forgotten worlds and of extinct forms
was also included, while the inorganic elements of
the world's structure were represented in the
portions devoted to mineralogy, which have attained
to such remarkable development under the direction
of the present Keeper of Mineralogy, Mr. L.
Fletcher, F.R.S.
Writing to the Duke of Argyll just after
his appointment on January 28, 1884, Flower
says :
I beg to thank you for your kind letter about the British
Museum appointment. I shall be very sorry to leave this Museum
(the Hunterian) where I have worked for twenty-two years, but
the other is a very important post, as much of the position and
progress of Natural History in this country may depend upon
the good arrangement of that grand collection. It is therefore
a great responsibility. It is, however, most gratifying to me to
128 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
find that the appointment has been received with so much
approbation by all who are interested in the subject.
The general approval to which he refers probably
relates to the way in which his appointment was
received by the public, which found unmistakable
expression in the press. It was confidently stated
that " no more judicious choice could have been
made, nor one more popular with the public and
men of science. Professor Flower has for over
twenty years devoted himself to the promotion and
extension of the unrivalled anatomical collection in
Lincoln's Inn Fields, and this by his efforts has
reached a condition of almost perfect efficiency.
There is no doubt that now, when he has accepted
the office at South Kensington, where his intellect
will have much larger scope for exercise, he will do
much to make the Department what it ought to be,
the most renowned and popular in the world."
The Times concluded its leading article on the
appointment by expressing an opinion that Flower
would not find his Directorship " altogether a bed
of roses." Such a hint was clearly not given
without cause. The character and courtesy which
at once disarmed opposition and replaced misgivings
with confidence enabled Flower to dispel any feelings
which might have conduced to bring about such a
position as the Times feared might arise. But the
previous history of the creation and working of the
Zoological Department of the British Museum
explains in a measure the words of the article.
ix SIR RICHARD OWEN 129
The collections of Natural History of the British
Museum had been kept at Bloomsbury. Neither
the specimens nor the accommodation for them were
at all worthy of the National Museum. But the
subject of Natural History had not, until the second
quarter of the last century, taken the place either
in the esteem of men of science or in the interest
of the public which it was destined to occupy.
"A scientific naturalist who lived in England in the
second quarter of the last century may be accounted
a fortunate man," says Mr. J. Willis Clark, an old
and valued friend of Flower's, in his chapter on
Richard Owen included in his recollections of Old
Friends at Cambridge and Elsewhere. "On the
one hand was the vast field of the universe, un-
divided, unallotted ; on the other a public eager for
instruction."
The man who came first upon the scene, and had
the good fortune to be ready just when he was
wanted, was Richard Owen. It is somewhat the
fashion to disregard what Owen did in the light of
what he did not do, and to allow his failure to
appreciate the value of Darwin's discovery of the
principles of evolution, and his intense absorption in
his own personal position in the estimation of a
public to which he had long been accustomed to act
as the leading and almost the sole exponent of
zoology, to obscure one of his great services to the
practical promotion of that study.
It has been said that appreciation is one of the
K
130 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
greatest marks of intellect. In the case in question
the appreciation of Owen, which first put him in a
position to make his practical suggestions to those
in authority, came from Lord Macaulay. In one of
his letters he says, " I am extremely anxious that
something should be done for Owen. I hardly
know him to speak to. His pursuits are not mine,
but his fame is spread over Europe. He is an
honour to our country, and it is painful to me to
think that a man of his merit should be approaching
old age amid anxieties and distresses." The result
was that Owen was appointed to a new post, created
for him, in the British Museum at Bloomsbury.
" He was to stand towards the collection of Natural
History in the same relation that the librarian did
towards the books and antiquities, and to be directly
responsible, as he was, to the Trustees."
The appointment was made in 1856.
Unfortunately, while what was desirable was
quite clearly present to those who made the appoint-
ment, which gave Owen a salary of ^800 a year,
they entirely forgot one of the important details
which alone could have ensured success. The new
officer was given no control over his subordinate
officers. They were practically independent, and
desired to remain so. Owen, who had always been
accustomed to work for his own hand with con-
spicuous success, was not equipped with the power
necessary to deal with a situation which would have
been difficult for any one to cope with. He there-
ix OWEN'S PROPOSAL 131
fore accepted the position. So far as his place as
Superintendent went his influence did not greatly
alter the management within the Museum. But his
position gave him the power of addressing the
Trustees, and through them the Government.
He used this to bring about the separation of the
Natural History Museum from the collections at
Bloomsbury, and its establishment on its present
basis at South Kensington. Two years before
Owen's appointment, Dr. Gray, Keeper of Zoology,
had requested that more accommodation should be
given for his department, which resulted in a small
extension of the galleries. In 1859 Owen, after care-
fully studying the subject, laid before the Trustees
all the facts as to the overcrowding, the numbers of
objects stowed away out of sight, and the probable
rate at which these would increase, and stated that
a space of ten acres ought to be acquired at once.
More than this, he drew up a plan, which he sent
in with the report, which showed how carefully he
had thought out the form which the building of a
Zoological Museum should take. His plan was
comprehensive and logical, and far better than that
devised by the architect later when effect was being
given to his suggestions, of which only one, the
Central Hall, is retained.
Owen's idea was to have a central hall, to contain
what he termed an Index Museum, to show the
type characters of the principal groups of animals.
This Central Hall did find expression in the
132 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
building ultimately raised, though Sir William
Flower used it not to show types of animals, but
to illustrate the working of the leading laws of
evolution, a change from the concrete to the abstract,
and from mere facts to the expression of law in
facts, which must be admitted to mark a higher
ideal. But to return to Owen's conception of what
the Museum should have been. Besides the hall,
he proposed that it should contain a lecture
theatre, to teach orally, a large gallery for physical
ethnology, by which he meant a complete series of
coloured casts of all races of men an idea which
suggests that Owen would like to have had them
stuffed if it were permissible, and another large
gallery for the whales and great Cetacea, which, as
he justly said, could only be exhibited in a National
Museum on account of their size.
But his most advanced proposal was one for
showing the series of nature complete in time by
abolishing the artificial distinction between living
and extinct animals. The history and forms of
neither can logically be studied apart. The separa-
tion into zoology and palaeontology is purelyarbitrary.
Owen had once proposed that the series should be
completely intermixed. 1 His modified suggestion,
due probably to the separation of the staff into
departments, was to make the galleries in which
the specimens were exhibited adjacent or continuous.
The whole conception was novel and striking.
1 See page 73.
ix A NEW SITE VOTED 133
Scientific men recognised its value. But at first it
incurred criticism from most, and by some it was
ridiculed. It was too far in advance of the time.
Mr. Gregory, M.P. for Galway, got it referred to a
select committee, when the proposal was debated
in the House of Commons, regretting in reference
to its author, "that a man whose name stood so
high should connect himself with so foolish, crazy,
and extravagant a scheme."
In Flower's memoir of Sir Richard Owen,
published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, he
notes that the division of the Museum establishment
into four distinct departments, each under its own
head, left the Superintendent practically powerless.
Besides this, Owen was in his seventy-seventh year
when the Museum was opened to the public.
Owen's first idea had been that the land should
be purchased near the British Museum in Blooms-
bury. Later, convinced in part by the suggestions
of others, he steadily advocated its removal to a
fresh and distant site. Mr. Gladstone, then Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer, gave the scheme his hearty
support. On May 12, 1862, he moved for leave to
bring in a bill to effect the change. Unfortunately
Mr. Disraeli saw in opposition to it a political move
which might embarrass the other side, and obtained
an adjournment of the proposal. But in 1863
Parliament voted the purchase of five acres in
South Kensington, an area which Owen induced
the Government to increase to eight acres. But
i 3 4 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
besides the "teaching" or graphic exhibition he
had also to consider the accumulation and arrange-
ment of that enormous stock of reference specimens
which are needed, not to teach the public, but for
scientific ornithologists, entomologists, or other
naturalists to study. The collections were very
large and important, for Owen, while not trying to
enforce his own ideas on those in control of the
departments and sections as to arrangement, steadily
aided and encouraged acquisitions by and from all
sources which he could reach or influence. In
addition to the Zoological departments, there were
also housed in South Kensington the mineralogical,
botanical, and geological collections from the British
Museum. Among these were and are many separate
collections made by men of mark. It may be
remembered that when Darwin came back from his
voyage on the Beagle he found that though others
did not care for his collection, Owen and Lyell gave
him every encouragement. Among the Zoological
collections transferred to South Kensington were
the magnificent series of birds' skins brought from
the Malay Archipelago by Wallace after his
sojourn there, with the accounts of which he has
delighted untold numbers of readers. Gould's
humming birds are still one of the attractions of
the galleries. In the Botanical department was the
herbarium of Sir Hans Sloane, containing 8000
specimens, the great botanical collection of Sir Joseph
Banks, and William Wilson's herbarium of British
THE MUSEUM OPENED 135
and foreign specimens, containing the identical
plants from which the original descriptions made by
Linnaeus, Amblett, Jagny, Brown, and Bentham
were written. The description of the matter and
material taken from Bloomsbury to South Ken-
sington belongs rather to the history of the Museum
than to that of Sir William Flower. But the
immense task of transfer and re-arrangement was
accomplished by the able staff of the Museum in far
less time than might have been anticipated.
It was not until the spring of 1881 that the
collections were so far arranged that the public were
admitted to the building ; and Owen himself resigned
the post of Superintendent two years later. But
with all its imperfections in detail, which are due to
others, and with the absence of the lecture theatre
and whale gallery, the Natural History Museum
stands as a monument to Owen's foresight, and as a
proof of the confidence placed in him by the
practical minds of the Government of the day. 1
1 The Cetacean Gallery was added later owing to Sir W. Flower's repre-
sentations, though not on the scale which he or Owen desired.
CHAPTER X
THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM continued
FLOWER began his duties at the Natural History
Department of the British Museum in March 1884
as " Superintendent," but the change of title to that
of Director was made shortly afterwards, on March
14. The Council of the Royal College of Surgeons
had granted him the use of the house in Lincoln's
Inn Fields until the following midsummer; and it
was not until after the autumn holiday, which was
spent in Scotland, that the Flowers occupied their
new house at 26 Stanhope Gardens.
His official letter to the Council of the Royal
College of Surgeons resigning his appointment as
Conservator was read at a meeting on March 13,
1884. It was moved by Sir James Paget, seconded
by Mr. Erichsen, and resolved unanimously that
The Council hereby desire to express to Mr. William Henry
Flower their deep regret at his resignation of the office of
Conservator of the Museum of the College.
That they thank him for the admirable care, judgment, and
zeal with which for twenty-two years he has fulfilled the various
and responsible duties of that office. That they are glad to
acknowledge that the great increase of the Museum during those
136
CH. x RESOLUTION BY COUNCIL R.C.S. 137
years has been very largely due to his exertions, and to the
influence which he has exercised, not only on all who have
worked with him, but amongst all who have been desirous to
promote the progress of anatomical science.
That they know that, whilst he has increased the value and
usefulness of the Museum by enlarging it, by preserving it in perfect
order, and by facilitating the study of its contents, he has also
maintained the scientific repute of the College by the numerous
works which have gained for him a distinguished place among
the naturalists and biologists of the present time.
And that in thus placing on record their high appreciation of
the services of Mr. Flower, the Council feel sure that they are
expressing the opinion of all the Fellows and Members of the
College, and that they will all unite with them in wishing him
complete success and happiness in the important office to which
he has been elected.
The new and greatly enlarged sphere opened to
him by his acceptance of the Directorship of the
Natural History Museum made an instant demand
upon his thought and energy along so broad a front,
that the difficulty of ever knowing where to begin
might well have daunted him. By the change of
title from Superintendent to Director, and by the
enhancement of the salary to ^1400 a year, his
position was made vastly stronger than was that of
Owen. But he had to rely on his own good sense
and tact, and upon the ability and willingness of the
keepers of the various departments to recognise the
merits of any measures proposed by him to ensure
their fulfilment. He was fortunate both in his
colleagues and in his own natural gifts.
Indeed, the description of an ideal librarian, that
he "should possess the temper of a saint and the
138 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
manners of an ambassador," was eminently true of
Flower.
One of his most distinguished colleagues, Mr. G.
A. Boulenger, F.R.S., says:
His consideration for others and appreciation of their work
and plans for work were almost superhuman. He gave all his
time in the Museum to the furtherance of its daily activities.
He was always accessible. Every one could walk in to see him,
or could count upon having " next turn " if he were engaged ;
and though his purely administrative duties took up a great part
of every day, with the correspondence, interviews, and receptions
which it entailed, he found time to carry on a great and original
series of expositions of natural laws and facts, all of which he
planned and superintended, and some of which was the work of
his own hands. 1
The work by which, apart from his administrative
success, he will be always known, was the arrange-
ment of the cases which now stand in the Great
1 Lady Flower writes : " The British Museum had been of such paramount
interest to my husband since he was a boy, that when actually appointed to
this important post in it, he began his work with an enthusiasm that could
not but affect others, and this enthusiasm was continued to the end. The
advantage to him of his position as Chief seemed that he could work in
the Museum longer than any one else. Often would he remain there after it
was closed to the public, and after the staff and attendants had gone, in order
to secure some uninterrupted hours for work, and then quietly let himself out
with his master-key. In regard to zeal in performing routine work he
quoted from an old book, ' "God is close to us in our daily life," and in the
familiar homely places, the unremitting attention to simple and high senti-
ments in obscure duties that is the maxim for us. I settled myself ever
firmer in the creed that we should not postpone and refer and wish, but do
broad justice where we are, accepting our actual companions and circum-
stances.' And in this spirit he worked, most anxious that all about him
should have full justice. Few things distressed him more than disagreements ;
he always endeavoured to ' throw oil on the troubled waters,' and generally
succeeded through the calmness of his own spirit. He knew nothing of
professional jealousies, or what so often disturbs the minds of discoverers
as to priority of discovery."
x PROPOSAL FOR CENTRAL HALL 139
Hall, the one feature in the building which survived
from among the proposals of Owen. In it he, as
we have said before, intended to place his " Index
Museum." Flower at once determined to use it for
a different purpose from that of the other parts of
the building. But while so far accepting Owen's
idea, he entirely changed the concept.
In his report to the Trustees, dated January i,
1885, after referring to the progress made in the
departments of Geology, Botany, and Mineralogy,
in which the arrangement after the transfer from
Bloomsbury was almost complete, and to the Zoo-
logical Department, the collections in which, being
the last to be moved from Bloomsbury, were in a
less forward state, Flower wrote :
Of the Central Hall, which is more especially under the charge
of the Director (himself), more must be said. In the original
plan of the Museum it was designed for the purpose of exhibiting
a collection of specimens . . . which has been at various times
styled an " index " collection and a " type " collection. Owing
to the urgent requirements of other departments, little progress
has been made in collecting and arranging specimens for this
collection. A definite commencement has, however, now been
made upon a systematic plan, the intention of which is to illustrate
the leading points in the structure of each large group (such as
those to which the term " class " is erroneously applied) by care-
fully selected and prepared specimens, accompanied by explana-
tory descriptions pointing out the typical form, with the most
important deviations from it, and the terms by which these are
known in current zoological literature.
The illustrations to such a series will be mostly of a different
nature from those at present in the other parts of the Museum,
as they will not merely be specimens but parts, the corresponding
140 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
organs of different animals being brought into juxtaposition for
comparison in a way which cannot be effected in the galleries,
where the specimens are necessarily arranged in systematic
zoological or botanical order.
In such a series the illustrations will naturally be derived
equally from living and extinct forms.
With regard to botany it is obvious that such an introductory
treatment will be equally applicable and instructive, as in zoology,
and should be in sequence with it in any general exposition of
the leading modifications of the organic world.
The Keeper of Mineralogy 1 has already formed an admirably
arranged collection introductory to the study of his departments,
which, allowing for the great difference in the nature of the
subjects, gives a good idea of what an introductory collection to
the other departments may be. It is, however, arranged, not in
the Central Hall, but in a part of the gallery devoted to minerals.
The far superior illustrations of the specimens in their present
position to that which they would occupy in the bays of the
Central Hall, a matter which is of the utmost importance in the
case of minerals, is a strong reason against any disturbance of
the present arrangement.
Flower's idea was to illustrate natural laws and
the facts of evolution on the lines which he had
originated in Lincoln's Inn Fields, the adaptations
of organs to function in all classes of animals, and
to deal with every modification of form in logical
series. He added to this later some striking
examples of the leading facts of variation under
domestication, protective coloration and form, and
of the structural laws of plants.
Classification was also illustrated, and any striking
1 Mr. L. Fletcher, F.R.S. Visitors to the Museum will find this
exquisitely illustrated concept of the underlying order in the mineral world
developed and extended in the Mineralogical Gallery, where the beauty to be
found in natural mineral products is also a most striking feature.
PROGRESS IN CENTRAL HALL 141
if simple fact, if not generally known, was never
omitted, as, for instance, by raising the feathers of
the head to show that a bird has an external ear.
After the conception came the enormous prac-
tical difficulty of carrying it out, by obtaining
the specimens, of selection, of continuity, and of
setting the objects out in the best way, that the
whole might be clear and unmistakable and tell
its own story. This was his personal occupation
for years. The results compel the admiration of
every foreign zoologist who visits the Museum,
and delight hundreds of thousands of his fellow-
countrymen and country-women of all ages annually.
They have been copied all over the world, and are
still unequalled.
It should be mentioned that he himself designed
the cases for the bays in the Great Hall. By 1886
he was able to report that the first bay, containing
the series showing the osteology and dentition of
the Mammalia, was practically complete. In the
second bay the series showing the modifications of
the outer covering, such as skin, hair, horns like
those of the rhinoceros, nails, claws, and horny plates
as in the armadillos, was also completed. It will be
noticed that his promise to illustrate the character-
istics of "classes" was faithfully observed. The
two first bays gave the complete story of the inner
and outer skeleton of the Class " Mammals," with
their teeth, and showed also their order of classi-
fication. The next bay was devoted to the Class
142 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER
" Aves " or birds, the next to the Class " Fish," and
the next to the Class " Reptiles."
By 1886 the cases showing the beaks, feathers,
tails, and limbs of birds was nearly finished, and the
bay devoted to fish was begun. On the opposite
side of the hall a commencement was made of the
exhibition of the morphological characters of the
great groups of the vegetable kingdom.
In 1887 it was noted that the collections of
zoology had increased in four years by 270,000
specimens. In that year the splendid collection
of the metamorphosis of the British Lepidoptera
formed by Lord Walsingham was presented by
him to the Museum. The series introductory
to the Mammalia in the Great Hall was increased
by a complete set of the antlers of a stag, showing
the horns which it had shed every year of its life ;
it was presented by Mr. W. H. St. Quintin. In
the Bird series the anatomy of birds and the
leading characteristics of the Class " Aves " were
begun. In their completed form they occupy one
bay of the hall, and are perhaps as good an example
as could be found of Flower's " selective " methods
of graphic exhibition. The problem was to give a
connected idea of the general meaning of the word
" bird," and of the kinds of birds and the organs of
birds, so that a person, even coming from another
planet, might learn as much about them as possible
in a small space and in a short time.
At the back of the bay, and in the centre, is a
CASE ILLUSTRATING "BIRDS" 143
large label " AVES." Below this are three of the
most typical yet most dissimilar birds. An enormous
albatross, typical of flight, spreads its wings from
side to side of the bay. An apteryx, flightless, and
adapted only for running on the ground, stands on
one side ; and a penguin, adapted only for swimming
with legs and wings mainly living in the water
illustrates the other extreme. In a case on the left
are the skeletons and parts of skeletons of the typical
birds ; also the eggs of birds, and a complete series
of the development of a number of chicks, all of one
hatch, at different ages. Heads, beaks, feathers,
down, wings, ears occupy another case, the series
of feathers and feather structure being of exquisite
beauty. In another case are the organs, nerves,
muscles, and the modifications of feet for seizing,
swimming, scratching, perching, or climbing.
The introductory collection to the " fish " was
carried forward and that to the " insects " begun in
this year, and a start was made with the striking
cases in the central part of the hall illustrating
general laws, such as protective mimicry, variation
under domestication, and conformity to environment.
The case in which are the hybrids between the
carrion crow and hooded crow and those showing
gradation between two different forms of goldfinch
were formed in this year, as were those showing
what selective breeding has done in producing
many marked breeds of pigeons from the common
" blue rock."
144 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
The rapid progress and vitality of the Museum
began to attract the gifts of collectors on a great
scale, while the excellent understanding between the
Director and the keepers of different departments,
and the personal share taken by the former in the
elaboration of the Central Hall, convinced every
one interested in zoology that the national collec-
tion was in competent hands, and encouraged
donations. In the single year referred to, Lord
Walsingham, besides his collection of mounted
larvae, pupae, and perfect examples of British Lepi-
doptera, presented the whole of his collection of
Macro - Lepidoptera made during his travels in
California and Oregon in 1871 and 1872; Messrs.
Godman and Salvin presented nearly 4000 specimens
of American birds ; and Mr. Wardlaw Ramsay de-
posited, under certain conditions, the collection of
bird skins, mainly formed by the Marquis of Tweed-
dale, Flower's predecessor as President of the
Zoological Society, consisting of some 40,000 bird
skins, and particularly rich in the birds of the
Philippines, Andaman Islands, and Malay Peninsula,
in which the collections of the Museum were
deficient. As an example of the different per-
sonalities interested, it may be noted that donations
came from Emin Pasha, then in Central Africa, and
from Mr. Ruskin, who presented to the Mineral -
ogical Department the Colenso Diamond and the
Edwardes Ruby. Ruskin was keenly interested in
the work done in the Mineralogical Department,
THE CENTRAL HALL 145
where a case of all the various beautiful modifications
of silica or " flint," from a rough flint stone from the
road-side to the most exquisite agates, arranged by
him, is still to be seen.
In 1888 Flower completed the case illustrating
albinism in the Great Hall, and began that showing
the phenomena of melanism ; and Mr. F. G. God-
man presented to the Museum a collection of 1 1,000
North American birds, all carefully named by lead-
ing American ornithologists. In 1889 the case
illustrating melanism was completed, and the bay
containing the introductory collection to the class
" Reptiles" was filled and fully labelled.
In 1890 the set of cases exemplifying general
laws was increased by that illustrating variation in
a single species according to age, sex, and season in
the ruff, the males losing the ruff and becoming like
the females in winter plumage, though they differ in
size. In the lower part of the case the birds are
shown in breeding plumage, when the females gain
richer colours, and the males assume the "ruff"
from which the birds are named. They also differ
in plumage so much that of the twenty-three birds
shown no two are alike. In the same year the
Booth collection of British birds, stuffed and mounted
in the most realistic and natural surroundings, was
offered to the Museum. It so happened that the
beautiful series of birds and their nests, originated
and arranged on a similar principle by the learned
Keeper of Zoology, Dr. Giinther, F.R.S., for so
146 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER
many years a principal figure at the Museum,
was then rapidly increasing in numbers at South
Kensington, and it was decided that Mr. Booth's
birds should remain at Brighton. Flower went
down and opened the institution in the Dyke
Road, which is now among the greatest attractions
of " London by the Sea."
Continuing his graphic method in the Great
Hall, the case of animals which undergo the
change to white in Arctic climates as a form of pro-
tection was set up in 1891. In the same year a
collection of 24,000 birds' eggs was catalogued and
arranged by Mr. Seebohm. Next in order of time
to the arrangement of the Arctic animals in the hall
followed the well-known case showing the skeletons
of man and horse standing side by side, with all the
corresponding bones labelled and shown. Flower
hoped that among other things this case might be
useful to artists who painted horses or their riders.
In 1895 tne ^rge case numbered u, showing
the orders and sub-orders of mammals, the prevail-
ing types and their geographical distribution, was
begun and carried forward, and the examples of pro-
tective mimicry among insects, which have delighted
and astonished tens of thousands of visitors since,
were begun. These examples, selected from the
most striking, beautiful, and almost miraculous
instances found by recent discoverers, made perhaps
more impression on the ordinary intelligent public
than anything yet shown in the Museum, and still
x THE BOTANICAL DEPARTMENT 147
year by year these examples grow, though the
marvel remains a marvel still. The final results
are obvious. But how the adaptation came about
is still a mystery, nor is there one single example of
mimicry on the way to completion. Each species
and each instance might have been metamorphosed
in an instant of time for anything that has been
discovered to the contrary.
In another department, botany, then under the
charge of Mr. Carruthers, F.R.S., now under Mr.
George Murray, there was secured for the Museum
what may be termed the ultimate perfection of
vegetable growth, so far as age and size condition
perfection the section of the gigantic Sequoia,
one of a group of trees of such vast age that
certain trees might well have been flourishing
and shedding their seeds before the birth of Christ.
The case showing the conformity of desert animals
to their surroundings was completed later, and
another showing the different types of molluscs.
In 1895, on the retirement of Dr. Giinther under
the age regulations, Flower took over the whole
duties of Keeper of Zoology, without payment. He
at once began the work, from which many a younger
man might have shrunk, of the complete rearrange-
ment, classification, and labelling of both the birds
and mammals. In addition each group was assigned
to its particular habitat by an ingenious use of small
maps, in which the range of the animal on the earth
was shown in scarlet paint on a white outline map.
148 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER
The type characters of each order and family were
also carefully explained in print and illustrated by
specimens. These two great undertakings, going
on side by side, and added to all his administrative
and social duties, taxed his brain and health
severely, in spite of the unfailing assistance which
he received from the Museum staff, and more
especially from Dr. Bowdler Sharpe and Mr. W.
Ogilvie Grant in the complete reorganisation and
classification of the birds, and by Mr. G. A.
Boulenger, Mr. Oldfield Thomas, Dr. Woodward,
Mr. Jeffrey Bell, and indeed by all those on the
staff in other departments. Volunteer help was
also forthcoming. It was stated in the Report of
1896 that 33,000 more persons had visited the
Museum than in the previous year.
A provisional whale room to accommodate the
collection of Cetacea, which Flower had always
deemed could only be properly housed in the
national collection, was built. An example of the
importance of detail in museum exhibition occurs
in a change made in the next year, 1897, which
involved an alteration in the mounting of all the
specimens of birds and of many others. Hitherto
these had been placed on stands of pale polished
sycamore. Flower thought that these were in-
effective, unnatural, and ugly, and consulted the
President of the Royal Academy, Sir Frederick
Leighton, as to what improvements could be made.
In accordance with his suggestion the stands were
x MAMMALS AND BIRDS 149
made of dull wood stained a dark brown. A change
of this kind, though apparently trifling, effects an
improvement in the appearance of whole depart-
ments. It is also costly, and involved an enormous
amount of work. The opportunity of withdrawing
badly-stuffed specimens and of mounting others on
natural wood with the bark on was not neglected.
A great change was also begun, on logical lines,
in the Mammalian galleries. Hitherto the stuffed
skins had been placed in one gallery and the
skeletons in another. They were now placed side
by side in the same galleries.
In 1897 great progress had been made with the
reorganisation of the birds. The great gallery on
the ground floor, to the left of the main entrance,
was well on its way towards completion, and all
the specimens placed in systematic order, beginning
with the bower birds on the left, and ending with
the ostriches on the right ; while down the middle
and in some of the bays were cases illustrating the
nesting habits of British birds. In every one of
these the surroundings are either exactly those of
nature, or the most careful artificial imitations the
same rocks, sticks, flowers, grasses, reeds, or heather.
In 1898 the rearrangements of the mammals
on Flower's system was nearly completed for the
classes Chiroptera (bats), Edentata, and Primates.
Money was also forthcoming for good stuffing, such
as Flower had long been anxious to get.
This year saw the addition of Sir Richard
ISO SIR WILLIAM FLOWER
Owen's statue to the Central Hall, when Flower
took occasion to refer in eulogistic terms to some
new lights rather favouring Owen's contention in
the almost forgotten controversy about the brains
of men and apes.
As the Director had never ceased to be solicitous
that the public in general should have every chance
of seeing the collections, the question of Sunday
opening was one which he often brought before
those responsible for the Museum.
In 1885 a motion was carried in the House of
Lords that the Museum should be open on Sunday,
but this view failed to commend itself to the House
of Commons at the time.
In 1889 an offer of ^500 towards the expenses
of Sunday opening was made by the National
Sunday League. At a general meeting of the
Trustees in February 1890 it was resolved that
the Trustees " hesitate under present circum-
stances to take the responsibility of opening the
Museum on Sunday without the concurrence of the
Government."
But in 1896 the House of Commons passed a
resolution that the Museum should be opened on
Sundays, and the doors were opened for the first
time on Sunday afternoon, May 17, 1896. Thus the
privilege which Flower had always been anxious to
give his busy friends of going round the Museum
on the day of rest was now extended to every one in
the country. Archbishop Benson, then the principal
x SUNDAY OPENING 151
Trustee, always steadily supported this extension,
as did the Dean of Windsor, Randall Davidson,
now Archbishop of Canterbury. The change was
greatly furthered by the entirely voluntary services
of the staff, who took it in turn to be on duty.
CHAPTER XI
THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM continued
PROBABLY Flower found a certain degree of relaxa-
tion in planning and sometimes in executing the
work in the Central Hall. His sense of beauty
and his correct taste lent to the exposition of the
individual objects as well as to the series both
character and refinement. Occasionally he would
reserve some particularly choice portion for his
own hand. The writer once visited him on a
morning in which he had found leisure to indulge
in this form of pleasure. He thought that the
series from the plumage of the peacock illustrating
Darwin's chapter on the development and gradation
of ornament needed renewal, and was undertaking
the work himself, with the accurate knowledge of
the markings and position of every feather on the
peacock's back and train which a fly-tyer has of the
place of the few special feathers in a bird's skin
which he may need for his flies. He had taken a
fine skin of a wild jungle peacock in order to have
the very best plumage, and with his steel tweezers
had taken out each pair of feathers, as suited the
152
CH. xi HIS TASTE IN ARRANGEMENT 153
illustration, and was laying them side by side in
two rows on a mahogany board, trying or rejecting
different " links " to see which fitted best. " I
think that a feather is almost the most beautiful
thing in the world," he said, "and these are almost
the most beautiful feathers." He would try the
effect of position half a dozen times over when
placing a specimen on the walls, thinking no detail
insignificant. There is a fine tiger's head and
claws, illustrating, or rather as a comment on, the
teeth and claw series, in one of the alcoves. Sir
William tried the paws in various positions and
altered the length of the portion of forearm attached
more than once before he was satisfied. His
personality made friends, not only for himself, but
for the national work which he was carrying out,
among all classes, from the Trustees and Ministers
who controlled the Museum or the funds which
enhanced its efficiency to the travellers, explorers,
or collectors who could aid in its enrichment.
Among his friends was Captain David Gray of
Peterhead, one of the most successful captains of
whaling expeditions of the day. He was known
as the " King of the Whalers," and was one
of the last of the successful British whaling
captains. Gray was greatly interested in the
natural history of the whale generally, and much
pleased that a naturalist and anatomist of Sir
William's eminence should have devoted so much
time to the subject. He deplored that there was
154 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
not a specimen of a right whale in the Museum,
and promised that if he could he would get one for
Sir William. It so happened that on his very next
voyage Gray's ship had the good-fortune to harpoon
and capture the very largest right whale which he
had ever seen. The " fish " was fastened to the
vessel by chains, the blubber stripped off, and
everything was in train for taking off the flesh
underneath and securing the skeleton, when another
whale was seen to blow. The crew, who had a
right to a share in the profits and were not
enthusiastic naturalists, insisted on dropping the
flensed body of the whale and going after the fresh
one, and Captain Gray, with the greatest chagrin,
saw the unique specimen sink to the bottom of the
Arctic Ocean. When he came back he was urgent
that Flower should ask for a sum from the Treasury
to buy a really good whale. "Why," he said, "you
have just paid ^70,000 for a Raphael ! I can tell
you that a right whale, just killed, and with all the
whalebone in his mouth, is a finer picture than
Raphael ever painted." When in 1895 Sir William
himself became " Keeper " of Zoology, one of his
first new departures was to cause to be executed in
papier mackd, according to a plan which he had long
entertained, a complete series of life-size models of
the Cetacea, but in which the skeleton is retained,
while the body is represented in half-section in a
composition exactly resembling the flesh and skin,
showing the animals in a section cut horizontally,
DARWIN'S STATUE 155
so that from the side a correct idea of their form
and dimensions could be obtained without unduly
crowding the gallery in which they were placed.
Six months after his appointment as Director,
Flower assisted at the ceremony of installing the
fine statue of Charles Darwin, by Sir Edgar Boehm,
on the grand staircase, from which his pondering
face now looks down on the Great Hall, in which
Flower was later to give the most graphic exposition
of his interpretation of the laws of living nature.
Flower as Director, with the executive com-
mittee, received the Prince of Wales and the other
distinguished visitors at the entrance. The Prince
and the President of the Royal Society stood on
either side of the statue, which Professor Huxley
then unveiled, and as chairman of the committee
formally presented it to the Trustees. 1 In his
speech, though holding that Darwin no more
needed a statue to perpetuate his memory than
did Copernicus or Harvey, he affirmed that its
presence would remind every student who entered
the doors opposite of an idea according to which
they might shape their lives, if they wished to use
the opportunities offered by the Museum to the best
account.
During the earlier years of his Directorship
Flower was steadily engaged in four principal lines
of activity, to which must be added the calls made
upon his time as President of the Zoological
1 The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Benson, as principal Trustee, receiving it.
156 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
Society. He was administering the Museum
generally and developing his synoptic series in
the Great Hall. He was steadily forwarding the
interests of the Zoological Society and stimulating
interest in the Anthropological Society and its
work. A Fellow of the former Society says :
" Sir William Flower made an ideal President.
His stately presence, tall figure, and fine head
seemed naturally to fit him for the great carved
oak presidential chair, whence he really 'presided'
over the meetings whether the afternoon meetings
of the council or the fuller evening meetings of the
Society generally. He listened attentively to all
the papers read (as proved by his after-remarks on
them), even when, as occasionally must be the case
in any scientific society, they were dull or involved.
Also he was quick to observe if the audience were
getting bored, when he would suggest to the reader
to omit some of the lists of names and numbers
or unnecessary details, still with such courtesy and
gentleness that even the author could not feel hurt ;
whilst in the general discussions that followed
Flower not only guided them to the most important
parts of the papers, and called upon those Fellows
most qualified to speak on the various subjects, but
also showed the greatest tact, as well as common
sense and decision, in suppressing any ill-feeling or
personalities, which sometimes arise in the heat of
discussion." He was also popularising the Museum
and interest in zoology on the part of all classes ;
VISITORS AT THE MUSEUM 157
and lastly, he was pursuing with an energy which
is very remarkable, considering all the various calls
on his time and thought, his own researches into
the history and structure of certain animals, notably
the horse and the whale. The writer of the
obituary notice, published in the year-book of the
Royal Society (No. 5, 1901), says: "While main-
taining the high scientific reputation of the National
Museum, he continued to popularise the institution
and science by taking parties of working men
round the Museum on Saturdays, and occasionally
a distinguished visitor like Dr. Nansen or Pro-
fessor Virchoff would join the group. Also on
Sundays he would take a few busy men, whose
occupations prevented their being able to come on
week-days, himself unlocking the doors, so that no
'Sunday labour' was involved. In this way nearly
all the Judges were enabled to see the Museum
quietly on a Sunday afternoon, the venerable Lord
Hannen specially saying what delightful ' refresh-
ment ' it gave him after a hard week in the Law
Courts ! Many ambassadors and foreign ministers,
also artists, members of Parliament, and distin-
guished officers of the Army and Navy, were
glad to avail themselves of this privilege, Flower
himself explaining the Museum and showing the
latest additions ; and afterwards they would come on
to tea with Lady Flower in Stanhope Gardens.
He received many members of the Royal Family,
who honoured the Museum with their presence,
158 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER
in this quiet manner ; also statesmen, as the Right
Hon. W. H. Smith, Mr. Joseph Chamberlain,
W. E. Gladstone, Mr. Hugh Childers, Mr. Anthony
Mundella, Lord George Hamilton, Lord North-
brooke, Lord Kimberley, Lord Northcote, Lord
Stanhope, his lamented brother the Rt. Hon.
Edward Stanhope, Admiral Prince Victor of
Hohenlohe, and many others."
Among Sir William's publications in the years
from 1883 to 1885 were his notes on the Evolution
of the Cetacea in 1883, notes on the Nerves of Two
Genera of the Delphinida:; in 1884, notes on the
Teeth of a Young Capybara in 1884, Observations
on the Osteology of the Natives of the Andaman
Islands in 1884, and notes on Skulls of the Bottle-
nosed Whale, an essay on the Size of Teeth as a
Character of Race, on the Classification of the
Varieties of the Human Species, a list of the
Cetacea in the Zoological Department of the British
Museum, and a most interesting lecture, given at
the Royal Institution, on the Wings of Birds.
In Mayi 1885 Flower was elected a Trustee of
the Hunterian Museum. It will be remembered
that he was also President of the Zoological Society.
His administrative work at the Museum was also in
this period not only a source of daily care, but was
weighted with the responsibility of his very con-
siderable schemes for the development of the Great
Hall. Yet to these duties he added a very large
amount of other and exacting public and scientific
AT WELLINGTON COLLEGE 159
work. In June 1885 he distributed prizes in
Birmingham Town Hall to the school children for
kindness to animals. In October he lectured on
"Varieties of Man" in the Free Library at Bethnal
Green, and in November at Wellington College to
the boys on " Birds which cannot fly." His second
boy, now Captain Stanley Flower, Director of the
Zoological Gardens at Gezireh, was at school there,
and his youngest, Victor, was at a preparatory
school near, and able to meet his father and mother
at the station, while both were in the audience with
their mother. The Wellington boys greatly ap-
proved of the lecture, and were good enough to
extend their complimentary cheers not only to
Flower, but to those of his family in the audience.
By a curious prophecy, Dr. Wickham, the then
headmaster, said half in joke that the elder boy,
who had already won the Fender Prize for the best
essay on Natural History, would perhaps succeed
his father. As head of the Egyptian Zoological
Gardens and Director of the Wild Animal Depart-
ment of the Soudan, he in a measure fulfilled
this prediction.
In the winter of 1885 Flower lectured at the
London Institution on " Horses of the Past and
Present." The history of the horse was one of the
Mammalia of which he made a special study, and in
which, by his lectures and writings, he steadily
interested the public. He traced the descent of
the modern horse, which he held to be the most
1 60 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
interesting branch of the whole family. It had been
continually changing while its relations stood still.
It had increased in bulk, and in the length of its
neck, until it was difficult to find anything now more
perfect than its organisation. It had grown in size,
for there were extinct relations no bigger than a
hare. Its neck had grown longer, it had dropped
its toes, lengthened its legs, changed its teeth, and
from being one of a group of marsh -living slow
animals had become the best adapted of all creatures
for swiftness and for living on hard ground and on
hard fare.
In the following year he gave a similar lecture at
the same place on "Cattle, Past and Present," and
at the Royal Institution another on the "Wings of
Birds." In June 1886 he lectured at the Zoological
Gardens on the " Pigs and their Allies "; and in the
autumn at Onslow College on " Fins, Wings, and
Hands," a lecture which, further elaborated, he
delivered in the June following at the London
Institution. His autumn holiday was spent partly
in Switzerland with his wife and daughters Vera
and Geraldine, and partly in a visit to Lord and
Lady Wharncliffe at Wortley. In 1887 the first
General Guide to the Natural History Museum
was issued. Special guides in the departments of
zoology, mineralogy, and geology had been obtain-
able before. But this, though marked "under
revision," was practically the foundation of the
present General Guide, in which the account of the
THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS 161
history of the New Museum, of the building, and of
the general scheme is contained. But the chief
interest of the first General Guide was the pro-
gress which it marks in the expression of Flower's
plans for the Great Hall. The " Index Museum "
was rapidly becoming an "introductory series."
Although Flower had only been Director for three
years, the details of the scheme were steadily being
filled in, and the London public was beginning to
look forward with increasing pleasure to the next
stage of growth in the cases.
In the same year we find him lecturing at Sion
College on the structure of whales in reference to
the doctrine of evolution, opening the Chelsea
Industrial Exhibition, lecturing to the Essex Field
Club, to the Kensington Clergy Club, and to the
Middlesborough Natural History Society.
This was part of his general policy of widening
the area of interest in Natural History among all
classes.
The year 1887 was the Jubilee of Queen
Victoria. On June 16 he acted as host, in his
position as President of the Zoological Society, to
the guests of the Fellows at a Jubilee garden party
held in the Gardens. The invitations were issued
by the President and Council, and between 1500
and 2000 guests were present. The Gardens were
looking their best ; there was a large and beautifully-
decorated marquee for the reception of the visitors
and for the formal meeting of the Fellows, which
M
162 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER
formed part of the function, and the lawns were like
a glimpse of Goodwood or Ascot. After the formal
part of the meeting was finished Flower thanked
the young Maharajah of Kuch Bahar, who was
present with his brother, for the gift of a fine Indian
rhinoceros, and presented him with the silver medal
of the Society as a mark of their appreciation of
his thoughtfulness.
He then read a complete summary of the history
of the Zoological Society from its foundation in
1828. This summary, which is published in the
Essays on Museums, was based on a perusal of the
complete set of the old annual reports. Any one
who reads these through, as the present writer has
had occasion to do, will find that nothing of note
or interest is omitted in this by no means long
address, which dealt with the foundation and growth
of the Society, its early ideals and objects, its efforts
at acclimatisation, its publications, and the story of
the animals in the menagerie and their treatment.
He concluded by saying, " We have a responsibility
to our captive animals, brought from their native
wilds to minister to our pleasure and instruction,
beyond that of merely supplying them with food
and shelter. The more their comfort can be studied,
the roomier their place of captivity, the more they
are surrounded by conditions reproducing those of
their native haunts, the happier they will be, and
the more enjoyment and instruction we shall obtain
when looking at them."
xi COMPANION OF THE BATH 163
The era of zoological parks, such as the 250
acres included in the new gardens at New York,
had not yet then begun. But the present tendency
of menagerie management is entirely in the direc-
tion recommended.
On June 21 Flower received a letter from Lord
Salisbury stating that he had "great pleasure in
informing him that Her Majesty has been pleased
on this occasion to confer on him the honour of
Companion of the Bath in recognition of his dis-
tinguished services to science." On the news of
this Huxley wrote :
MY DEAR FLOWER I am very glad to see the C.B. in the
Times this morning. There should have been a K before it,
but the K is to Kome.
With our united kind regards and congratulations to Mrs.
Flower and yourself, ever yours very truly,
T. H. HUXLEY.
In this year he was elected an Honorary Member
of the Academy of Science of New York, of the
Zoological Society of Amsterdam, and of the
Imperial Society of the Naturalists of Moscow.
His chief public function was the opening, on
June 30, 1888, of what has recently proved to be
one of the most useful institutions of its kind in
the country, the Marine Biological Laboratory at
Plymouth. The uses to which such an institution
could be put, both for science and business, were
clear from the success of the fine Marine Laboratory
of the kind presided over by Dr. Dohrn at Naples.
1 64 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
To establish one in this country had long been an
object with Professor Huxley and other biologists.
Professor Edwin Ray Lankester, who had acted
as Honorary Secretary of the Marine Biological
Association of which Huxley was President, had
displayed the greatest energy in recommending the
project to public notice, as well as in commending
it to scientific men.
When we consider that before it was in working
order Parliament was asked to stop certain modes
of fishing alleged to destroy spawn by dragging
nets on the bottom, and that the staff of the Marine
Biological Laboratory has since proved that the
spawn of every food fish but the herring floats on
the top of the sea, "the difficulty of approaching
practical men " and asking for support may seem
rather strange; but the difficulty was found in 1888.
On the other hand, the leaders of science worked
hard ; the Fishmongers Company gave ^2000 and
acted as hosts at the opening at Plymouth ; Govern-
ment guaranteed ^500 for five years ; and the
Institution, though with a small income, started
fairly. If it now needed further justification, it
might be found in the fact that the Government
have just established another on the east coast,
dealing primarily with the food fishes of the North
Sea. Huxley was too unwell to preside, and in
his absence Flower took his place, and as Vice-
President of the Marine Biological Association
delivered the opening address. After pointing out
XI THE MARINE LABORATORY 165
that Professor Huxley was the pioneer in urging
support for the study of marine life, and regretting
the illness which caused his absence, he referred to
the enormous importance of the subject both to
science and economics in a country which has 2000
miles of coast, measuring the actual contact of land
and sea in its various windings and bays. He
explained the objects of the Laboratory, and
described in some detail what had been done
elsewhere, closing with an earnest hope that the
expectations entertained of its future usefulness
would not be disappointed. 1
This hope has been more than realised. At the
time of writing, the new North Sea Marine
Laboratory, working in conjunction with experts
in Holland, has already made quite unexpected
discoveries as to the life and migrations of plaice
and other food fishes in the North Sea, and is
engaged in a form of " fiscal inquiry " devoid of
controversy and full of promise. The publications
of the Marine Biological Association at Plymouth
have steadily increased in interest and value ; and
the movement, which had and has among its chief
supporters Professor E. Ray Lankester, who was
Honorary Secretary to the Association in its early
stages, has more than justified the support given
to it.
1 One of his last public functions was to open the Marine Laboratory at
St. Andrews, presided over by his friend Professor William M'Intosh, F.R.S.
CHAPTER XII
STUDIES OF WHALES AND WHALE FISHERIES
AMONG the most interesting of Flower's writings are
a long series of original papers, essays, and notes on
the numerous Cetacea of the world, both living and
extinct. His study of the largest but least-known
animals in the world began very early, and he never
missed an opportunity, whether at home or abroad,
of seeing their bodies, skeletons, or, if possible, the
living animal. Lady Flower says that he was
always so delighted when he heard of a fresh
specimen, that on his coming into the room one day
looking particularly pleased she said, " You must
have heard of another whale ! " He had.
While he was at the Museum of the Royal College
of Surgeons he worked for the medical profession and
for the general public. But he would have been more
than human had he not had private leanings in a
particular zoological direction. His old friend, Mr.
J. W. Clark, Registrary of the University of Cam-
bridge, says, "What first induced him to take up
the study of the Cetacea need not be investigated at
this distance of time. Possibly he adopted the pursuit
166
CH.XH FIRST STUDIES OF WHALES 167
by inheritance from the founder of the Museum, John
Hunter, who had written on the subject, and en-
riched his collections with such specimens as he was
able at that day to collect ; possibly from a feeling that
the subject had been neglected and needed thorough
investigation; possibly also from the accidental
circumstance that a correspondent, Mr. W. L.
Crowther, of Hobart Town, Tasmania, presented in
successive years a series of rare skeletons to the
Museum. Whatever cause may have suggested
the study, Flower made it completely his own, as the
long series of papers contributed by him to the Pro-
ceedings and Transactions of the Zoological Society
amply testifies. 1 Of these, that on the Osteology
of the Sperm Whale, which he was enabled to
write through the liberality of Mr. Crowther in
sending a skeleton to the College of Surgeons,
is undoubtedly among the most important, having
regard to the abnormal characteristics of the animal ;
but future zoologists will thank him for those in
which he describes new or little-known animals, as
well as those in which he introduces a more
intelligent classification, sweeping away, as he
proceeds, a large number of hastily-determined
species. The skeleton of the sperm whale arrived
from Tasmania in 1865, but it could not be exhibited
in the Museum until 1868. This important
acquisition, however, was only the first of a series.
In 1866 a skeleton of the Greenland right whale
1 See the complete list in Appendix III.
1 68 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP
arrived from Greenland ; in 1867 a complete
narwhal skeleton ; in 1868 the hitherto unknown
Chinese dolphin (D. sinensis] ; in 1872 a specimen
of Berardius, an extremely rare whale from New
Zealand, belonging to the family of the Ziphioids ;
and in 1874 a dolphin of the Ganges."
Opportunities for original study were naturally
intermittent for any one who could not devote some
years to whaling voyages. But Flower never lost a
chance of seeing for himself the bodies or skeletons
of the various Cetacea, whether stranded on the
coast or in foreign museums. The results were
seen in their most complete form in his essays on
Whales and Whale Fisheries, originally given in
the form of a lecture delivered at the Royal Colonial
Institution in 1895, and reprinted with his Essays
on Museums. In it he gave a full account not only
of the wonderful structure of the various whales
and of their habits as they roam the ocean or
keep to the ice-fringe, according to their species,
but also traced the scene of the whale fishery from
its ancient field in the Bay of Biscay gradually
northward as the whales were killed off and new
grounds had to be found.
Before referring further to these chapters we may
perhaps, with the advantage of looking back through
Flower's skeleton diaries, which he kept without a
break from 1853 till his death in 1899, follow his
own " whaling excursions " and see how exact
knowledge on such a difficult subject may be quietly
xn EXHUMING A WHALE 169
accumulated by taking opportunities as they occur,
until the person interested finds that he, almost
unconsciously, knows more of the matter than any
one else. His first hunting ground was Rosherville.
" To Rosherville Gardens with Dr. Murie to see
the skeleton of the whale " is the entry under date
November 14, 1863. In the next year a whale was
reported to have been stranded on the Norfolk coast,
and Flower went to see and measure it. He
took with him Mr. James Flower, Articulator at the
Hunterian Museum, and visited Norwich, where, in
regular East Anglian fashion, they drove by dogcart
to Cromer, as no railway then existed there. They
looked up the gamekeeper at North Repps, and
arranged operations for the next day. It appeared
that the whale had been stranded some time before
and buried in the sand. All the next day was
spent in digging up the skeleton, which proved to
be that of a lesser fin whale, 25 feet long. It
had been cast ashore in November 1862, and
buried by order of Mr. Gurney, as sand was a good
preservative and kept the bones all together.
Flower caused the whole skeleton to be recovered,
packed it up, and sent it to the Royal College of
Surgeons, where it now is. Many years later, when
he was advocating a different form of burial than in
closed coffins, he referred to his experience in
digging up the whale. In 1875 ^ e wrote to the
Times that as the public would not be likely to
favour cremation, there was much to be said for
170 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
Mr. Seymour Hayden's proposal that the bodies of
the dead should be committed to the earth in wicker
coffins.
" I need not shock your readers (he wrote in the Times) by
attempting to describe the condition of bodies which have lain
for years in a more or less perfectly closed coffin, but on the other
hand I can affirm from considerable experience that such is the
disinfecting power of earth that the necessary changes in the dis-
solution of the human body occur under its influence in the least
offensive and injurious manner. Decay in earth, in fact, is quite a
different matter from decay in water or air. Not many years ago
it was my duty to superintend digging up the body of a whale
which had been buried for two years in a sandy soil on the
Norfolk coast. So far from the process being, as I anticipated
from my experience of much more recent whales' carcasses, very
unpleasant, the bones were found nearly clean, and quite
odourless."
Three years after that in which he visited
North Repps he secured for the Hunterian
Museum the skeleton of a right whale from
Copenhagen. In the September following he
visited the Museum at Leyden and Utrecht to
measure whales' skeletons, and also went to Louvain
" to retake " notes he had lost on the same sub-
ject. Later he communicated the results of these
visits to the Zoological Society by reading a
paper on the Skeletons of Whales in the Prin-
cipal Museums of Holland and Belgium, with
descriptions of two species apparently new to
science.
In the following June he went to Burton Con-
stable, on the Yorkshire coast, near Hull, where a
xn WHITE WHALE IN LONDON 171
sperm whale had been stranded some time before
on the foreshore of Sir Clifford Constable's
property.
Writing to his mother, June 15, 1865, he said :
My Yorkshire expedition was very successful. I did all I
wanted and the weather was magnificent, luckily for me, as the
Burton Constable whale was in the open air, and a shower of
rain would have greatly interfered with my proceedings. ... It
was very pleasant, sitting among the beautiful trees of the park,
drawing and measuring the great whale's skeleton, with the birds
singing all around, and the red deer looking on with much
surprise, and the full moon rising up while the sun went down.
There was a starling's nest with five young ones comfortably
lodged in the whale's brain cavity.
In July 1875 a grampus was caught at Sidlesbarn,
near Chichester, and taken alive to the Brighton
Aquarium, where it lived only a few hours.
Flower, " the most eminent living authority on the
Cetacea," to quote a contemporary notice, examined
and measured it, and also identified the species.
In 1877 a white whale was brought alive to
the Westminster Aquarium, but it also died.
Referring to this loss, Frank Buckland paid a
tribute to Flower's ungrudging willingness to teach
all and sundry what he knew :
I was aware (he wrote) that had the whale not died, Professor
Flower would probably have consented to give a lecture to
working people on the structure and movements of the whale,
with the living illustration before him, as he sometimes explains
to parties of working men the specimens in the Museum of the
Royal College of Surgeons. To listen to our greatest authority
i;2 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
on the whales and seals discoursing in his pleasant gentle style
and clear language on subjects with which he is so completely
conversant is an intellectual treat which the most erudite
zoologist may well enjoy ; and as I looked on the dead whale's
body I could not but feel that the public as well as the
proprietors had sustained a double loss.
In a comprehensive though necessarily condensed
review of Sir William's work contributed to Nature,
Professor E. Ray Lankester, his successor, says :
After the deaths of P. J. van Beneden and Jervais he was only
rivalled in his knowledge of whales by Sir William Turner of
Edinburgh. It was a special satisfaction to him to have been
able to complete the admirable exhibition of whales at the
Natural History Museum before his retirement an exhibition
which is not only unequalled, but is not even attempted in
Europe or America.
In two lectures given, the one at the Royal
Institution in 1883, and the other at the Royal
Colonial Institution in 1895, he summed up the
results of his long and patient attention to this
subject in a form which, though necessarily popular,
is perhaps the most instructive material dealing
with the structure and history of the whale and
the story of the whale fisheries. 1 That read at
the Colonial Institute described not only the
whale, but gave the history of the British and
Colonial whale fisheries, ancient and modern, with
the records of which he was very familiar. It is
a curious story, then for the first time brought
1 They are reprinted in Flower's Essays on Museums (Macmillan).
xii THE BASQUE WHALE FISHERY 173
together. The earliest known regular whale fishery
had for quarry a race of whales now absolutely
destroyed, which were found at no great distance
from our home waters. Its headquarters were in
the Basque towns of France and Spain, Bayonne,
Biarritz, Fuenterrabia, St. Sebastian, and many
smaller ports. The prey were the Atlantic right
whales, which then frequented the Bay of Biscay.
First the Basques caught them by putting out in
boats from the shore, and later, growing bolder,
followed them in ships across the Atlantic to the
Bermudas, Newfoundland, and Iceland.
Queen Elizabeth and all her court depended upon the
Basque fishermen for the most prominent characteristics of their
costume. The supply was, however, diminishing, when the
attempt to discover the north - east route to China, about the
close of the sixteenth century, led to the opening up of the sea
between Greenland and Spitzbergen and the discovery of the Arctic
right whale, an animal up to that time practically unknown to
man. This being much more valuable, both on account of the
larger quantity and finer quality of the whalebone it produced,
and also the larger amount of its oil, for many years attracted
the principal attention of the whaling ships of Europe. The
English entered into the business at a very early period, but
being unacquainted with the methods of catching whales, engaged
Basque harpooners for all their early voyages, and closely
followed their methods. The very word " harpoon " is said to
be Basque. The Dutch also took the fishing up on a very
extensive scale, and established a permanent settlement on the
northern shore of Spitzbergen, which they named "Smeerem-
berg," and which was the rendezvous of the whaling fleet in
summer, and to which the blubber was brought for boiling. In
its most flourishing period the Dutch whale fishing employed as
many as 260 ships and 14,000 men. When, however, whales
174 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
became scarcer in the neighbourhood of the coast, and the ships
had to seek them further in the open sea, it was found more
economical to bring the blubber to Holland, and Smeeremberg
was deserted.
The great war at the end of the last century, in which Eng-
land kept possession of the North Sea, put an end to the whale
fishery, not only of Holland, but of France and of all other
countries which had engaged in it, and henceforth we maintained
a monopoly of the trade. From the year 1732 to 1824 our
Government paid bounties amounting altogether, it is calculated,
to ^"2,500,000, to vessels engaged in the Northern whaling busi-
ness, to encourage the enterprise.
The ships at first sailed from London, then Hull, Yarmouth,
and Whitby entered the field. In 1819 as many as sixty-five
ships sailed from Hull. Since 1836 no ship has gone from
London, and now Dundee and Peterhead are the only ports in the
British Islands which keep up the Northern whale fishing, though
on a much more limited scale then formerly.
The fishery between Greenland and Spitzbergen, which in
the last century proved so productive, is almost played out, but
that of Davis Straits and Lancaster Sound is still remunerative
owing to the very high price that whalebone has lately been
fetching. At the beginning of the century the average value
was from 70 to ^80 per ton, but a few years ago a sale was
effected at the enormous sum of ^2650 per ton; this is the
highest price which has ever been given for it, and recently it
has somewhat declined.
He showed that the trade which inspired the
Cruise of the " Cachalot " was modern compared with
the right whale fishery, although individual sperm
whales approaching near the shore, especially in
the neighbourhood of the right whale fisheries, had
often fallen a prey to man. The systematic cap-
ture of this species began about the end of the
seventeenth century from the Atlantic coasts of
xii SPERM WHALE FISHERY 175
North America, especially of the part then called
New England, at first only from the shore, but
afterwards in sea-going vessels from New Bedford
and other ports, which gradually extended their
voyages into the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
From the year 1775 vessels engaged in the trade
(assisted by Government bounties) regularly left
the mouth of the Thames for the South Seas,
making voyages of three or four years' duration ;
but since 1853 the business has been abandoned
by the English, and what little remains of it has
reverted almost entirely into the hands of the
Americans. Sperm oil has fallen so greatly in
price that its production is now hardly a remunera-
tive undertaking, and it has found a rival in all the
qualities which render it of special value in the oil
of an allied but much smaller species, the bottlenose
whale (Hyperodon), which has consequently become
the object of a regular fishery in the North Sea,
especially to the Norwegians.
The extraordinary fact of the absolute and com-
plete destruction of at least two species of right
whale by the reckless greed of the whalers was
first made public by Flower, who may properly be
regarded as almost the discoverer of the Basque
whales as a separate species. Of these (the North
Atlantic right whale) he says :
It is a singular fact that the existence of the species was quite
overlooked by naturalists until lately. All accounts of it which are
to be found in the numerous records of European whale fishing
1 76 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
have been attributed to the Greenland whale, which was sup-
posed by Cuvier, for instance, to have had formerly a much
wider distribution than now, and to have been driven by the
persecution of man to its present circumpolar haunts. To the
two Danish naturalists Eschricht and Reinhardt is due the credit
of having proved its existence as a distinct species, from a
careful comparison of numerous historical notices of its structure,
distribution, and habits, and although they were at one time
disposed to think that the species had become extinct, they were
able to show that this was not the case, an actual specimen
having been captured in the harbour of San Sebastian in January
1854, the skeleton of which Eschricht was fortunate enough to
secure for the Copenhagen Museum. More recently, specimens
have been captured on the Spanish coast, the Mediterranean,
North America, and Norway. A skeleton has fortunately been
secured for the British Museum, the exhibition of which is only
delayed for want of a proper room in which it can be mounted. 1
In the North Pacific a very similar, if not identical, whale is
regularly hunted by the Japanese, who tow the carcasses ashore
for the purpose of stripping the blubber and extracting the whale-
bone.
In the tropical seas right whales, according to
Captain Waring's whale charts, are seldom if ever
seen. But when the temperate waters of the
Southern Ocean were explored, there the right
whales were found in abundance, j'ust as they were
in those of the North Atlantic.
It is an astonishing and deplorable fact that
every single individual of these southern right
whales, so far as can be ascertained, has been
destroyed. That this should be possible when they
had the whole ocean to roam seems almost incredible.
1 It is now in the whale room.
xii DESTRUCTION OF WHALES 177
But it came about from the habits of the whales
themselves. Shortly before the birth of the young
whale the mother always goes to land, to some
favourite spot by the shore, where the calf is
born. The North Atlantic right whales came to
the Bay of Biscay for the purpose, and that one of
the few survivors should have entered the ancient
haunt in the harbour of San Sebastian for this pur-
pose so late as 1854, after nine centuries of persecu-
tion, is evidence of the strength of this instinct.
In the Southern Ocean also the whales came to
certain spots, soon well known to the whalers, to
give birth to their young. Among these places
were the bays by the Cape of Good Hope (Vaalfisch
Bay among them), and South Australia and New
Zealand. As there was no close time for whales,
and every cow and calf was killed, Sir William
Flower noted that " the result has been to the
southern right whale what it was to its Atlantic ally
after its persecution by the Basques, although it
was brought about in a much shorter time. To
destroy it in its last remaining breeding-places was
to destroy it everywhere. Although we have at
present unfortunately very little accurate informa-
tion about its breeding haunts, there is every reason
to believe that the Antarctic right whales retire in
the Antarctic winter nearer to the South Pole. Sir
James Ross in 1840, in lat. 64 nearly due south of
New Zealand, and again in 1842, in nearly the
same latitude south of the Falkland Islands, found
N
178 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
right whales very abundant in the month of
December. On the strength of this observation it
has been thought that a whale corresponding to
the Arctic right whale might be found in the
Antarctic seas. Two years ago (1896) some ships
sailed from Dundee in the hope of meeting it, but
were completely disappointed. No trace of such
whales were found ; for doubtless Sir James Ross
had only come across the winter haunts of the same
which were then undergoing the process of ruth-
less extermination in their breeding-places on the
Australian and New Zealand coasts."
Since then other expeditions to the Antarctic
Ocean have ascertained that not a single one of
these right whales survives. At the other Pole the
whales, instead of coming ashore to breed, have
their calves by the edge of the ice, under which
they retreat when attacked, and have thus managed
to survive.
Among the details of the story of the British
whale fishery, Flower traced it all round our southern
and eastern coasts by the remains of whales found
often at the most insignificant seaside villages.
The great jaw-bones, which remained after the
whalebone was taken out, were used as gate-posts,
arches to garden walks, or parts of arbours. These
still remain in such places as Leigh, and Gravesend,
Yarmouth, Wells -next-the- Sea, Whitby, and other
ports farther north. The present writer was once
in the street of the little village of Cley, in Norfolk,
xii WHALES' JAW-BONES 179
near a famous alighting-place of migrant birds, when
an ancient inhabitant drew attention to a curious row
of posts, with chains fastened to them, in front of
one of the larger houses, which posts he declared
were " all boon." They were sawed-up lengths of
whales' jaw-bones.
CHAPTER XIII
ESSAYS ON MUSEUMS
IN 1889 Flower was elected President of the
Zoological Society for the eleventh successive year,
a fact which he notes with satisfaction in his diary.
His chief work outside the Museum in this year
was his Presidential address at the meeting of the
British Association at Newcastle on September 4.
He took for his subject " Museum Organisation,"
following, as he reminded the audience, the advice
of Mr. Spottiswoode, one of his predecessors in
the Presidential chair, that the holder of the office
" would generally do better by giving utterance to
what has already become part of his own thought
than by gathering matter outside of its habitual
range for a special occasion."
Flower said that museums from one or other
point of view had "occupied his time and attention
almost from the earliest period of his recollection,"
and proceeded to convince his hearers of this fact
by a retrospect of Natural History Museums in the
past, a theory of what they should be at present,
180
m EARLY MUSEUMS 181
and an opinion as to what they could or could not
do to advance knowledge.
In the historical part of the address he stated
that though the first " museum " was founded by
Ptolemy Soter at Alexandria about the year 300
B.C., it was really an academy. The first Natural
History Museum was the Temple at Carthage,
where Hanno hung up the skins of the gorillas
which he brought home from the West Coast of
Africa. The earliest printed catalogue of a museum
is that of Samuel Quellenberg, a physician of
Amsterdam, published in 1568 in Munich; but in
the same year Conrad Gesner published a catalogue
of the collection of Johann Ventmann, a physician
of Torgau, in Saxony, consisting of about 1600
objects, chiefly minerals, shells, and marine animals.
Shortly afterwards the Emperor Rudolph II. began
to accumulate the treasures which proved the
beginning of the great Museum of Vienna. The
first miscellaneous museum collection, largely of
objects of Natural History, was made by the two
John Tradescants, father and son. The son pub-
lished in 1656 a catalogue of this "Collection of
Rarities," preserved at South Lambeth, near
London. The first division was devoted to "Some
Kindes of Birds, their Egges, Beaks, Feathers,
Claws, and Spurres." Among them were " Divers
sorts of Egges, one given for a Dragon's Egge,"
" Easter Egges of the Patriarch of Jerusalem,"
"Two feathers of the Phcenix tayle," and "the
i8 2 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
Claw of the bird Rock, who, as authors report, is
able to trusse an Elephant." Among "Whole
birds " is the famous Dodo from the Isle of
Mauritius; "it is not able to flic, being so big."
''This," said Flower, "is the identical specimen,
the head and foot of which have passed through
the Ashmolean collection into the University
Museum of Oxford."
The formation of Natural History Museums
was a " ruling passion " with several kings and
queens of Sweden, which fact, probably quite
unknown to most people, was of the greatest aid
to Linnaeus in his early studies.
The proper organisation of Natural History
Museums was the main theme of the address,
rather than of museums in general. Flower
emphasised the need for their division into two
departments one for research, the other for the
instruction of the public.
The first must be as complete as possible, with
an immense number of specimens. In the second
the numbers of specimens should be strictly limited.
" The specimens kept for research, for the advance-
ment of knowledge, for careful investigations in
structure and development, or for showing the
minute distinctions which must be studied in
working out problems connected with variations of
species according to age, sex, season, or locality,
for fixing the limits of geographical distribution,
or determining range in geological time, must not
RESEARCH COLLECTIONS 183
only be exceedingly numerous (so numerous, in-
deed, that it is almost impossible to put a limit to
what may be required), but they must also be kept
under such conditions as to admit of ready and
close examination and comparison. . . .
" Collections of this kind must, in fact, be treated
as books in a library, and be used only for con-
sultation and reference by those who are able to
read and appreciate their contents. To demand,
as has been ignorantly done, that all the specimens
belonging to our National Museums, for instance,
should be displayed in cases in the public galleries,
would be equivalent to asking that every book in
a library, instead of being shut up and arranged on
shelves for consultation when required, should have
every page framed and glazed and hung on the
walls. . . .
"In the arrangement of collections designed for
research, the preservation of the objects from dust,
light, and damp ; their absolutely correct identifica-
tion and record of every circumstance which can
be known of their history ; their classification and
storage in such a manner that each one can be
found without difficulty or loss of time, and that
they should be made to occupy as small a space as is
compatible with their requirements, both on account
of expense as well as of convenience of access,
must all be principal aims. They should be kept
in rooms provided with suitable tables, and a good
light for their examination, and within reach of the
1 84 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
necessary books of reference on the particular sub-
jects which the specimens illustrate. Also the
rooms should be so placed that the officers of the
Museum, without too great hindrance to their own
work, can be at hand for occasional assistance and
supervision of the students."
Passing from the general to the particular, it may
be remarked that at the Natural History Museum
all these research collections are entirely in the
hands and under the control of the keepers of the
different departments, and of the eminent specialists
who assist them. It has been noted previously
that Flower, on the retirement of Dr. Gtinther,
became Keeper of Zoology ; he had then under his
general control not only the whole of the divisions
of this subject, such as entomology, ornithology,
and the mammalia in the "research" collection,
but also undertook the immense task of rearrange-
ment of the general and exhibited collections in the
galleries, according to his conception of how this
should be done.
His general idea on the subject of the second
part of a Natural History Museum, that devoted
to instruction of the public, was that, unlike the
research departments, " the number of the specimens
must be strictly limited, according to the nature of
the subject to be illustrated and the space available.
None must be placed too high or too low for
ready examination. There must be no crowding of
specimens one behind the other, every one being
xiii THE PUBLIC GALLERIES 185
perfectly and distinctly seen, with a clear space
round it. Every specimen exhibited should be
good of its kind, and all available skill and care
should be spent upon its preservation, and on
rendering it suitable for teaching the lesson it is
intended to convey." Flower may very possibly
have had in his mind at this time the exquisite
specimens which adorn the public galleries of
Mineralogy at the Museum.
The " instructional " arrangement of the minerals,
which so impressed Flower by its symmetry and
logical order that he referred to it as a type of what
he wished done in the exposition of system in
the organic world, is adorned by the very finest
specimens which the Museum possesses, and many
of them the most beautiful which have ever been
found on the earth's surface or in the dark un-
fathomed caves beneath it. The finest emerald in
the Museum, partly bedded in the rock in which it
lay, the most resplendent masses of amethysts, of
garnets, of rubellite or felspar, are matched and even
eclipsed in beauty, and greatly surpassed in size,
by other natural objects of such colour, shape, and
variety as the imagination, not fed by facts, could
never dream of, from the mines of the Andes, or of
Alaska, the precipices of the Alps, the caverns of
Cumberland, or the mountains of Styria. But once
found, these beauties of the mineral world fre-
quently need no human treatment. It is otherwise
with the examples of birds, beasts, and fishes.
i86 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
The beautiful specimens of bird-stuffing seen in the
series of British birds and their nests, begun under
Dr. Albert Giinther's auspices at the Natural His-
tory Museum, only drew attention to the failure to
obtain anything like an approach either to the truth
or the beauty of nature in the main galleries. It
is this which Flower had in mind at Newcastle
when he went on to say, " Here I cannot refrain
from saying a word on the sadly neglected art of
taxidermy, which continues to fill our museums with
wretched and repulsive caricatures of mammals and
birds, out of all natural proportions, shrunken here
and bloated there, and in attitudes absolutely im-
possible for the creature to have assumed when
alive. Happily there may be seen occasionally,
especially where amateurs of artistic taste and good
knowledge of natural history have devoted them-
selves to the subject, examples enough to show
that an animal can be converted after death, by a
proper application of taxidermy, into a real life-like
representation of the original, perfect in form, pro-
portions, and attitude, and almost if not quite as
valuable for conveying information on these points
as the living creature itself. The fact is, that taxi-
dermy is an art resembling that of the painter, or
rather of the sculptor. It requires natural genius
as well as cultivation, and it can never be per-
manently improved until we have abandoned the
present conventional low standard and low payments
for ' bird -stuffing,' which are utterly inadequate to
xiii THE DUAL SYSTEM 187
induce any man of capacity to devote himself to it
as a profession." 1
In concluding his remarks on his own Museum,
Flower drew attention to the illustration of the
double treatment of the research and the public
division of a subject in the Botanical Department
of the Natural History Museum. The general
public are not such frequent visitors to this as to
other parts of the Museum. But any one who
sees its arrangement, which was begun under Mr.
Carruthers after the removal from Bloomsbury, and
continued under Mr. George Murray, will agree
with Flower that as an example of good museum
arrangement it is a model of what can be achieved.
The public can learn with the least possible trouble,
while the specialist in every department finds his
own subject fully illustrated and the specimens ready
to his hand.
The conclusions quoted above represent the
main body of Flower's general convictions as to
the management of museums, of which he, accord-
ing to Professor Virchow, was " the Prince of
Directors." They are elaborated elsewhere, in
every Zoological Museum in Europe and America,
but the substance does not alter.
There remained the consideration not of matters
but of men ; of the kind of initiative and control
1 The bird-stuffing which made most impression on Flower, as directed by an
amateur, was that in Mr. Booth's collection presented to Brighton. The
lifelike taxidermy of Mr. Rowland Ward and of Mr. Pickhardt at the
Museum might in justice to them be " signed " with the artists' names.
i88 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
needful to obtain success. Part of what Flower said
in this address, in which he summed up so many of
his convictions, was quoted by the Archbishop of
Canterbury at the unveiling of the memorial bust l
in the Great Hall of the Museum on July 25, 1903.
The following extract gives not only the quotation
but its context :
What a museum really depends on for its success is not its
building, not its cases, not even its specimens, but on its curator.
He and his staff are the life and soul of the institution upon
whom its whole value depends, and yet in many I may say most
of our museums they are the last to be thought of. The care,
the preservation, the naming of the specimens are often left to
voluntary effort, often excellent for special collections and for a
limited time, but never to be depended upon as a permanent
arrangement ; or a grievously under-salaried, and consequently
under-educated, official is expected to keep in order, clean and
dust, arrange, name and display collections varying in extent over
almost every branch of human learning, from the contents of an
ancient British barrow to the last-discovered bird of paradise from
New Guinea. ... A museum is like a living organism. It
requires continual and tender care. It must grow or it will
perish ; and the cost and labour required to maintain it in a
state of vitality is not yet by any means realised or provided for
either in our great national establishments or in our smaller local
institutions.
In the course of his Directorship even the Trea-
sury was so far impressed by the work done at the
Museum that Flower's representations as to the
under -payment of the staff there were not heard
with deaf ears. He had the great satisfaction of
knowing that his assistants' good work was so far
1 By Thomas Brock, R.A.
xiii UNDERPAID CURATORS 189
encouraged that each and all of them received
an increase of salary. He himself was the only
exception, probably for the sole reason that he
never made any personal request of that nature.
He entertained very strong feelings on the
inadequacy of the pay accorded to scientific men.
The fact of his being in easy circumstances himself
instead of making him indifferent only increased his
sympathy for those engaged in the same pursuits
who were not, and who were so ill paid as to be
unable to educate their children properly, or to
maintain reasonable comfort at home. He wrote
emphatically on this subject in Nature, and also
took every opportunity of bringing the question
before those in authority at the Museum. He also
urged, and obtained from the Zoological Society, an
increase of the stipend of their Secretary, pointing
out that if a body of scientific men did not set the
example of paying their servants properly, other
bodies could not be expected to act more liberally.
His views on local museums, field-club museums,
and school museums are particularly valuable as
showing both their proper limitations and their
great possible use. Now that what is termed
V nature study " is happily very likely to become
a permanent ''side subject" of education in our
schools, his remarks on the aid and encouragement
given by making good and suitable collections for
school field -clubs and museums are likely to be
re-read with special interest.
CHAPTER XIV
ANTHROPOLOGY
FROM the time when Flower was appointed Con-
servator of the Hunterian Museum he had always
taken a keen interest in Anthropology the natural
history of man. As the primitive races were
certain to die out, he held that it was our duty to
posterity to accumulate all the facts about them
within our reach. The English in particular owed
this to the world, as we had " disestablished and
disendowed " more savage tribes than any other
nation. Without attempting more than a retrospect
of his services to this branch of science, we may here
bring together some of the leading facts in order of
time.
His nightly labours in measuring the skulls in the
collection at the Hunterian Museum have already
been referred to by his eldest daughter, Mrs. Shann.
" In 1864, when he was appointed, the skeletons
numbered only 28 and the skulls 242. When
he left the Hunterian Museum the collection
of materials for studying the physical character
of the races of men consisted of 89 skeletons and
190
CHAP, xiv THE DAVIS COLLECTION 191
1380 skulls, exclusive of the Davis collection. A
great deficiency was thus supplied, and increased
opportunities for the study of osteological variations
in man was thus afforded, for he never let slip an
opportunity of acquiring small private collections of
specimens. The greatness of the task which he
set himself is shown by the fact that his osteological
catalogue contained a list of 1300 skulls, of each of
which he had carefully verified the measurements "
(Lancet).
It was also mainly due to him that the College of
Surgeons was induced to buy the splendid cranio-
logical series collected and scientifically catalogued
by Dr. Barnard Davis. In 1878, when the British
Association met at Dublin, with Professor Huxley
in the chair of the Anthropological Department,
Flower read a paper on the Methods and Results of
Measurements of Crania. Professor Huxley intro-
duced a personal element into the discussion
following it, by saying that he was so much struck
by Flower's remark, that if he could get his family to
consent to the arrangement, he could have his skull
for the collection, adding that it would be found to
be a very good example of the cranium of the
average peace-loving Englishman !
For many years Flower steadily advocated the
interests of what he thought was a much-neglected
science, endeavouring, when opportunity occurred,
to explain its object and to popularise it in the best
sense.
192 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
In doing this he was clearly abreast of even
specialist thought on this subject. The date of the
standard works on Anthropology fall almost without
exception within the period of Flower's active life.
Dr. Tylor's Researches into the Early History of
Mankind was published in 1865, his Primitive
Culture and Anthropology in 1871 and 1881. The
volumes of Wartz's Anthropologie der Naturvolken
appeared between 1859 and 1865. The Zeitschrift
fiir Ethnologie was produced in 1868, and the Revue
de I Anthropologie in 1869.
The Anthropological Society was founded in
1863, but it was not until 1871 that it amalgamated
with an older body, the Ethnological Society,
under the rather cumbrous title of the Anthropo-
logical Institute of Great Britain and Ireland.
Flower complained twenty-three years later of the
"singular want of interest taken by the outside
world in its proceedings," and at the British Associa-
tion Meeting at York in 1881, and at Oxford in
August 1894, he defined the scope and aims of the
science, and urged its study. At the York meeting,
after deploring the death of Professor Rolleston,
who had been keenly interested in the subject, he
proceeded as President of the Department, which
had first been instituted under the Presidency of
Dr. Tylor at the meeting at Montreal in 1871, to
draw the attention of his audience to Dr. Tylor's
Anthropology, the first work published in England
under that title, and then proceeded to lay before
xiv NATURAL HISTORY OF MAN 193
the audience the interest and importance of the
subject as he conceived it.
Taking Lord Beaconsfield's estimate of the value
of "race" as a social factor, he urged that race
problems could not be understood unless the history
of man were better known from the study of true
relationship.
It is to the want of appreciation of the importance " of natural
descent from a common ancestry " that many of the incon-
sistencies and shortcomings of government are due, especially
the great inconsistency between a favourite English theory and a
too common English practice the former being that all men
are morally and intellectually alike ; the latter being that all are
inferior to himself in all respects, both propositions being egregi-
ously fallacious. The study of race is at a low ebb indeed when
we hear the same contemptuous epithet of "nigger" applied
indiscriminately abroad by Englishmen to the black of the west
coast of Africa, the Kaffirs of Natal, the Lascars of Bombay, the
Hindoos of Calcutta, the Aborigines of Australia, and even the
Maoris of New Zealand.
This appeal was intended to introduce the natural
answer, which was that there were no means in
England for the study of the history of the races of
mankind, though in Paris in the Mus^e d'Histoire
Naturelle, man, as a zoological subject, had a fine
gallery allotted to him, abounding in illustrated
matter, besides which there was a vigorous Society
of Anthropology.
He also mentioned the curious fact that in Paris
there was also what was termed the "School" of
Anthropology, supported partly by private subscrip-
o
194 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
tions and partly by the Municipality of Paris and of
the Departments of the Seine. The " school " had
laboratories and a staff of professors, who lectured
on the very various branches of study into which
the science is divided, treating it not only from the
biological and anatomical point of view, but also
dealing with ethnology, manners, customs, pre-
historic man, and sociology. To these laboratories
all the persons of outlandish nationalities dying in
the Paris hospitals are brought and dissected, that
any physical peculiarities may be duly noted and
recorded.
In order that travellers may make the best of
such opportunities for obtaining human specimens
as chance may throw in their way, they can go to
the " school " and receive instructions how to
preserve such examples so as to be scientifically
useful.
The possibilities of a natural classification of the
races of man seemed to Flower remote.
The difficulties in the way of applying zoological principles
to the classification of men are vastly greater than in the case of
most animals, the problem being one of much greater com-
plexity. When groups of animals become so far differentiated
from each other as to represent separate species, they remain
isolated; they may break up into further subdivisions in fact
it is only by further subdivisions that a new species is formed.
But it is of the very essence of species that they cannot
recombine, and so give rise to new forms. With the varieties of
man it is otherwise. They have never so far separated as to
answer to the deiinition of species. All races are fertile one with
another, though perhaps in different degrees. Hence new
xiv EVOLUTION OF RACE 195
varieties have constantly been formed, not only by segmentation,
as it were, of a portion of the old stocks, but also by various
combinations of those already established. . . . Without entering
into the difficult question of the method of man's first appearance
upon the world, we must assume for it a vast antiquity, at all
events as measured by our historical standard. Of this there is
now ample proof. During the long period when he existed in a
savage state a time to which the dawn of historical time was as
yesterday he was influenced by the working of those natural
laws which have produced the variations seen in other regions of
organic nature. The first men may very probably have been all
alike ; but when spread over the face of the earth, and made
subject to very diverse external conditions of climate, food com-
petition with members of his own species or with wild animals,
racial differences began slowly to be developed. . . . Geographical
position must have been one of the main factors in determining
the formation and permanence of races. Groups of men isolated
from their fellows for long periods, such as those living on small
islands, to which their ancestors may accidentally have drifted,
would naturally, in course of time, develop a new set of features,
of skull, of complexion, or of hair. A slight set in one direction
in any of their characters would constantly tend to intensify
itself, and so new races would be formed ; . . . the longer a race
thus formed remained isolated, the more strongly impressed
would its characteristics become.
After expressing a hope that the Trustees of the
British Museum would see their way to provide
accommodation for anthropological collections in
their new Museum, he concluded by urging his
hearers to support the Institute.
Thirteen years later, at Oxford, General Pitt
Rivers presented to the University his splendid
collection illustrating the arts and customs of primi-
tive people. Only two years after the York meeting
196 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
one " Readership " in Anthropology was established
at Oxford, and Dr. Tylor's lectures there, and the
course given by Mr. Henry Balfour at Cambridge,
on the Arts of Mankind and their Evolution, and by
Professor A. Thomson on Physical Anthropology,
were attracting attention. The organisation of the
Ashmolean Museum under Mr. Arthur Evans had
some bearing upon branches of the subject, the
Indian Institute was encouraging interest in the
races of our Eastern Empire, and the study of
Comparative Physiology was becoming to some ex-
tent linked up with it. At Cambridge an Ethnological
and Ethnographical Museum was being formed in
1884, of which Baron Anatole von Hugel was the
first curator. In 1894 Anthropology was part of the
examination subject for those taking up anatomy in
the second part of the Natural Science Tripos. In
an address at the Oxford meeting of the British
Association in that year, Flower referred to the
above facts as examples of the progress being
made, and also cited the attention paid to the sub-
ject in Scotch universities. He touched on the
value of systematic teaching of the "science of
measurement," or Anthropometry, as a possible aid
to the inquiry as to the laws of growth, of heredity,
of comparative capacity of individuals in a com-
munity, and of the effects of different kinds of
education and occupation, worked out first by M.
Que in Belgium, and by Mr. Francis Galton, Dr.
Roberts, and others in this country. He claimed
xiv IDENTIFICATION OF CRIMINALS 197
the method of identification perfected by Berthillon
in France as a proof of the practical usefulness of
work originally begun solely from love of science.
By the Berthillon system exact measurements are
taken between certain well-known and fixed points
of the bony framework of the body which are
known not to change under different conditions of
life. To this means of identification, which the
British Government adopted, there was added, in
consequence of a report of a committee appointed
in 1893 by Mr. Asquith, the ingenious method of
personal identification by finger-marks, first used in
India by Sir William Herschel, but later elaborated
in this country by Mr. Francis Galton, who at his
sole cost, in 1888, opened and carried on the
Anthropometric Laboratory at South Kensington.
Flower's own views on a possible classification of
the human species are set out in his Essays on
Museums, in a chapter elaborated from an address
given at the anniversary meeting of the Anthropo-
logical Institute, January 27, 1885. It may be
found exemplified, so far as craniology can illustrate
it, in the upper gallery of the British Museum.
Linnaeus sketched out four primitive types of man, the
European, Asiatic, African, and American. Blumenbach added
a fifth, the Malay. Cuvier suppressed the last two and reduced
them to three.
After a perfectly independent study of the subject, I cannot
resist the conclusion, so often arrived at by various anthro-
pologists, and so often abandoned for some complex system,
that the primitive man, whoever he may have been, has in the
198 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER
course of ages divaricated into three extreme types, represented
by the Caucasian of Europe, the Ethiopian of Africa, and the
Mongolian of Asia, and that all individuals of the species can
be arranged round these types, or somewhere in order between
them.
The appeal which he made to travellers to
acquire material for the study of the natural history
of man carried far.
Among others to whom he imparted his enthu-
siasm at a distance was Emin Pasha. Emin was
by instinct a naturalist and collector. Before the
fall of Khartoum he was in command of the Wadelai
province in Central Africa, with practically a free
hand to indulge these tastes as well as to govern
and collect revenue. Like Sir Harry Johnston
in Uganda, he also found himself in a peculiarly
favourable position for studying the primitive races
of Central Africa, and especially the branch of the
pigmy tribes called the Akkas. He had met these
pigmies living, and retained one as a servant. He
also watched the spots where they buried their dead,
and obtained two skeletons. In September 1887,
after the fall of Khartoum, English public opinion
was greatly agitated as to the fate of Emin Pasha
and his troops. It was expected that the Mahdi
would advance and crush him, while the increasing
hostility of the Zanzibar Arabs and slave-traders
made communication from the east coast very diffi-
cult. When, therefore, it was heard that a chest
had arrived from Emin at Zanzibar, and was on its
xiv EMIN'S BOX AND LETTER 199
way to its consignee, the Director of the Natural
History Museum, it was fully expected that some
account of the military position, and perhaps an
estimate of the time which his ammunition would
last and of the spirits of his troops, would accom-
pany the package. There was in it absolutely no
personal news whatever. The letter and the con-
tents of the chest were just what might reach the
table of some learned society in London from a
correspondent on the fringe of civilisation, who
hoped to interest, and expected in the course of
time to be back at his club, and able to give a
lecture on his travels.
The box was an ordinary seaman's chest. The
covering letter was exquisitely written on the very
best foreign notepaper, divided into squares by the
water-mark ; and, as Flower said at the time, the
only thing which seemed to cause Emin any anxiety
was the doubt whether his contribution would
or would not entitle him to be made an honorary
fellow of the Anthropological Society.
WADELAI, September 4, 1887.
DEAR SIR Your very welcome note of Nov. 23, 1886, reached
me here safely. As by the papers I had learnt of your new
appointment, I have addressed the boxes which I forwarded to
you to the Consul-General, requesting him to send them to the
British Museum of Natural History. By Mr. Mackay I was
informed of his having started the said boxes from Uganda on
the i pth March. They should, therefore, by this time have
arrived at, and perhaps started from Zanzibar. On April 17!
wrote another letter, with four boxes of different objects to you,
200 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
but owing to the war between Uganda and Unyoro two boxes
were returned to me, and are still here. As towards the end of
this month I despatch a caravan to Uganda, I hope to be able to
send them by this occasion, together with the boxes of specimens
which I collected during a short stay at the western shore of
Lake Albert There are some new species of birds which may
prove acceptable to your collections. I have somewhat neglected
to collect mammalia, for the reason of deficiency of books. By
this post I entreated my friend Dr. Felkin to get me a good
work treating of mammalia only. If, therefore, he begs your
advice about the choice of the wished-for book, please give him
the necessary directions. Remember, however, that the book is
wanted for determination. Collecting without an approach to
determinate is half-hearted work. For the first time I shall send
some lepidoptera.
I have some good skulls for you ready Lango, Wadi, and
Turi, but I dare not send them now. The King of Uganda is
in strained relations with Mr. Mackay, to whom I send my boxes;
and if by chance they did open a box, and found these skulls,
we should be accused of witchcraft, and of plotting against the
life of the king. I may, therefore, be forced to expect Mr.
Stanley's arrival ; but if by chance an opening offers itself, I
shall certainly send the skulls also. In my antecedent letter I
begged of you to tell me whatever I could do for you and your
collaborators. The English have proved so generous in my
people's behalf, that I should like to contribute at least to your
public collections. You write so many delightful things (vide
" Osteology of Mammalia," etc), why not remember and gratify
me with a copy? Believe you that we Africans have lost all
appreciation of science ?
Dispose of my services, and believe me to be, dear sir, yours
very faithfully, Dr. EMIN PASHA.
Prof. W. H. Flower, LL.D., F.R.S.,
Director of the British Museum of Natural History.
Flower read a paper on these Akka skeletons
before the Anthropological Institute in February
xiv FASHION IN DEFORMITY 201
1888, which was published in the August number
of the Journal. He also incorporated part of these
remarks in a very interesting chapter on the
Pigmy Races of Men in the second part of his
Collected Essays. In this he traced in a connected
form the whole history of the pigmies, as known in
legend and to science from Homer to Haliburton,
who recently discovered a race of dwarfs in Mount
Atlas. Of a more popular character was his essay
on " Fashion in Deformity," in which he applied
his general knowledge of the induced deformities
of all races, from the highest to the lowest, and left
his readers to draw their own conclusions as to the
advisability of letting nature alone.
After his death the Athenczum of July 22, 1899,
contained a short supplementary notice referring to
his share in advancing the zoological study of man.
It is not much more than a catalogue, but may
serve as a guide to other papers for which space
does not allow even an abstract.
The death of Sir William Flower is so great a loss to Anthro-
pology that it is fitting that the general tribute to his services to
science, which has already been offered by the Athenczum, should
be supplemented by a notice in this column (Anthropological
Notes). He had already made important contributions to
anthropological research when he joined the Anthropological
Institution in 1877. He at once became an active member,
taking part in its discussions, serving on the council, and con-
tributing to the Journal. He gave the Institution the benefits
of his unrivalled knowledge by verifying the contents of its
museum.
202 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP, xiv
After referring to the various activities men-
tioned in previous pages and noting his papers on
the natives of the Andaman Islands, the writer
adds :
All those who have been his colleagues in the council of the
Institute will recall the memory of his zeal in their service, his
ready help when occasion called for it, and his wise counsel,
which was available alike to the body at large and to the indi-
vidual student.
Writing on July 16, 1903, Mr. Francis Galton
says :
Though our lines of study lay for the most part in different
directions, and the statistical interests common to us both led to
scientific opposition as regards the validity of methods^ ... I
should like to take this opportunity of speaking most emphati-
cally and most affectionately of his kindliness and courtesy.
They were combined with sound judgment, strong common
sense, and wide knowledge. He made one of the best of chair-
men, and was, I think, more universally beloved by his con-
temporaries than almost any other scientific man whom I have
known.
CHAPTER XV
A VISIT TO TENNYSON
SPEAKING at the unveiling of the late Director's
bust at the Natural History Museum, the Arch-
bishop of Canterbury said that among the qualities
which he most admired in him were his en-
thusiasm for his work, and the way in which
he contrived to interest others in the subject with-
out ever boring them. Those who either accom-
panied him round his Museum by invitation on
Sundays, or whom he met in the building, and
who found before they were quite aware of it that
he was gently making himself their guide, will
heartily assent to this view. His Sunday gather-
ings there, before it was opened to the public,
were particularly pleasant as social meetings and
useful to the Museum, for the varied and very
distinguished company who came to them spread
interest in what was going on in circles whence
effective help or support was frequently forthcoming
for useful projects connected with Natural History.
At the same time he was equally keen on interest-
ing the working men and the leaders of democratic
203
204 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
opinion in the same way, and enlisted their good-
will without difficulty. One day he appeared with
Mr. John Burns, M.P., in Mr. Pagan, the Sec-
retary's office, and, after introductions, said, " I met
Mr. Burns going round the building, and thought
he wanted a guide ; so I ventured to propose
myself; and I am glad to say that he expresses
himself very well satisfied with what he has seen."
Among the visitors whom Flower more par-
ticularly enjoyed taking round his Museum was
Lord Tennyson, who spent a morning with him
alone on July 14, 1892. They were old acquaint-
ances, from meeting in Dean Stanley's house at
Westminster. On July 23, 1892, Flower went
down to stay at Aldworth, meeting the Duke of
Argyll, who was also to be a guest there, at
Waterloo, whence they travelled down to Surrey
together. Flower wrote an account of this visit in
his wife's note-book.
After a very lovely drive of nearly two miles from the station,
mostly over wild common land and through deep lanes with
woods on each side, we arrived at Aldworth. It is a handsome
stone house, in the English style, built about twenty years ago
by Lord Tennyson, Mr. James Knowles, now editor of the
Nineteenth Century, being the architect. It stands close to the
edge of the steep greensand escarpment, which runs nearly
due east and west through all this part of the country, and
immediately to the south is a steep drop of several hundred
feet, and then a level plain, bounded nearly twenty miles off by
the range of downs between Worthing and Portsmouth, giving a
magnificent view. The ridge, and the whole slope below, is
covered by an ' old wood, in a clearing in which the house was
xv A VISIT TO TENNYSON 205
built, and through which walks were made in various directions,
some of which lead down through the steep paths to a little farm
at the bottom, which is part of the property. The house thus
perfectly carries out one of the owner's principal objects in
coming here in summer from the Isle of Wight freedom from
the intrusion of unwelcome strangers. The only approach is
by a private road across the common, and then through the
Aldworth woods and lodge, and neither house nor garden can be
seen from anywhere.
The poet met us at the hall door, attired in his cloak and
broad -brimmed felt hat. He had just been walking in the
garden, and gave us a friendly welcome. Of course he was
greatly pleased to see so old a friend as the Duke of Argyll,
who had visited him annually for so many years except this last ;
so they had not met for two years, and had very much to say to
each other upon almost every subject, especially recent politics.
Mr. and Mrs. Hallam Tennyson appeared about the same time,
and we were taken into the drawing-room to see Lady Tennyson,
who was lying on a sofa. She was very sweet and kind in
manner, but very frail-looking. They told me that she had not
walked for thirty years. We then went out into the garden (it
was a beautiful summer evening). The natural character of the
old rough wood of oak and hazel has been completely changed
round the house, and a great many conifers of various kinds
planted, now fine, healthy, well -grown trees, in all of which
Tennyson takes much pleasure and pride ; and having planted
them himself when he first came to the place, he is evidently
much pleased to have them admired. They seemed to have
grown much too luxuriantly in places, blocking out the splendid
view. But, of course, I did not say so, as this could easily be
remedied if necessary. ... I was agreeably surprised to see
Lady Tennyson walk in with the Duke. She sat through
dinner, but retired very early upstairs, and we did not see her
again during the evening. Tennyson also retired soon after
dinner to his library upstairs (between which and the garden he
spends most of his time), and as the Duke also went early to
his room, I was left alone with Mr. and Mrs. Hallam. The
latter soon took me off to his private room at the top of the
206 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
house, where he smoked, and we had a long talk before we went
to bed. Tennyson never comes down to breakfast with his
family, but takes it in his library to avoid fatigue and to get
more time to himself. But he gets up early, and while I was
dressing I saw him pacing about the garden, stick in hand, and
with cloak and broad -brimmed hat on. . . . After our return
from church at Haslemere we found the Poet Laureate, the
Duke, and Hallam sitting in a summer arbour near the entrance
to the grounds, talking most interestingly of poetry and of various
criticisms on his (Tennyson's) writings, about which he seemed
very sensitive, and asked our opinion as to whether they were
just. The Duke talked much about birds, taking minute notice
of every one he saw. Observation of natural objects around him
is evidently a keen source of interest to him, and he has con-
siderable general knowledge of such subjects. Tennyson also
talked of natural history ; the former geological changes of the
world and the succession and extinction of animal life and
evolution have a great fascination for him. He was very
anxious for my opinions as to these questions, and their relation
to belief in God's creation of, and providence in, ruling the
world. These questions are touched upon in the new poems
(not then published), which he showed us, and read some of
(this was in the afternoon). He spoke very severely of those
who tried to shake religious faith in others by irreverent treat-
ment of sacred subjects, especially referring to some recent
utterances of our friend . But the subject which they
both (the poet and the Duke) seemed to feel most keenly, and
to which they constantly referred, was the political decadence of
Mr. Gladstone, and the state he was bringing the country into
by his action. They had evidently both been greatly attached
to him in former times, and therefore felt the change which had
come over him more acutely.
After luncheon the poet retired upstairs, and Hallam showed
us a very fine phonograph which Edison had sent as a present to
them, and from which he reproduced in a wonderful echo of the
poet's voice several of the shorter poems, " The Splendour falls
on Castle Walls" and "The Charge of the Light Brigade."
Later in the afternoon we found Lord and Lady Tennyson in
xv ODE ON DUKE OF WELLINGTON 207
the garden (she in a recumbent couch on wheels). He read
some of his new poems, and then I ventured to ask whether he
would not read one of his old ones. I suggested the " Ode on
the Death of the Duke of Wellington," and he seemed pleased at
the choice, and said he would read it after dinner. I told him
that I had often read it to my children, whose first ideas of the
Duke of Wellington had been derived from it, which also pleased
him. He said, " I hope you pronounce it properly all the vowels
broad and long (larmentartion)." He had reproved the Duke
in the morning for speaking of a " knoll " instead of knoll, and
said you would not say " toll " a bell. He thought the mincing
way of shortening vowels was spoiling the language. But I must
say the opposite extreme which he adopts, combined with his deep
rough voice and Lincolnshire (?) accent, though interesting, was
not really pleasing. He was very severe upon the impertinent
intrusion into his private life of modern interviewers and news-
paper writers.
Although generally rather severe and depressed, complaining
of old age and weakness and of the political and social state of
the country, he was often jocose in a grim way. The Duke was
upon some particular diet, involving occasional drinking of a cup
of hot water. When at tea Tennyson offered him some, and the
Duke said, " Not yet ; my man will bring it when the proper
time comes " ; to which Tennyson replied, " Oh, I see, he always
keeps you in hot water."
Speaking of the Duke of Wellington, I asked him if he had
known him personally, and he said that he had never met him
but once, at an evening party, and that the host offered to intro-
duce him, but that he declined, being, he said, very shy, and
thinking that the Duke could not know who he was. Thereupon
the Duke of Argyll gave several interesting reminiscences of
Wellington, one of which may be worth setting down. A man
in the Indian Civil Service had some grievance against the Com-
pany, having been, he alleged, wrongly deprived of an appoint-
ment, and was trying to get compensation. His case was brought
to the notice of the Duke of Argyll, then very young in politics,
and he promised to bring it before Parliament ; but in order to
get more support he went to the Duke of Wellington and laid all
208 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
the circumstances before him. The Duke listened, and asked
what he proposed to do. He said, " To ask a question in the
House." " Well, and when your question is answered, what
next?" "Well," the Duke of Argyll replied, hesitating, "that,
I suppose, will depend upon circumstances," or something to that
effect. Whereupon the Duke of Wellington said, " Let me give
you a piece of advice, which I have always acted upon through
my life. Never take any step without having clearly in your
inind what, if it should succeed, the next step should be."
I expressed my admiration for the house and surroundings to
Lady Tennyson, but she said it was not nearly as charming as
Farringford, which she looked upon as really her home. She
always longed for the time for going back there, and most kindly
said, " I do hope you will come and see us there ; I should like
you to know the place." Hallam told me they were literally
driven out of the Isle of Wight during the tourist season by the
intrusion of strangers, who insisted on coming into the garden,
walking up and looking in at the windows, and if they were
stopped from doing this, standing round the gates, or climbing
up trees with opera-glasses and telescopes to catch a glimpse of
the poet. When they go out for a walk or a drive they crowd
round them in a manner unpleasant for any one, but especially
for one so peculiarly sensitive to such treatment as Tennyson.
After dinner we all went up into the poet's library, a large corner
room looking to the south-west and commanding a fine view.
Then came the promised reading of the " Duke of Wellington." 1
He reclined sideways on the sofa, holding the book up in his
hand, near his face, with a lamp behind. As he had been talking
much during the day, and was suffering somewhat from a cough,
Hallam begged him not to read, and I felt that I ought not to
press him, as it was evidently an effort. But he was resolute,
saying that he had promised me to do it, and so he would, and
he read it all through, while the Duke and I listened with the
deepest attention.
Hallam left the room because, he said afterwards, it was
1 It may be remembered that one of Flower's pleasures in life had been
reading Tennyson's poetry to his family in the evening. Hence his peculiar
enjoyment of the scene he describes.
xv A VISIT TO TENNYSON 209
painful to him to see his father making such an exertion ; but it
was satisfactory to find that he was none the worse for it, and
continued to talk afterwards with the greatest animation. One
interesting circumstance connected with this reading was that
when he came to the line
Who never sold the truth to serve the hour,
he paused, looked up, and said, "As I am afraid Mr. Gladstone
is doing now.'
The Duke and I had agreed to go by the same train to
London the next morning, which involved our starting soon after
breakfast, to which, as before mentioned, Lord Tennyson does
not come. But we were both asked to go up in turn to see him
in his library. We had a little interesting conversation, and he
bade me a kind farewell, expressing a hope that I would come
again to Aldworth. But three months afterwards I was one of
the great procession of mourners in Westminster Abbey on
Wednesday the i2th of October.
CHAPTER XVI
LATER DAYS AT THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM
IN 1889 Flower achieved a typical year's work and
activity. Besides his daily occupation at the
Museum he lectured before various societies, and
spent an Easter holiday in Cornwall, where, finding
some unrecorded remains of whales at Penzance,
he carefully examined them, found out their species,
and fully described them for the local museum.
He was elected President of the Zoological Society
for the eleventh time. In addition to all his
regular work a large correspondence, both at home
and abroad, made increasing demands on his time
and energy. Part was due to his position, and
he was always ready to comply with legitimate
desires for knowledge. But it was scarcely fair
that many people should write to ask him for in-
formation which they could have found for them-
selves if they took the trouble to consult an
encyclopaedia. Many parents also sought his advice
about the education of their children. He had to
disappoint some mothers who brought boys who
"had a taste for natural history," which often meant
only that they were fond of catching butterflies,
CHAP, xvi AN ICE GROTTO 211
and wanted to leave school to obtain situations
in the Museum. He used to astonish the parents
greatly by recommending them to send them
back to school to study Greek and Latin, after
which they might be qualified to pass on later to
the study of natural history. He spent August
with his family in Switzerland, staying chiefly in
the higher and lonelier parts, especially at the
little Riederalp hotel, between the Eggischorn and
the Bel Alp, exploring the magnificent Aletsch
glacier. Nature had formed an ice grotto that
summer on the glacier, which they frequently
visited, and which was described in the words of their
sixteen-year-old boy Stanley, who wrote home :
We have seen the wonderful natural grotto, the most utterly
and inexpressibly lovely and delicately beautiful yet awe-inspir-
ing spectacle that I have ever seen. The blues and greens of
the transparent ice, the pink light from the outer air falling on
the waterfall, and the purple dimness in the spray and inner
recesses of the vast cavern, combined with the majestic roar of
the great cataract tumbling wildly into the abyss beneath, and
the fantastic pillars sculptured by Nature's hand upon the ice,
produces a scene the very ideal of beauty.
He was President of the British Association in
September, staying with Lord Armstrong during
the meeting, which was held at Newcastle. The
substance of his presidential address has been dealt
with in the chapter on "Anthropology." He was
made a D.C.L. of Durham University, and then,
after a series of visits, including one to the Duke of
Northumberland at Alnwick Castle and another to
212 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
the Earl of Tankerville at Chillingham, ended the
summer by taking his youngest boy, Victor, to
Winchester. In 1890 he began one of his most
popular series of lectures, those on Saturday after-
noons at the Royal Institution. The subject was
the " Natural History of the Horse and its Extinct
Allies." These were very largely attended. The
treatment of the subject was new to his hearers,
while his great knowledge of the present structure
of the horse and of its evolution was very welcome
to all classes and sexes interested in riding, driving,
training, and breeding all kinds from "Shires" to
Shetland ponies.
On April 30 the Civil Service dinner was held,
at which Lord Wolseley was in the chair and
Flower Vice-chairman. Flower responded for the
Civil Service in one of the brightest speeches
which he ever made, and before a highly critical
audience. He declared that he was "almost the
youngest member of the Service there, having been
only appointed six years, but that he brought to it
the proverbial zeal of those converted late in life.
Instead of devoting his time to the study of
mammals and the craniology of Andaman Islanders,
he had found a far higher vocation, the study of
man in his highest development, whose habits and
idiosyncrasies had to be studied, whether engaged
as colleagues at the Natural History Museum
or in the Dread Department (i.e. the Treasury),
the name of which must not pass his lips, which
xvi CIVIL SERVICE DINNER 213
sat in judgment on them all, and gave or withheld
the means of encouragement to all." He particu-
larly referred to the measure for retirement being
brought forward, " under the provisions of which,
at an age when bishops are appointed to rule great
dioceses, and at which politicians were spoken of
as rising men, the knowledge and experience of a
civil servant will no longer be at the service of
his country." In November he attended the public
transfer of the Booth collection of birds to the
Corporation of Brighton. In the following year he
published his Introduction to ttie Study of Mammals,
Living and Extinct, in which he was assisted by
Mr. Lydekker.
His eldest son Arthur, who was educated at
Winchester and Oxford, in accordance with his
father's views on the subject of the best general
education, and had taken up the profession of
an architect, was, to his father's great pleasure,
married on the 24th of June 1892 to Alberta
Maitland Chambers, youngest daughter of Dr.
Thomas King Chambers, and a god-daughter of
the King.
In 1892 he brought together his lectures on the
horse in a book entitled The Horse, a Study in
Natural History (Kegan Paul), published as part
of the "Modern Science Series." It was a subject
which appealed to every class of reader, scientific
or otherwise. It was the first of the series, and
dealt with the history of the animal " as it appears
2i 4 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
in the modern and now generally accepted doctrines
of Natural History." In the first part of the book
he traced the history of the group now represented
by the tapirs, rhinoceroses, and horses step by step,
as shown in the fragments preserved from former
ages, farther and farther back into time, these
differences continually becoming less marked, and
ultimately blending together, if not into one common
ancestor, at all events into forms so closely alike in
all essentials that no reasonable doubt can be held
as to their common origin. The second part of
the book is devoted to the anatomy of the horse
and its nature and habits. In his second chapter
he was at pains to add :
Those who have the care of horses in a domesticated state
may learn a practical lesson from what has been here said as to
their habits in a state of nature. All existing species of the family
are dwellers in dry, open, and generally elevated plains. None
are inhabitants of gloomy forests or reeking marshes. Fresh air,
dryness, and light are essential to their well-being. Darkness
and damp, which some animals delight and thrive in, are utterly
uncongenial to horses. The neglect of this consideration, so
frequently seen in the construction and management of stables, is
not only unkind to the animals, but very costly to their owners.
He noted that in Egypt there was no trace of
the domestication of the horse before 1900 B.C.,
\oncr after the ass had become a servant of man
o
in the valley of the Nile. Bailey s Magazine, a
periodical devoted almost entirely to hunting, riding,
and driving, in a review of the book on practical
modern lines, says : " Especially would we commend
xvi BEARING REINS 215
to horse -owners the page (141) dealing with the
anatomy of the horse's head and neck. After
explaining how the heavy head is supported by
very slight muscular exertion, the author says :
" Probably if those who have to do with the har-
nessing of horses were better acquainted with this
admirable, natural, mechanical apparatus for holding
up the head in a natural and unstrained position,
they would think it less necessary to supplement
the cervical ligament by an external contrivance for
effecting the same object, called the 'bearing rein,'
which, however, not being elastic, never allows the
head, even momentarily, to be altered in position."
Thus Sir William was able to support on
scientific grounds the views so strongly held and
advocated by his father, Mr. Edward Fordham
Flower, in the later years of his life. None of the
Flower family ever allowed the use of bearing reins,
either those settled at Stratford, the inmates of
whose stables were well known throughout the
county, or Sir William or his father in London.
On August 28, 1892, Flower received an intima-
tion that he was created a Knight Commander
of the Bath. The letter was written by Lord
Salisbury, and ran as follows :
MY DEAR SIR I have much pleasure in informing you that
the Queen has been pleased to direct that you should be appointed
a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath, in recognition of
the valuable services which you have rendered during your tenure
of the post which you so worthily occupy.
I need hardly say that it is a matter of great satisfaction to
216 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
me to be the instrument of conveying to you Her Majesty's
gracious command. Believe me, yours very faithfully,
SALISBURY.
That autumn Flower was summoned to Windsor
Castle, where Queen Victoria graciously presented
to him the insignia of the Bath.
The recurrence of the London season always
brought extra work by multiplying engagements.
Flower was the reverse of a recluse, and greatly
enjoyed congenial society, sometimes saying laugh-
ingly to his wife that " he was glad he was not a
genius, as he was sure that she would not have
found a genius pleasant to live with." He was
much in society, besides attending the functions of
the various learned bodies with which he was
associated. He did not care for the heated
atmosphere of large and late evening parties, but
found garden-parties more to his taste, especially
those held among the historical associations of
Lambeth Palace, or among the trees and flowers
of Syon House and Osterley, while in London
itself he had the privilege of attending the garden-
parties of Her Majesty at Buckingham Palace, and
of the Prince of Wales at Marlborough House.
But undoubtedly the most interesting of all these
social experiences was when Flower and his wife
and daughter were invited to Balmoral Castle, and
enjoyed the privilege of private conversation with
Her Majesty the Queen in September 1894.
Lady Flower writes : " Although my husband was
xvi AT BALMORAL 217
so tall and the Queen so short, he said that Her
Majesty had such dignity of carriage that he was
not conscious of her being below the ordinary
height, and was principally impressed by the
beauty of her clear voice, and by the degree in
which her appearance excelled her portraits, she
having such a well-shaped handsome nose, as well
as such blue eyes. The Queen proved her ' Royal
memory ' indeed in remembering all about our
friendship with the Dean of Westminster and Lady
Augusta Stanley, and graciously inquiring after
our children, who had been christened by him, and
showing such kindness generally as to remove all
formality and give the real pleasures of conversa-
tion. Her Majesty also said with how much
pleasure she heard of the progress of the Museum
from various members of her family, and only
lamented that increasing lameness must prevent her
from visiting it herself. But it is sad to look back
on that most interesting dinner-party of twelve and
remember how many are already gone. On each
side of the Queen sat Prince Henry of Battenberg,
looking well and handsome in Highland costume,
and Prince Christian Victor of Schleswig-Holstein,
just returned from his Indian campaign, of which
he spoke with much animation and enthusiasm.
Both young Princes have since died in the service
of their country, as well as our beloved Queen
herself, ' full of years and honours.' '
218 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER
Lady Flower says :
One beautiful summer day was greatly enjoyed by my husband,
when H.R.H. Princess Louise (then Marchioness of Lome) was
so kind as to show Windsor Castle to us. The art treasures
were thus seen under peculiar advantages, the Princess herself
having such artistic tastes and powers, and describing pictures,
sculpture, miniatures, historic rooms with intimate knowledge
of all, both artistic and historical. The views from the windows
were as lovely as anything, and H.R.H. even led us out of a
window on to a roof, whence there was a magnificent view
Windsor Park in all the freshness of its foliage, with blue distances
beyond, as well as the interest near at hand of Eton College.
In 1894 Flower was elected a member of " The
Club," a social institution of an interesting kind.
It was founded in 1764 by Sir Joshua Reynolds
and Dr. Samuel Johnson, and among its original
members were Charles James Fox, David Garrick,
Richard Brinsley Sheridan, and Edward Gibbon,
and Adam Smith. Flower was elected at the same
time as Lord Lansdowne and Lord Davey. Among
a long list of distinguished members at the time
were Lords Rosebery, Kelvin, Coleridge, Acton,
the Marquis of Salisbury, the Marquis of Dufferin,
the Due d'Aumale, Mr. Gladstone, Professor
Huxley, Lord Leighton, Lord Wolseley, the
Bishop of Oxford, Mr. W. H. Lecky, Viscount
Goschen, Sir Robert Herbert, Sir Alfred Lyall,
Sir Donald M. Wallace. The Right Hon. Sir
Mountstuart E. Grant Duff was Treasurer.
CHAPTER XVII
LAST YEARS AT THE MUSEUM
MR. CHARLES FAGAN, the Secretary of the Natural
History Museum, was naturally in receipt of many
private letters from his chief when the latter was
away on his holidays. Most of these are of a
personal character, or are concerned with official
matters on which it would possibly not be desirable
to publish his opinion. But the following, selected
from a number which Mr. Fagan has kindly placed
at my disposal for use in this Memoir, will give an
idea of some of the matters which daily engaged
the Director's attention at the Museum or when he
was away for his holidays :
YORK, August 26, I894. 1
MY DEAR FAGAN ... I was very pleased to find
ready to take up a piece of work in the Hall, and told him I
would give him all facilities in the way of specimens or materials,
but that I could not apply again to the Treasury for any overtime
allowance. About this, however, he made no difficulty, and if he
1 In this year a notice of his late friend Sir Victor Brooke's researches in
natural history was contributed by him to Sir Leslie, then Mr. Leslie Stephen's
Life of Sir Victor Brooke.
219
220 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER
continues to carry it out as he proposes, I feel sure it will be a
good thing and do him credit. I shall be glad to have all the
specimens he requires ordered from Naples.
Writing from Avonbank, Stratford-on-Avon, on
April 9, 1896, he says :
I am glad to see those cuttings. That from the Times, which
I had already seen, is far the best ; and I like the notice in the
Daily News of Waterhouse's Life Histories of Insects, which are
some of the best things that have been added of late to the
public exhibition, and will become still more valuable as the
series increases. . . . What you tell me of your Italian friend is
very interesting, and I am glad you have written to Salvador!
about him. If he really stuffed that elephant, he must have some
genius for the work that we should do well to develop.
On August 7 of the same year he wrote :
MY DEAR FAGAN I have this afternoon received your letter
of the 5th, and return 's account, and also enclose a
Spanish letter about our publication, which you will probably be
able to make out and have attended to. I am not surprised that
the Office of Works declined to cut the terra-cotta skirting, as the
case can easily be adapted to fit the recess. As to the ducks, 1
made a great mistake, for I had particularly asked Lord
Walsingham to send some on the ist and 1 5th of August and
the ist September. But one came shortly before I started, and
coming at an irregular time, and being an old female, I did not
want it stuffed (I mean mounted by Pickhardt), so gave it to
to eat. But I did not mean this to apply to future con-
signments ! If not given for mounting, the skins should be kept.
Thanks for the Daily Telegraph with its account of the Museum.
I saw the number of visitors in the Times, but had forgotten that
there were so many last August, and thought they must have
made a mistake. I am glad that the Sunday visitors keep up in
numbers.
1 Examples of " eclipse " plumage.
AT ST. ANTONIEN 221
He writes from St. Antonien, Switzerland :
We have been here just a fortnight, and have had our first
really fine day. If it goes on like it is now, we shall soon forget
all we have been through, and thoroughly enjoy the place, for it
is most beautifully situated, with charming walks all round, and
quite comfortable enough within for all practical purposes ; all
new and clean, though plain, and the living is substantial and
abundant, and we are all getting well and strong. The principal
difficulty about the place, and what keeps it still in a primitive
condition (especially as to prices), is the difficulty of getting to
and from the station, 5 miles off. . . . Whenever the sun has
shone insects have been abundant, and I have nearly filled the
collecting box Austen provided me with. Will you send me out
another by return of post, if possible, and ask to have put inside
two or three small setting boards, suitable for diptera and beetles,
and also some more cardboard discs, for I have come to the end
of those I brought out, and I want them all to be alike ? I have
plenty of pins and everything else required.
I suppose you have seen Mr. - 's speech about our
salaries, full of all the fallacies and ignorances of the subject
usually shown, and which has unfortunately not been answered.
But it gives a good opening for returning to the attack, which
must be taken up seriously before the estimates are sent in. ...
But I must not go on about things which I ought (for a short
time) to put off my mind. It was reading 's speech in
the Times that set me on. ...
In January 1897, when the state of Flower's
health was becoming serious, he wrote from
Marazion :
MY DEAR FAG AN I received the enclosed this morning from
Sir Edward Thompson, who asked me to send it on to you. As
far as I can make out, it corroborates your original idea that we are
to have no reductions, 1 and that the Treasury have therefore been
very liberal to us. . . . It is satisfactory that our Purchase Grant
In the grant for the Museum.
222 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
is assured for five years, though, judging by past experience, there
is not much chance of our "building up a fund." Sir Edward
writes very kindly to me, strongly urging me not to think of
returning for the Trustees' meeting of the 27th of February, and
offering to take the business of the meeting himself. I must
wait a little before I can decide. Of course, I very much want
to be back, and yet, on the other hand, I am not getting on quite
so fast as I hoped.
It is pleasant, though rather pathetic, to note
how frequently in those last letters he wishes that
he could be back in his beloved Museum, if only
for a few hours :
I wish that I were going home, and was able to walk into the
Museum, but I am afraid it will require this other month (March
1897) before it will be safe to do so; and then I shall have to
begin by degrees before falling into my regular work.
And again :
I often wish to know something of all that is being said and
done in the Museum, but I find it necessary for my peace of
mind and health to think as little as possible of it at present.
I suppose you have been able to pay for the pedestal [of the
Owen statue] this year? [The sculptor] will want the rest of
his money, but until I can get at work winding up the accounts,
which I must do soon after my return, I cannot say exactly what
it will be. Should he say anything about wishing payment I
could send him a cheque from my own bank, though it may
make a little confusion.
Artists who are kept waiting for payment for work
done will appreciate this last considerate offer.
In February 1898, though able to go to the
Museum, he was evidently very unwell :
I had a good day at the Museum yesterday (he says on
February 18), but stayed too long in the Entomological and
xvii HIS SON'S APPOINTMENT 223
Taxidermist Departments downstairs. Consequently I had a
bad night, and am not good for much to-day. It is very pro-
voking, for I am afraid I ought not to come back till Monday.
It happened much as I expected when I saw that an ex-
Chancellor of the Exchequer was at the meeting on Saturday
could not stand the Treasury letter, and insisted on declining to
comply with their reduction. It will not lead to any good, I am
afraid.
The appointment of his son, Captain Stanley
Flower, to the management of the Zoological
Gardens at Cairo gave him great pleasure :
I enclose a letter from Stanley (he writes on August 27, 1898)
about a box which must now be on its way to the Museum.
When it arrives will you please have its contents distributed
according to the list enclosed. I mentioned to you before I
left that he might be leaving Bangkok soon, and now I am glad
to hear that he has received the appointment of Superintendent
of the Zoological Gardens at Cairo, one which is entirely to his
taste, and which will be a far more agreeable and healthy place
of residence for himself and his family. He is to be there in
October. The Zoological Congress seems to have been well
attended ; judging from the newspaper reports, most of the
foreign nations are well represented. I hope that the London
part will be successfully carried out, and that the Museum will be
appreciated.
In October 1898, after the Director had sent in
his resignation, he wrote among the last letters of
this correspondence :
MY DEAR FAGAN Your letter of the ist gives me real
pleasure. I will keep it among other valued testimonies that
my life during the last fourteen years has not been spent
altogether in vain. The constant help you have given me
throughout is one of the most agreeable memories connected
224 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
with those years. You know how much I wish I could have
done more, both for the Museum and for all belonging to it.
But it has not been granted to me, and I must be thankful for
the measure of health and strength which is left.
Though the work entailed at the Museum by
his undertaking the keepership of Zoology made
great demands on his thought and time, Flower
received ample public recognition of his efforts,
while his private life was singularly happy. He
was elected an honorary member of nearly every
learned society abroad connected with Zoology.
He was already an honorary LL.D. of Edinburgh
and of Cambridge. In 1895 ne received the
honorary degree of D.C.L. at Oxford. In Sep-
tember 1895, at the International Congress of
Zoologists at Leyden, he was elected President for
next year's Congress. The University of Utrecht
made him Doctor in Botany and Zoology, honoris
causa, in the same year. He was elected a Life
Trustee of Shakespeare's birthplace by the people
of Stratford-on-Avon. In 1897 ne was elected
" Associe de 1' Academic Royale des Sciences, des
Lettres, et des Beaux- Arts " of Belgium, the only other
British Associates being Lord Kelvin, Sir J. Hooker,
and Sir Archibald Geikie. In 1898 he received
through the German Embassy in London from the
German Emperor the Royal Prussian Order of
Merit, " fur die Wissenschaften und Kiinste," which
the Queen granted him permission to wear.
But Flower's constitution, though his fine appear-
HIS RESIGNATION 225
ance did not show it, was already beginning to feel
the effects of strenuous work and responsibility. In
1 897 he notes in his skeleton diary, ' ' I began the
year in my serious illness, not having been out of
the house since December 10." Lady Flower has
described in the final chapter the way in which he
maintained his interest in his work and administra-
tive duties under the heavy disadvantage of rapidly
failing health. But on June n, 1898, his resigna-
tion of the office of Director of the Natural History
Museum was received by the Trustees, to date from
the 3Oth September following. The Trustees
received this communication with the greatest
regret. The following letter was directed to be
sent to Sir William, and signed by the chairman of
the meeting, Viscount Dillon.
DEAR SIR WILLIAM FLOWER With profound regret the
Trustees accept the resignation of the Directorship of the Natural
History Museum, which, owing to failure of health, you have
unhappily been compelled to submit to them. They had hoped
that the remaining term of years which you might have spent in
their service would have enabled you to perfect the arrangement
of the collections so admirably planned and so systematically
developed by you during your fourteen years of office, and they
cannot but regard your retirement at this moment as a real
misfortune to the Museum. They wish to record their high
appreciation of your services. The rare combination of wide
scientific knowledge with marked administrative ability and
sympathetic appreciation of the requirements of the uninstructed
public has carried you through a most difficult task. Under
your hands the Natural History collections of the British Museum
have fallen into the lines of an orderly and instructive arrange-
ment, which no one, whether man of science or ordinary visitor,
Q
226 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP. XVH
can examine without admiration. To you, as a worthy successor
of Sir Richard Owen, will attach the honour of having organised
a museum of Natural History which now occupies a pre-eminent
position among all Museums of the civilised world.
For these devoted services the Trustees thank you. In your
retirement you carry with you their lasting gratitude and sincere
good wishes. Believe me, dear Sir William Flower, yours very
truly, DILLON.
CHAPTER XVIII
HIS LAST YEARS
By LADY FLOWER.
THE latter part of life is often spoken of as "going
down hill," but with Sir William Flower it was
more like the sun setting after a beautiful day ; for
all that had distinguished his life in its rise and
progress shone forth even more towards its close,
just as the sunset brings out lovely colours, lights,
and shades unnoticed before, till we feel almost as
if this earth were being transfigured into heaven.
His devotion to duty, his love of work, his
keen interest in science, in politics, in fact in all
things, both public and private, that bore upon the
progress and good of mankind, his own patience
under trials, his consideration for others, his love of
his family, were only intensified as his physical
strength declined. The sufferings of illness were
to him "crosses " to be borne with resignation and
cheerfulness. When in 1897 the doctors first told
him of serious mischief threatened by his heart, he
said to his wife that he " only hoped that it would
not make him irritable or troublesome to others."
His aspiration was fulfilled, it never did.
227
228 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
Already in 1896 the strain of work had begun
to tell on his health, and as mountain air had
hitherto done him good, a journey to Switzerland
was again undertaken, though this time only to
quiet unfrequented parts. He was much interested
in collecting Natural History specimens for the
Museum, and as keenly alive to the beauties of
Nature as ever; but walking up-hill brought on
breathlessness and palpitation of the heart, so that
he was glad to return quietly home.
He had to relinquish what used to give him
great pleasure, visiting interesting friends in beautiful
country places, as when both stayed with Earl
Cawdor in his picturesque old Scotch home, Cawdor
Castle, with the Duke and Duchess of Northumber-
land in Alnwick Castle, with Mr. Webb in Byron's
old home, Newstead Abbey, with Lord and Lady
Tankerville at Chillingham, where he was presented
with one of the famous "wild cattle" for the
Museum, with Lord and Lady Tollemache in the
moated Helmingham Hall, and other places of
historic interest ; but this autumn we only paid
short visits at short distances from London, just
for the refreshment of a country Sunday after the
week's work. Thus we first went to Lord Avebury
(then Sir John Lubbock) in Kent, and another
week to Sir Trevor Lawrence to see his wonderful
orchids in Surrey. But although enjoying these
visits as much as ever, he was no better in health
and becoming alarmingly thin, till, whilst on a short
xvm LEAVE OF ABSENCE 229
visit (for the Museum work had been hitherto
steadily carried on between whiles) to Sir Henry
Smyth at St. John's Lodge in Buckinghamshire,
severe signs of heart trouble came on, and he
hastened home to London, where Sir Richard
Douglas Powell and his skilful doctor and friend,
Mr. Kingston Barton, ordered complete rest for the
time, and the Trustees of the British Museum were
most considerate and kind in according leave of
absence for as long as his health required it.
In January 1897 he sought quiet sea air in
accepting Lady Warington Smyth's kind loan of
her sea-side cottage at Marazion in Cornwall,
where St. Michael's Mount is always an object of
great beauty and interest, and Lord St. Levan
kindly arranged for his boatmen to carry Sir
William up the rocky ascent.
Afterwards he went to Colonel and Mrs.
Biddulph in Ireland, where he obtained so much
benefit from the pure air and peaceful quiet that
hopes of his recovery were entertained, and,
returning to London in the spring, he recom-
menced work in the Museum. Indeed, considering
the dangerous illness which he had passed through,
it was wonderful to see the quick step and animated
gestures with which he would point out new speci-
mens or explain improvements which he hoped
to make. He never spared himself in going up
and down stairs in that great building, or in
working for it at home, even when a palpitation of
2 3 o SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
heart necessitated his lying down for some hours.
His friends urged his resigning the post in order to
take complete rest, but the doctors did not consider
it necessary so long as he gave up social engage-
ments, and thus could have quiet evenings. His
great interest in every department of the Museum,
as well as in every man in it, seemed to work
like a tonic on his health in enabling him to carry
on his duties, assisted most loyally by the staff,
one of whom said that " an hour of Sir William
Flower was of more value to the Museum than a
whole day from any one else." Thus encouraged,
he struggled on and completed the " Whale Room,"
which he had ardently longed to add to the Museum.
The Cetacea, necessarily unseen in the ocean, were
now for the first time displayed in a manner that all
could see and understand by help of the labels,
over which he took the greatest care and trouble,
composing them even when awake at night, reading
to his wife what he had written in pencil in the
intervals of pain, so anxious was he to stimulate the
interest of the public and to convey as much
information as possible, consistent with the brevity
necessary for printed labels. Thus the collection
grew, even whilst its originator's strength declined,
reminding one pathetically of Michael Angelo's
lines,
The more the marble wastes,
The more the statue grows.
And this was still more true of his character. He
HIS ILLNESS 231
never dwelt on his sufferings and privations, but
often spoke with gratitude of the " mercies and
blessings which had made his life so happy," and of
having " been spared the pang of ever losing a child
or grandchild," to the unspeakable comfort of his
otherwise broken-hearted companion.
Preparations for the meeting of the Trustees
became now trying work, yet he was always relieved
afterwards, finding such appreciation of all the good
work done in the Museum ; and the King, then
Prince of Wales (the Queen's Trustee), would often
stay on afterwards alone with Sir William Flower
to see more of the Museum, showing his personal
interest in its welfare. On March 31 he attended
the lev^e for the first time since his illness, and
he was touched by the kindly welcome he received ;
indeed he laughingly remarked afterwards that the
" Royal touch " that used to have such healing
virtue was still efficacious, as he was none the
worse for the fatigue, and at work again in the
Museum next day. On the 3ist of May he re-
ceived through the German Embassy, from the
Emperor of Germany, the distinguished order
" Pour le Merite," founded by Frederick the Great,
which explains its French title. This honour was
all the more welcome as the only other Englishmen
then having it were his friends Lord Kelvin, Lord
Lister, and Sir John Murray for science, and Bishop
Stubbs of Oxford for history. A letter from Lord
Salisbury soon followed conveying the Queen's
232 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
gracious permission for Sir William Flower to wear
the insignia of the order.
This spring he was re-elected President of the
Zoological Society for the twentieth year ; he had
often desired to resign, but the Council would not
hear of it, a mark of consideration which touched
him deeply.
However, in June he made the most important
resignation, that of the directorship of the Natural
History Museum. This was a severe wrench, for
he loved the Museum and all its interests keenly,
but as the palpitations of the heart increased in
frequency and in duration he feared not being able
to do full justice in his work, and so sent in his
resignation to the Trustees, though he still con-
tinued to work there whenever health allowed.
On June 15 he was able to show the new
Whale Room to Lord Kelvin and a party of friends,
who were all astonished and delighted with this
original display of the Cetacea "in their habit as
they lived," with their actual skeletons as well, thus
preserving exactly their dimensions as well as other
characteristics. Again on July i he conducted
friends over the Museum. A pathetic interest is
attached to this meeting as the last of the kind,
after many years, in which these gatherings had
been one of his special pleasures in life. Those
present were the Minister for the Netherlands,
Baron Van Goltstein, the Danish Minister, M. de
Bille, Lord Ludlow and Lady Hanham, the Mar-
INTEREST IN THE MUSEUM 233
quise de San Carlos, Sir Francis and Lady Jeune,
Sir Clement and Lady Markham, Lady Morris,
Lady Jane Taylor, and Mrs. Holman Hunt. He
always undertook any amount of trouble to enable
people to enter into the beauties, and also to under-
stand the reasons for the number of specimens in
the national collections. His singularly pleasant
voice and readiness to answer questions greatly
facilitated this, whilst his own strong interest in
the subject made it attractive to others. As Mrs.
Vaughan remarked in the College of Surgeons
Museum, " Professor Flower always handles bones
as if he loved them."
His family dissuaded him from undertaking
more of this extra work, as prolonged standing
and continuous talking brought on palpitation. Still
he continued his duties in the Museum whenever
physically able, and was always glad to welcome
Mr. Charles Edward Fagan, the able and valued
secretary of the Museum, and any others of the staff,
for desired consultation in his house, Stanhope
Gardens, conveniently near the Museum.
With his friend Sir Edward Maunde Thompson
his relations were always most cordial, they both
having the interests of the British Museum so
much at heart ; and when his illness increased, no
one could have been more kind and considerate
than the Chief Librarian in doing all he could to
spare Sir William effort and exhaustion in the
" Trustee meetings," whether at Bloomsbury or
234 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
the Cromwell Road, and in softening the final
separation.
The manner in which the Trustees received his
resignation could not but be very gratifying to him
and his family. Besides the official acknowledg-
ment of his services, already noticed, many private
letters reached him, among others from the King
and the Archbishop of Canterbury, expressed so
warmly that, in his sensitive condition, they brought
tears of gratitude to his eyes. The King (then
Prince of Wales) wrote that, " both on private and
public grounds, it is a matter of deep and sincere
regret that you felt yourself obliged to resign your
post ; " whilst others of the Trustees wrote with
deep appreciation of all that he had done for the
Museum, both by work and personal influence.
That summer of 1898 was spent again in Ireland,
under the hospitable roof of his son-in-law and
daughter in King's County, and he became so much
better with the rest and open air that it was arranged
that he should winter on the Riviera, so as to be
able to continue living in the open air in a sunnier
climate. My husband had long wished to visit
that beautiful country, but had hitherto always
been too busily engaged in London to absent
himself in the winter ; and although now not equal
to making all the necessary arrangements, our
daughter Geraldine proved invaluable and as com-
petent as any courier, as well as a gentle companion,
always contented, and always making the best of
AT SAN REMO 235
things, whilst the young Augusta ("Star"), born
twenty -one years after her eldest brother, added
much gaiety and brightness to the travellers. He
stayed first at Cannes, but San Remo was our head-
quarters. A letter thence to our eldest daughter,
Mrs. H. C. Shann, shows how much he enjoyed the
place and surroundings, and how keenly alive he
remained all through his illness to general interests.
HOTEL ROYAL, SAN REMO,
January 3, 1899.
MY DEAREST MARY Here I am sitting by the wide-open
window, with a brilliant hot sun shining in, its power greatly
increased by the dazzling reflection from a wide expanse of sea
which our high-up rooms command. It really seems as if
winter (two days of overcast and windy weather) was over and'
full summer set in again, but of course we cannot altogether
expect this, and know that when the sun goes down into the sea
amid gloriously coloured clouds, as is usually the case, a keen,
crisp feeling (which I like, though it does not suit the pulmonary
weak people) will pervade the air. That it never can be really
cold here (however much people complain of it) is proved by the
wonderful out-of-doors vegetation, trees, shrubs, and flowers, and
fruit, the beauty of which is quite beyond my expectation. I
should explain that this is due, at all events at the time of year,
to the careful gardening, so much having been done of late years
to introduce so many kinds of exotic plants, palms, india-rubber
trees, pepper trees, eucalyptus, mimosa, aloes, yuccas, prickly-
pears, oranges, lemons, and numbers of others, the names of
which I do not know at present, which must have greatly
changed and beautified the place to what it was thirty years ago.
The gardens round some of the hotels and private villas are like
visions of Paradise. I have many letters to thank you for,
especially the last long one of Christmas Day with the " Holy
Family" almanac. It is pleasant to hear of all the kind and
useful presents you have had, and of all your Christmas doings,
236 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
very different to ours, as you will see in the San Remo journal
which Star is sending. Your little Vera's robin is adorning the
mantelpiece of my room, please tell her and thank her, and give
my love to all four children, as well as to Hal and your dear
self, and with all good wishes for a prosperous year in every way
from mother and the sisters here, your ever very loving father,
W. H. FLOWER.
His two youngest daughters were with him on
the Riviera, and his youngest son part of the time,
so that with constant letters from the elder married
children, it was altogether a happy winter, especially
with his intense satisfaction in Lord Cromer's
appointment of his second son, Stanley, 1 to the
Directorship of the Government Zoological Gardens
at Giza, and the energy with which he set to work
amid grave difficulties. Stanley had before been
"seconded" from the Northumberland Fusiliers for
special scientific work at Bangkok, but found that
leaving Siam for Egypt was like passing from
darkness to light. His father kept some of the
letters on this subject under his pillow for re-reading
in the wakeful watches of the night caused by
illness. Still, with the light of morning always came
the beautiful effects of the orange-coloured sunrise
over the dark blue waters of the Mediterranean ;
then followed a day of flowers, hedges of roses in
full bloom at Christmas, drives to the many interest-
ing places along that historic coast, and inland
through the soft green olive-woods (well described
1 So named after his godparents, the Dean of Westminster and Lady
Augusta Stanley.
LA MORTOLA 237
by E. B. Browning as "the mystic floating grey"),
contrasting with the yellow oranges and lemons, to
the wonderfully picturesque old towns, and villages,
and churches, returning to the exquisite sunsets
over the sea, visible at this time of year from the
same balcony as the rising. Then in the evening
there was sometimes conversation with friends
and acquaintances in the hotel, sometimes music,
but generally reading by the little wood fire in our
own rooms, which gave much quiet enjoyment.
Yet his last happy day was approaching, the last
one entirely free from pain. It was the i4th of
March that we drove to Ventimiglia to carry out
his long -desired wish of visiting Sir Thomas and
Lady Hanbury in their world-famed garden "La
Mortola." Everything was as beautiful as could
possibly be, the weather perfect, the magnificently
cultivated garden, backed by wild olive-clad hills,
with fine ranges of mountains beyond, whilst
promontories running out into the Mediterranean on
either side of the garden added to the interest of the
scene, and the brilliant sun shining on the exquisitely
picturesque boats and sails, and brought out
opalescent colours in the waves which fell with
soothing sound on the beach below where we stood.
Still it is the garden itself which is unique ; in that
climate where everything can grow, the owner yet
employs thirty-five gardeners to have perfection, and
above all, being himself an enthusiastic botanist and
horticulturist, he has made this spot of earth more
238 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
lovely than words can describe ; and Sir Thomas told
us that it was " the day of the year when there were
more flowers than at any other time." He explained
most interestingly all we wished to know about the
exotic trees and flowers, hospitably entertained us
in the old " Palazza," and was so considerate as to
have some of his gardeners ready to carry Sir
William Flower in a chair up the steep paths of the
garden to his carriage. We had a cheerful drive
along the Corniche Road back to San Remo, and
next morning he said that not only did he not feel
fatigued but "better for knowing La Mortola," so
that it gave hope again of ultimate recovery. Yet
on the evening of that very day a sudden fainting
came on, and for many anxious nights and days
he was dangerously ill; but Dr. Michael Foster 1
was unremitting in his attentions, and gradually
the precious health was so far restored that my
husband was able to undertake the journey to
England (accompanied by Mr. H. C. Shann of
York), by way of Milan and the Italian Lakes,
another long-cherished wish ; and the loveliness of
Lago Maggiore in the sweet spring days of April
induced a prolonged stay at Stresa, though increasing
palpitations of the heart and consequent breathless-
ness became very alarming. One night he awoke
feeling so weak, that with his own medical knowledge
he thought " failure of the heart " was imminent; but
even then preserving his usual calm and his usual
1 Son of Sir Michael Foster, Treasurer of the Royal Society.
SYMPATHETIC DOCTORS 239
consideration for others, he would not wake his wife,
who had been up several nights tending him, but
opened his Prayer-book and left it open at the
"Nunc Dimittis"
Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace,
thinking, as he afterwards told her, that should
she find that he had passed away in the night, these
words might be comforting. He also drew her
attention to words that he said expressed his
feelings, " Love cannot end at death. It must last
for ever and ever. It must grow better, and purer,
and stronger, until at last it is perfect in heaven."
He came home by short stages, resting at
Lucerne, Basle, and Brussels, and although weak
and suffering he kept marvellously cheerful through
the long railway journeys, quite interested in passing
from Italian sunshine and the songs of nightingales
through the St. Gothard tunnel, and finding large
flakes of snow falling over the already snow-laden
pine trees of Switzerland. He constantly recalled
incidents of his early travels for the amusement of
his children, as well as historical incidents of what
were for so many centuries the battle-fields of
Europe in France, Germany, and the Netherlands.
Finally he reached Stanhope Gardens on the 8th
of May, and enjoyed a brief space of joy and hope in
the quiet and comfort of home. But the palpitations
still continuing, the doctors urged complete rest for
the patient, and that he should not see any one
240 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER CHAP.
beyond the members of the family in the house.
No words can sufficiently express the devotion and
skill with which Mr. J. Kingston Barton, with
the sympathetic assistance of Dr. White Cooper,
attended Sir William, warding off danger, alleviating
pain, suiting the treatment to the daily varying
phases of the illness, and, notwithstanding its in-
creasing gravity, keeping up hope through all the
trying days and nights, whilst Sir Richard Douglas-
Powell generously gave the advantage of his great
experience and knowledge in frequent consultation.
Happily the love of reading which had charac-
terised him all through life continued, so that he
would often comfort those about him by saying,
" I am glad of leisure to read " this or that book ;
" you can go out feeling that you are leaving
me perfectly comfortable," and more of such re-
assuring words. He liked to have the Times
every morning, and the Spectator and Nature
every week ; whilst even in his last month on earth
he read through the whole thick volume of the
Life of Lord Cromer, making comments on it to
his wife, or if she were absent from the room,
putting in a marker to anything specially interesting.
He also read Froude's Story of the Armada, and
the Cruise of the " Cachalot" by Frank T. Bullen,
drawing attention to parts about whales that in-
terested him, and greatly admiring the graphic
description of the effect of the sublime words of the
Church of England Burial Service, even read by
xvm LIFTING THE VEIL 241
and among rough sailors in a " Burial at Sea."
He enjoyed having poetry read aloud, especially
favourite pieces from Tennyson, and even in the
last week, when feeling too weak for exertion, he
asked for some of " the familiar lines of Scott."
At night he was always glad to hear Bishop Ken's
old " Evening Hymn," Newman's " Lead, kindly
Light," "At even ere the sun was set," and speci-
ally the "Abide with me, fast falls the eventide." 1
But these last days are too sacred to be fully
described, only it is a duty, however difficult, to
lift the veil so far that those who "come after"
may benefit by such an example, as well as right,
in justice to the constancy of his character,
to record how steadfast he continued through all
trials, so that even the sick chamber was illu-
mined by love and faith to the end. "The interior
beauty of a soul through habitual kindliness of
thought is greater than words can tell. To such a
man life is a perpetual bright evening, with all
things calm, fragrant, and restful. The dust of life
is laid, and its fever cool. All sounds are softer, as
is the way of evening, and all sights are fairer."
His friend, the Rev. Gerald Blunt (Rector of
Chelsea) came to read the "Visitation of the Sick,"
and when leaving the room he exclaimed, " I never
knew before how beautiful Sir William is " ; and so
he was, the noble head lying back on the pillows,
1 One of his most frequent visitors was Lord Eustace Cecil, who never
failed to raise his spirits by his congenial conversation.
R
242 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER
the picturesque white hair contrasting with the fine
dark blue-grey eyes, and such a benevolent and
peaceful expression. Periods of unconsciousness
supervened, and the doctors warned the anxious
watchers that he might thus pass away ; but on the
29th of June, after eleven hours of complete un-
consciousness, the spirit seemed to return to give
consolation to those left behind, for suddenly his
eyes opened, and in a perfectly clear and distinct
voice he spoke to his wife with wonderful words of
loving farewell, and then added, " Wish our dear
children good-bye for me ; give my love to them
all," and he repeated their names, remembering
exactly who were away in their married homes
and who were in the house, and then emphatically
concluded with, " Remember, the same God, the
same Saviour, the same heaven in which to meet
again."
Almost the last words he heard on earth were
those of the 23rd Psalm ; and when his wife came
to " Though I walk through the valley of the
shadow of death, I will fear no evil : for Thou art
with me ; Thy rod and Thy staff comfort me," she
was almost startled by the vehemence with which
he exclaimed, "It is so, it is so," and he spoke of
the "support of the everlasting arms."
On Saturday, the ist of July, the doctors announced
that the precious patient was sinking ; but it was all
as he had often expressed the wish that it should
be, his wife beside him, also his son Victor and his
xvm PEACE BEYOND
243
two youngest daughters, Geraldine and Augusta,
when perfectly peacefully his "spirit passed to God
who gave it." There are many names for death,
and one is Life.
There was a " Memorial Service " in St. Luke's
Church, Chelsea, conducted by the Dean of West-
minster and the rector of the parish. Lovely
flowers were sent from far and near, and the church
was filled with relations and friends, including many
old servants who had come long distances to show
their respect to a beloved master ; whilst Science
and Art were fully represented by public bodies and
institutions, and many distinguished men, including
his friend, the veteran Sir Joseph Hooker.
He had served his country in his life, and so he
did also in his death, for being thoroughly con-
vinced that " cremation " is a duty we owe to our
fellow-men as conducive to the public health, he
left clearly-written directions that his body should
be cremated at Woking, and his ashes afterwards
laid, with the Church of England service, at the
village of Stone in Buckinghamshire (where in 1858
his marriage had taken place), in his own words,
" beside the church where our life together began."
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
APPENDIX I
NOTES ON THE MEDICAL ARRANGEMENTS OF
THE BRITISH ARMY IN THE CRIMEA
(SEPTEMBER 14 TO DECEMBER 12, 1854)
WE landed in the Crimea on the i4th September 1854. The
Regiment (63rd) was then about 970 strong. The medical
establishment consisted of a surgeon and three assistant surgeons,
and hospital-sergeant and three or four orderlies. Two panniers
contained all the medicines, instruments, and surgical appliances.
These were carried by a pony, brought from Varna for the
purpose. This was the only means of transport provided, except
that a bell-tent for the hospital of each regiment was carried by
the waggons attached to the headquarters of the division.
Except for two nights, there were no other tents for a period of
three weeks. The regimental medicine-chests, hospital bedding,
and other stores were left on board ship, and were not landed
during the time I remained in the Crimea.
The panniers were fitted up in England, and every regiment
was furnished with similar ones. They contained a supply of
medicines, etc., that might have lasted a healthy regiment two
or three weeks, but a sickly one scarcely so many days. I
believe they were only intended for ready use on the field or
on the march, for which they were well adapted, but not to take
the place of the regular medicine-chests.
There were ten stretchers, which had to be carried by the
band in addition to their instruments, in consequence of which
many were lost on the way. No means were provided for con-
veying sick on the march. Two of the ambulance waggons were
245
246 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER
landed, but I believe they were shipped again, as I saw or
heard nothing of them again till some time after we reached
Balaclava.
Just before we marched the surgeon procured, with great
difficulty, and by mere chance, an araba waggon, which was of
some assistance. On the second day's march we fell in with
some commissariat waggons of another division that had missed
their way, and we pressed them into our service ; there were six
or seven, mostly empty. These were barely sufficient for carrying
our sick, and we lost them after the battle of Alma, and then
were reduced to the original waggon.
At the end of every day's march those men who were unable
to proceed were sent on board ship. During the march those
who could not get on and we had no means of carrying were
left on the way, with their arms, ammunition, etc. The prevalent
diseases from which the men suffered were cholera and diarrhoea ;
the latter often lasted but a few hours, but quite disabled them
from marching under the heavy weight they had to carry. If
they could have been conveyed in waggons for a short time,
most of them would have been well and able to walk again.
The numbers sent on board ship during the march must have
been very great, and as most of them were affected only tempor-
arily, if they could have been brought on, the strength of the
army would not have been so much diminished. We thus sent
away twenty or thirty daily. Before we left the Alma we sent
upwards of sixty at one time to the ships. We had great
difficulty in getting these conveyed down to the sea. It was
only by great exertions on the part of the surgeon that he pro-
cured some waggons from a commissariat officer, who afterwards
said that he got into a scrape for lending them. If he had not
done so, we must have left them all behind.
The men complained much of not having their knapsacks ;
the packs they had to carry, consisting of a pair of boots, etc.,
wrapped in the blanket, were most inconvenient.
A great number of wounded men and officers were on the
field the morning after the battle of Alma, and many were not
removed or attended to till quite late in the day.
I should think that if all the surgeons and assistant-surgeons
APPENDIX I 247
of the regiments not engaged in action were employed, there
must have been sufficient medical attendance.
The great difficulty seemed to be the want of transport. The
araba waggons of the country were a miserable means of con-
veyance for sick and wounded; inconvenient to sit or lie in,
jolting, and very slow.
The sailors rendered great service in carrying the wounded
down to the beach, in hammocks slung on oars. A few
ambulance waggons would have been an immense assistance,
and saved very much suffering, as we afterwards found at
Inkerman.
The French arrangements for carrying the sick and their field
hospitals were far superior to ours.
When we had been about a fortnight before Sebastopol the
ambulance waggons were landed. There were two attached to
each division (an insufficient number). They were rather too
heavy for the country, but did good service till about the middle
of November, when the mules died. After then we had to
depend on the commissariat waggons and the French mules to
take our sick down to Balaclava. (The pth of December was
the first day on which I saw the latter so employed.)
The number of men sent down was not dependent on the
number of cases that required removal, but on the means of
transport. The staff-surgeon of the division would say that so
many men could be taken on such a day, and so we had to pick
out the worst cases.
During the time we were on the heights before Sebastopol
we had a marquee, also a number of bell-tents; these afforded
very insufficient shelter, as it was impossible to keep the doors
closed or the edge of the canvas close to the ground. The rain
came through them. Though my tent was a new one, the rain
always came through the side on which the wind blew. The
bottom of the tents was covered with mud, nearly ankle-deep in
some. The men had nothing to lie on or cover them but the
blanket and great-coat ; these were in a very filthy and dilapidated
condition, and generally wet through, as the men usually came
to hospital directly after a night's work in the trenches, and there
was no means of drying or cleaning them. The men lay on the
248 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER
ground as closely packed together as possible. In spite of the
free ventilation, the smell in the tents was generally most dis-
gusting. There was no attempt at cleanliness of any sort. The
orderlies did their best, but they were quite insufficient in number,
strength, or energy. Most of them either became sick or died,
and we were obliged to obtain others, quite inexperienced or
unfitted for the work.
The men in hospital were generally supplied with fresh meat,
but very rarely with vegetables. The supply of provision to the
men (of the 4th Division) up to the i6th of November was very
regular, consisting of biscuit, fresh meat two or three times a
week ; salt pork and beef on the other days ; green coffee ;
occasionally tea and rice; sugar and rum. After the i6th the
supply was very irregular, the meat almost always salt, and some-
times none issued for two days together ; the biscuit was the only
thing to depend upon, and that was wanting on one occasion.
As the officers could obtain supplies from Balaclava, they did
not feel this so much as the men. Fresh vegetables were served
out once a few onions and a small cabbage between half a
dozen men. There was no insufficiency of lint, bandages, and
surgical appliances, but of medicines I may say we never had an
adequate supply sometimes we were in total want of some of
the most useful. We had to send down to Balaclava for them,
and generally would get but half or quarter the quantity put on
the requisition, and sometimes none at all.
The great causes of sickness at this period were overwork,
insufficiency of diet, and exposure to weather without change of
clothing ; the men never took their clothes off, and were fre-
quently wet through from one week's end to another. The
overwork from which the men suffered was partly caused by a
fallacy in the daily returns. At the morning inspection the
surgeon sent in the number of men unfit for duty ; the remainder
were all supposed to be fit ; but many were in the trenches or
away on duty in the morning, and reported themselves sick when
they came home, and others fell sick in the course of the day,
so when the time came for going to the trenches in the evening,
the number of able men was much less than was calculated on,
and consequently the duty fell more heavily on them ; for every
APPENDIX I 249
man that fell sick after the morning report another had to
suffer.
The regulations respecting sick officers who required removal
from the camp were latterly very stringent, and, as they were
carried out, often injurious. On the 2nd December the surgeon
of my regiment recommended me for a fortnight's leave to
Balaclava; this order had to be countersigned by the Staff-
Surgeon of the Division, the Commanding Officer of the
Regiment, the General of the Division, and the Adjutant-General
at Headquarters. During this process it was probably lost, as
it never came back to me. I have heard of several similar
instances.
The state of the sick on board the transports from Balaclava
to Scutari was very bad crowded, lying on the bare deck, with
only their old clothes and blankets, covered with vermin and
filth. The orderlies were all weakly men or convalescents, and
were by no means equal to the work. After they arrived at
Scutari there was great delay in getting them into hospital.
When I visited the hospital at Scutari in the beginning of
January, the wards were crowded but clean, the patients appeared
comfortable, and the clothing, bedding, and diet looked good.
Whether this was the work of Miss Nightingale and the Times
Commissioner or of the Government officials, I cannot say.
Chloroform was always given in the severe operations in the
63rd, and invariably with good result.
The total number of deaths in the British Army were, accord-
ing to the Adjutant- General, 25,000, and according to the
Medical Department, 19,000.
APPENDIX II
HUNTERIAN LECTURES
DELIVERED AT THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS
Date.
Number
of
Lectures.
Subject.
1870
18
Comparative Anatomy ; introductory to the
Study of the Anatomy of the Class Mam-
malia.
1871
18
Comparative Anatomy ; on the Characters,
Structure, Functions, and Modifications of
the Teeth and Allied Organs in the
Mammalia.
1872
18
Comparative Anatomy ; on the Modifica-
tions of the Organs of Digestion in the
Vertebrata.
1873
18
Comparative Anatomy ; on the Osteology
and Dentition of Extinct Mammalia.
1876
9
Relation of Extinct to Existing Mammalia.
1877
9
Comparative Anatomy of Man.
1878
9
Do. do. do.
1879
9
Do. do. do.
1880
9
Do. do. do.
1881
9
Anatomy, Physiology, and Zoology of the
Cetacea.
1882
9
Anatomy, Physiology, and Zoology of the
Edentata.
1883
9
Anatomy of the Horse and its Allies.
1884
9
Principal Types of the Human Species.
250
APPENDIX III
LIST OF PUBLISHED WRITINGS
COMPILED BY MR. VICTOR A. FLOWER
Notes on the Dissection of a Species of Galago. Zool. Soc. Proc.
xx. 1852, pp. 73-75.
On a Case of Perforating Ulcer of the (Esophagus, which caused
Death by penetrating the Aorta (1853). Medico-Chirurgical
Transactions, vol. xxxvi. p. 353.
Encysted Coagulum in the Arachnoid Cavity (in Diseases of the
Nervous System). Trans. Pathological Society, vol. vii. p. 6.
Fibrinous Coagulum, obstructing the Left Common Iliac Artery and
causing Gangrene of the Leg. Trans. Pathological Society,
vol. vii. p. 175.
On a Cast showing a Rupture of the Ligamentum Patellae, sub-
sequent to Fracture of the Patella. Trans. Pathological Society,
vol. vii. p. 315.
Cysto-Myeloid Tumour of the Upper Head of the Tibia (with
Messrs. Shaw and Sibley). Trans. Pathological Society, vol.
vii. p. 318.
On Extensive Osseous Deposit in the Dura Mater. Trans.
Pathological Society, vol. viii. p. 26.
On an Epithelial Tumour in the Sheath of the Sciatic Nerve.
Trans. Pathological Society, vol. ix. p. 1 1 .
On Acute Periostitis of the Tibia with Necrosis of the Entire Shaft
of the Bone, .following Strumous Disease of the Ankle-joint.
Trans. Pathological Society, vol. x. p. 214.
On Epithelial Cancer occurring in the Cicatrix of a Burn on the
Arm. Trans. Pathological Society, vol. x. p. 253.
251
252 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER
On Colloid Cancer from the Calf of the Leg. Trans. Pathological
Society, vol. x. p. 256.
The Importance of a Knowledge of the Elements of Practical
Surgery to Naval and Military Officers. Journal of the
Royal United Service Institution, vol. cxi. London, 1859.
On Sanguineous Cyst from the Shoulder. Trans. Pathological
Society, vol. xi. p. 237.
On the Structure of the Gizzard of the Nicobar Pigeon and other
Granivorous Birds. Zool. Soc. Proc. xxviii. 1860, pp. 330-334.
Injuries of the Upper Extremity, in Holmes' System of Surgery.
London, 1860.
On Dislocations of the Shoulder - Joint. Trans. Pathologica
Society, London, vol. xii. 1861.
Tabular Statement of the Specimens of Complete Dislocation of the
Humerus preserved in the Anatomical Museums of London.
Trans. Pathological Society, vol. xii. p. 189.
Diagrams of the Nerves of the Human Body. Folio, London, 1861.
Observations of the Posterior Lobes of the Cerebrum of the
Quadrumana, with a Description of the Brain of a Galago.
Roy. Soc. Proc. xi. 1860-1862, pp. 376-381, 508; Phil. Trans.
1862, pp. 185-201.
Notes on the Anatomy of Pithecia Monachus, Geoff. Zool. Soc.
Proc. 1862, pp. 326-333.
Our Feet and their Coverings. A Review reprinted from the
Medico-Chirurgical Review of July 1862, London, 1862.
On the Brain of the Siamang (Hylobatus syndactylis, Raffles). Nat.
Hist. Review, 1863, pp. 279-287.
On the Brain of the Javan Loris (Stenops javenicus, Illig.} (1862).
Zool. Soc. Trans, v. 1866, pp. 103-111.
A Supplement to the Catalogue of the Pathological Series in the
Museum of the College of Surgeons. 1863.
Note on the Number of the Cervical Vertebrae in the Sirenia. Nat.
Hist. Review, 1864, pp. 259-264.
On the Optic Lobes of the Brain of the Echidna. Zool. Soc. Proc.
1864, pp. 18-20.
On a Lesser Fin -Whale (Balsenoptera rostrata, Fabr.} recently
stranded on the Norfolk Coast. Zool. Soc. Proc. 1864, pp.
252-258.
APPENDIX III 253
On the Brain of the Red Howling Monkey (Mycetes seniculus,
Linn.). Zool. Soc. Proc. 1864, pp. 335-338.
Notes on the Skeletons of Whales in the Principal Museums of
Holland and Belgium, with descriptions of two species
apparently new to Science (Sibbaldius schlegelii and Physalius
latirostris). Zool. Soc. Proc. 1864, pp. 384-420.
On a New Species of Grampus (Orca meridionalis) from Tasmania.
Zool. Soc. Proc. 1864, pp. 420-426.
On the Commissures of the Cerebral Hemispheres of the Marsupialia
and Monotremata, as compared with those of the Placental
Mammals. Phil. Trans, civ. 1865, pp. 633-651; Roy. Soc.
Proc. xiv. 1865, pp. 71-74.
Reply to Professor Owen's Paper : On Zoological Names of
Characteristic Parts and Homological Interpretations of their
Modifications and Beginnings, especially in Reference to
Connecting Fibres of the Brain. Roy. Soc. Proc. xiv. 1865,
pp. 134-139.
Note on Pseudorca Meridionalis. Zool. Soc. Proc. 1865, pp.
470-471.
On Physalius Sibbaldii, Gray. Zool. Soc. Proc. 1865, pp. 472-474.
Observations upon a Fin -Whale (Physalius antiquorum, Gray)
recently stranded in Pevensey Bay. Zool. Soc. Proc. 1865,
pp. 699-705.
On. the Gular Pouch of the Great Bustard (Otis tarda, Linn.).
Zool. Soc. Proc. 1865, pp. 747, 748.
Sur le Bassin et le Femur d'une Balenoptere. Bruxelles, Acad. Sci.
Bull. xxi. 1866, pp. 131, 132.
Recent Memoirs of the Cetacea, by Professors Eschricht, Reinhardt,
and Lilljeborg (Ray Society). Folio, London, 1866.
On the Development and Succession of the Teeth in the Marsupialia.
Phil. Trans, clvii. 1867, pp. 631-642; Roy. Soc. Proc. xv.
1867, pp. 464-468; Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. xx. 1867, pp.
129-133-
Account of the Dissection of a Bushwoman. Journal of Anatomy
and Physiology, vol. i. pp. 189-208 (with Dr. James Murie),
London, 1867.
Notes on the Visceral Anatomy of Hymoschus Aquaticus. ZooL
Soc. Proc. 1867, pp. 954-960.
254 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER
On |the Homologies and Notation of the Teeth of Mammalia.
Brit. Assoc. Rep. xxxviii. 1868 (Sect.), pp. 115, 116 ; Journal of
Anatomy, cxi. 1869, pp. 262-278.
On the Affinities and Probable Habits of the Extinct Australian
Marsupial, Thylacoleo Carnifex, Owen. Geol. Soc. Quart.
Journ. xxiv. 1868, pp. 307-319 ; Phil. Mag. xxxvi. 1868, p. 73.
On the Probable Identity of the Fin-Whales, described as Balsenoptera
Carolinae, Malm, and Physalius Sibbaldii, Gray. Zool. Soc.
Proc. 1868, pp. 187-189.
On the Development and Succession of the Teeth in the Armadillos
(Dasypodidce). Zool. Soc. Proc. 1868, pp. 378-380.
On the Value of the Characters of the Base of the Cranium in the
Classification of the Order Carnivora, and on the Systematic
Position of Bassaris and other Disputed Forms. Zool. Soc. Proc.
1869, pp. 4-37-
Note on the Substance ejected from the Stomach of a Hornbill
(Buceros corrugatus). Zool. Soc. Proc. 1869, p. 150.
On the Anatomy of the Proteles, Proteles Cristatus, Sparrman.
Zool. Soc. Proc. 1869, pp. 474-496.
Notes on Four Specimens of the Common Fin-Whale (Physalius
antiquorum, Gray j Balasnoptera musculus, Auct.) stranded on
the South Coast of England. Zool. Soc. Proc. 1869, pp. 604-
6 10.
Description of the Skeleton of Inia Geoffrensis and of the Skull of
Pontoporia Blainvillei, with Remarks on the Systematic Position
of these Animals in the Order Cetacea (1866). Zool. Soc.
Trans, vi. 1869, pp. 87-116.
On the Osteology of the Cachalot or Sperm-whale (Physeter macro-
cephalus) (1867). Zool. Soc. Trans, vi. 1869, pp. 309-372.
On the Connection of the Hyoid Arch with the Cranium, Brit.
Assoc. Rep. xl. 1870 (Sect.), pp. 136, 137.
On the Correspondence between the Parts composing the Shoulder
and the Pelvic Girdle of the Mammalia. Journal of Anatomy,
iv. 1870, pp. 239-245.
Additional Note on a Specimen of the Common Fin-Whale (Physalius
antiquorum, Gray; Balsenoptera musculus, Auct.) stranded in
Langston Harbour, November 1869. Zool. Soc. Proc. 1870,
PP- 330, 33i-
APPENDIX III 255
On the Anatomy of ^Elurus Fulgens, Fr. Cuv. Zool. Soc. Proc.
1870, pp. 752-769-
An Introduction to the Osteology of the Mammalia : being the Sub-
stance of the Course of Lectures delivered at the Royal College
of Surgeons of England in 1870. London, ist Edition (Globe
8vo) 1870; 2nd Edition (Crown 8vo) 1876; 3rd Edition
(with Hans Gadow), 1885.
Introductory Lecture to the Course of Comparative Anatomy,
delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons of England.
Medical Times and Gazette, 1870; reprinted, 8vo, London,
1870; reprinted in Essays on Museums, 1898.
The New Natural History Museum. Nature, May 26, 1870.
On the Composition of the Carpus of the Dog. Brit. Assoc. Rep.
xli. 1871 (Sect.), p. 138 ; Journal of Anatomy, vi. 1872, pp.
62-64.
Burmeister's Fauna Argentina. Nature, February 9, 1871.
On the First or Milk-Dentition of the Mammalia. Odontol. Soc.
Trans, cxi. 1871, pp. 211-232. British Medical Journal, 1871.
On the Skeleton of the Australian Cassowary (Casuarius australis).
Zool. Soc. Proc. 1871, pp. 32-35.
On the Occurrence of the Ringed or Marble Seal (Phoca hispida) on
the Coast of Norfolk, with Remarks on the Synonymy of the
Species. Zool. Soc. Proc. 1871, pp. 506-512.
On a Subfossil Whale (Eschrichtius robustus) discovered in Cornwall.
Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. ix. 1872, pp. 440-442.
On the Arrangement and Nomenclature of the Lobes of the Liver in
Mammalia. Brit. Assoc. Rep. xlii. 1872 (Sect.), pp. 150, 151 ;
Nature, vi. 1872, pp. 346-365.
On the Bones of a Whale found at Pentuan, Cornwall. Geol. Soc.
Trans. 1872 (October).
On the Ziphioid Whales. Nature, v. 1872, pp. 103-106.
Note on the Anatomy of the Two-Spotted Paradoxure (Nandinia
binotata). Zool. Soc. Proc. 1872, pp. 683, 684.
Description of the Skeleton of the Chinese White Dolphin (Delphinus
sinensis, OsbecK) (1869). Zool. Soc. Trans, vii. 1872, pp. 151-
160.
Anatomy of the Digestive Organs of the Mammalia. Medical Times
and Gazette, 1873.
256 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER
Note on the Carpus of the Sloths. Journal of Anatomy, vii. 1873,
pp. 255, 256.
The Pay of Scientific Men. Nature, July 24, 1873.
Fossil Sirenia. Nature, November 6, 1873.
On Palasontological Evidence of Gradual Modification of Animal
Forms. Roy. Inst. Proc. vii. 1873, PP- 94-104 ; reprinted in
Essays on Museums, 1898.
On a Newly Discovered Extinct Mammal from Patagonia (Homalo-
dontotherium cunninghami). Roy. Soc. Proc. xxi. 1873, P- 3^3 ;
Phil. Trans, clxiv. 1874, pp. 173-182.
On Risso's Dolphin (Grampus griseus, Cuv.) (1871). Zool. Soc.
Trans, viii. 1873, pp. 1-21.
On the Recent Ziphioid Whales, with a Description of the Skeleton of
Berardius Arnuschi, 1871. Zool. Soc. Trans, viii. 1873, PP-
203-234.
Notes of Experiences in Egypt. 8vo, London, 1874.
Description of the Skull of a Species of Helitherium (H. canhami)
from the Red Crag of Suffolk (1873). Geol. Soc. Quart Journ.
xxx. 1874, pp. 1-7.
On the Structure and Affinities of the Musk Deer (Moschus moschi-
ferus, Linn.). Zool. Soc. Proc. 1875, pp. 159-190.
Elephants. A Lecture delivered at the Zoological Society's Gardens,
Regent's Park. Nature, June 10, 1875.
Description of the Skull of a Species of Xiphodon, Cuvier. Zool.
Soc. Proc. 1876, pp. 3-7.
The Uintatherium. Nature, March 23, 1876.
On some Cranial and Dental Characters of the Existing Species of
Rhinoceroses. Zool. Soc. Proc. 1876, pp. 443-457.
On the Relation of the Extinct to Existing Mammalia. Nature,
February 17 to May 4, 1876.
Remarks on Dr. von Haast's Communication on Ziphius Novae-
zaelandiae. Zool. Soc. Proc. 1876, pp. 477, 478.
Remarks upon Dr. von Haast's Communication on Mesoplodon
Floweri. Zool. Soc. Proc. 1876, pp. 485, 486.
Extinct Lemurina. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. xvii. 1876, pp. 323-328.
Museum Specimens for Teaching Purposes (1876). Nature, xv.
1877, pp. 144-146, 184-186, 204-206.
APPENDIX III 257
Note on the Occurrence of the Remains of Hyaenarctos in the Red
Crag of Suffolk. Geol. Soc. Quart. Journ. xxxiii. 1877, pp.
534-536.
Notes on Eskimo Skulls. Journ. Anth. Inst. vi. p. 539.
A Century's Progress in Zoological Knowledge (Opening Address to
the Zoological and Botanical Section of the British Association,
Dublin, August 1878). Brit. Assoc. Rep. 1878, pp. 549-558 - r
Nature, xviii. 1878, pp. 419-423 ; Revue Scientif. xv. 1879, pp.
496-502.
Methods and Results of Measurements of the Capacity of Human
Crania. Brit. Assoc. Rep. 1878, pp. 581, 582; Nature, xviii.
1878, pp. 480, 481.
On the Skull of a Rhinoceros (R. lasiotis, Scl. ?) from India. ZooL
Soc. Proc. 1878, pp. 634-636.
The Extinct Animals of North America (1876). Roy. Inst. Proc.
viii. 1879, pp. 103-125 ; Popular Science Review, xv. 1876,
pp. 276-298 ; Revue Scientif. xi. 1876, pp. 467-477.
A Further Contribution to the Knowledge of Ziphioid Whales
(Genus Mesoplodon) (1877). Zool. Soc. Trans, x. 1879, pp.
415-437.
The Native Races of the Pacific Ocean (1878). Roy. Instit. Proc.
viii. 1879, PP- 602-652 ; Journ. Anth. Inst. vol. viii. p. 96.
Seals and Cetaceans. Transit of Venus Expeditions, 1874-1875.
Collections from Kerguelen Island. Phil. Trans, clxviii. (extra
vol.), 1879, PP- 95-100.
On the Common Dolphin (Delphinus delphis, Linn.). Zool. Soc.
Proc. 1879, PP- 382-384.
Remarks on the Skull of a Beluga or White Whale. Zool. Soc.
Proc. 1879, pp. 667-669.
On the Caecum of the Red Wolf (Canis jubatus, Desm.). Zool. Soc.
Proc. 1879, pp. 766, 767.
Illustrations of the Mode of preserving the Dead in Darnley Island
and in South Australia. Anthropol. Instit. Journ. 1879, PP-
389-394-
On the Scapular Index as a Race Character in Man. Journ. Anat.
Physiol. xiv. 1879 (1880), pp. 13-17 (with Dr. J. G. Garson).
Catalogue of Specimens illustrating the Osteology and Dentition of
Vertebrated Animals, Recent and Extinct, contained in the
S
258 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER
Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Part
I. Man, 1879; P art II- Mammalia other than Man (with Dr.
J. G. Garson), 1884.
The Comparative Anatomy of Man (Abstract of Lectures). Nature,
xx. 1879, PP- 222-225, 2 44- 2 46, 267-269 ; xxii. 1880, pp.
59-61, 78-80, 97-100 ; British Medical Journal, 1879-1880.
On the Osteology and Affinities of the Natives of the Andaman
Islands (1879). Anthropol. Instit. Journ. ix. 1880, pp. 108-
135-
Note on the Specimens of Abnormal Dentition in the Museum of
the Royal College of Surgeons (1879). Odontol. Soc. Trans.
xii. 1880, pp. 32-47.
The Races of Men. A Lecture delivered in the City Hall, Glasgow,
November 28, 1878. London (1879).
The Aborigines of Tasmania, an Extinct Race. A Lecture delivered
in the Hulme Town Hall, Manchester, November 30, 1878.
London (1879).
A Cranium of a Native of one of the Fiji Islands, February 11,
1879. Journ. Anth. Inst. vol. ix. p. 2.
(Remarks on a Skull of Rhinoceros Sumatrensis from Borneo).
Zool. Soc. Proc. 1880, pp. 69, 70.
On the Bush Dog (Icticyon venaticus, Lund.). Zool. Soc. Proc.
1880, pp. 70-76.
On the Stature of the Andamanese. Anth. Inst. Journ. vol. x. p.
124.
On the Cranial Characteristics of the Natives of the Fiji Islands
(1880). Anthropol. Instit. Journ. x. 1881, pp. 153-175.
Report on Bones found in a Roman Villa at Morton, near Brading,
in April 1881. April 26, 1881, Anth. Inst. Journ. vol. xi. pp.
116, 117.
The Study and Progress of Anthropology. (Address to the Anthrop.
Department of the Biol. Sect, of the Brit. Assoc. at York,
September 1881). Brit. Assoc. Rep. 1881, pp. 682-689;
Nature, xxiv. 1881, pp. 436-439; Anthrop. Inst. Journ. vol. xi.
p. 184 et seq.
On the Elephant Seal (Macrorhinus leoninus, Linn.). Zool. Soc.
Proc. 1881, pp. 145-162.
APPENDIX III 259
The Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Ad-
dress read at International Medical Congress, London, 1881 ;
reprinted in Essays on Museums, 1898.
Notes on the Habits of the Manatee. Zool. Soc. Proc. 1881, pp.
453-456.
Fashion in Deformity as illustrated in the Customs of Barbarous and
Civilised Races. Nature Series, crown 8vo, London, 1881.
On a Collection of Monumental Heads and Artificially Deformed
Crania from the Island of Mallicollo, in the New Hebrides
(1881). Anthropol. Instit. Journ. xi. 1881, pp. 75-81.
The Anatomy of the Cetacea and Edentata. British Medical
Journal, 1881-1882.
On the Mutual Affinities of the Animals composing the Order
Edentata. Zool. Soc. Proc. 1882, pp. 358-367.
On the Cranium of a New Species of Hyperoodon from the
Australian Seas (H. planifrons). Zool. Soc. Proc. 1882, pp.
392-396.
(Remarks on the Skull of a Young Chimpanzee). Zool. Soc. Proc.
1882, pp. 634-636.
Professor Rolleston. Obituary Notice in Proceedings of the Royal
Society, vol. xxxiii. 1882 ; reprinted, with alterations, in Essays
on Museums, 1898.
On the Whales of the Genus Hyperoodon. Zool. Soc. Proc. 1882,
pp. 722-726.
On the Death of Charles Darwin. Anth. Inst. Journ. vol. xii. p. 229.
On the Arrangements of the Orders and Families of Existing
Mammalia. Zool. Soc. Proc. 1883, pp. 178-186.
On the Characters and Divisions of the Family Delphinidae. Zool.
Soc. Proc. 1883, pp. 466-513.
On a Specimen of Rudolph's Rorqual (Balasnoptera borealis,
Lesstn] lately taken on the Essex Coast. Zool. Soc. Proc.
1883, pp. 513-517.
On Whales, Past and Present, and their Probable Origin (1883).
Roy. Inst. Proc. x. 1884, pp. 360-376; Nature, xxviii. 1883,
pp. 199-202, 226-230.
On the External Characters of two Species of British Dolphins
(Delphinus delphis, Linn.; and D. tursio, Fabr.) (1879). Zool.
Soc. Trans, xi. 1885, pp. 1-5.
2 6o SIR WILLIAM FLOWER
Recent Advances in Natural Science in their Relation to the
Christian Faith. A Paper read at the Reading Church Con-
gress, October 1883. 8vo, London, 1883.
On a Deformed Skull of a Chimpanzee, November 13, 1883. Anth.
Inst. Journ. xiii. p. 276.
Die Wale in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart und ihr wahrschein-
licher Ursprung. Kosmos (Vetter), 7 Jahag, 5 Hgr. 13 Bd.
pp. 358-368; 7 Hgr. pp. 525-532.
Evolution of the Cetacea. Nature, dccxxxviii. p. 170.
Notes on the Names of two Genera of Delphinidas. Zool. Soc.
Proc. London, 1884, cxi. pp. 417, 418.
Notes on the Dentition of a Young Capybara (Hydrochoerus capy-
bara). Zool. Soc. Proc. London, 1884, xi. pp. 252, 253.
Additional Observations on the Osteology of the Natives of the
Andaman Islands, May 13, 1884. Anth. Inst. Journ. vol.
xiv. pp. 1 15-120.
Remarks upon Four Skulls of the Bottle-nose Whale (Hyperoodon
rostratus). Zool. Soc. Proc. London, 1884, xi. p. 206.
On the Size of Teeth as a Character of Race. Anth. Inst. Journ.
vol. xiv. pp. 183-187.
The Classification of the Varieties of the Human Species. Anth.
Inst. Journ. vol. xiv. pp. 378-395, 1885 ; Nature, vol. xxxi.,
No. 799, pp. 364-367-
List of the Specimens of Cetacea in the Zoological Department of the
British Museum. London, 1885, 8vo.
The Wings of Birds. A Lecture delivered February 19, 1886.
Royal Inst. Proc. ; Nature, vol xxxiv., No. 870, pp. 204, 205.
On a Nicobarese Skull, May n, 1886. Anth. Inst. Journ. vol.
xvi. pp. 147-149.
On an Exhibition of Ethnological Casts, November 9, 1886. Anth.
Inst. Journ. vol. xvi. pp. 241-242.
Obituary Notice of George Busk, F.R.S. Anth. Inst. Journ. vol.
xvi. p. 403.
On the Pygmy Hippopotamus of Liberia (Hippopotamus liberiensis,
Morton), and its Claims to Distinct Generic Rank. Zool. Soc.
Proc. London, 1887, pp. 612-514, iv.
Description of two Skeletons of Akkas : a Pygmy Race from Central
Africa, February 14, 1888. Anth. Inst. Journ. vol. xviii. pp. 3-19.
APPENDIX III 261
Les Muse'es d'Histoire Naturelle. Revue Scientif. t. xliv. No. 13,
PP- 385-395.
Museum Organisation. Presidential Address Brit. Assoc., Brit.
Assoc. Report, 1899 J Nature, vol. xl. No. 1037, pp. 463-469 ;
reprinted in Essays on Museums, 1898.
L' Indirizzo e lo Scopo di un Museo di Storia Naturale. Tradotto da
C. Doria e D. Vinciguerra. Geneva, 1890.
Suggestions for the Formation and Arrangement of a Museum of
Natural History in Connection with a Public School. Nature,
vol. xli. No. 1052, pp. 177-178.
Who discovered the Teeth of Ornithorhynchus ? Nature, vol. xli.
No. 1046, p. 31 ; No. 1051, pp. 151, 152.
Zoological Society of London. Presidential Address at the General
Meeting of the Society held in the Society's Gardens, Regent's
Park, in celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of Her Majesty's
Reign. London, 1887.
Eulogium on Charles Darwin. Linn. Soc. Proc. London, November
1887, June 1888, pp. 67-70.
Einleitung in die Osteologie der Saugethiere. Nach der 3. unter
Mitwirkung von Dr. Gadow durchgesehenen Orig. Ausg. 8vo,
Leipzig, 1888.
Horns and Antlers. A Lecture delivered December 13, 1887.
Trans. Middlesex Natural History Society.
The Pygmy Races of Men. A Lecture delivered April 13, 1888
Royal Inst. Proc., Anth. Inst. Journ. vol. xviii. p. 73.
The Aims and Prospects of the Study of Anthropology An Address.
Anth. Inst. Journ. vol. xviii. pp. 488-501 ; Nature, vol. xxix.
No. 744, pp. 319-322.
Remarks upon the Skin of the Face of a Male African Rhinoceros
with a Third Horn. Zool. Soc. Proc. London, 1889, iv. pp.
448, 449.
On an Artificially Deformed Skull from Mallicollo, March 12, 1889.
Journ. Anth. Inst. vol. xix. pp. 52-54.
School Museums. Nature, December 26, 1889; reprinted in
Essays on Museums, 1898.
The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, and some Recent
Additions thereto. Trans. Middlesex Natural History Society,
1889.
262 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER
On two Skulls from a Cave in Jamaica, May n, 1890. Anth.
Inst. Journ. vol. xx. pp. 110-112.
On a Fetish or Ula from Lake Nyassa, June 10, 1890. Anth.
Inst. Journ. vol. xx. pp. 225.
The Booth Museum at Brighton. The Zoologist, December 1900;
reprinted in Essays on Museums, 1898.
The Horse, a Study in Natural History (Modern Science Series).
8vo, London, 1891 ; New York, 1892.
The Oxford University Museum. Nature, vol. xliv. No. 1148, pp.
619-621.
An Introduction to the Study of Mammals, Living and Extinct (with
Richard Lydekker). 8vo, London, 1891.
Modern Museums. Presidential Address at the 1893 Meeting of
the Museums' Association. Report of the Museums' Association,
1893 ; reprinted in Essays on Museums, 1898.
Richard Owen. Obituary Notice in Proceedings of the Royal
Society, vol. Iv. 1894 ; reprinted, with alterations, in Essays on
Museums, 1898.
Sir Victor Brooke : His Researches in Natural History. In Mr.
Leslie Stephen's Life of Sir Victor Brooke, 8vo, London, 1894.
Seals. A Lecture delivered at the Royal Institution. Royal Inst.
Proc. vol. xiv. 1893-1895.
The Study of Anthropology. Presidential Address, Anthropological
Section, Oxford. Brit. Assoc. Report, 1894.
On a Collection to illustrate the General Characters of the Eggs of
Birds. The Ibis, July 1894.
Whales and Whale Fisheries. A Lecture delivered at the Royal
ColonialTnstitute, 8th January 1895.
Reminiscences of Professor Huxley. The North American Review,
September 1895 ; reprinted in Essays on Museums, 1898.
Van Beneden. Obituary Notice from Proceedings of the Royal
Society, vol. Ivii.
George Edward Dobson. Obituary Notice from Proceedings of the
Royal Society, vol. lix.
Natural History as a Vocation. Chambers's Journal, vol. xiv. 1897 ;
reprinted in Essays on Museums, 1898.
Essays on Museums and other Subjects connected with Natural
History. 8vo, London, 1898.
APPEr
slDIX III
263
ARTICLES IN "ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA
" (gxH EDITION)
Horse.
Mandrill.
Otter.
Swine.
Kangaroo.
Megatherium.
Peccary.
Tapir.
Lemming.
Mink.
Platypus.
Tiger.
Lemur.
Munt-jak.
Porpoise.
Walrus.
Leopard.
Musk deer.
Puma.
Weasel.
Lion.
Musk ox.
Quagga.
Whale.
Llama.
Musk rat.
Rhinoceros.
Wolf.
Mammalia.
Narwhal.
Seal.
Wombat.
Mammoth.
Nilghai.
Sheep.
Yak.
Manatee.
Ocellot.
Sloth.
Zebra.
APPENDIX IV
COPY of inscription on the Memorial Tablet placed in the
Meeting Room of the Zoological Society of London, by order of
the Council, in memory of the late Sir William Flower, K.C.B.
President of the Society :
This Tablet is erected
by the Zoological Society of London
to the Memory of
SIR WILLIAM H. FLOWER, K.C.B., LL.D., F.R.S.,
its late President,
in recognition of his great eminence as a Zoologist,
and in gratitude for the valuable services
rendered to the Society throughout the 20 years
during which
he occupied the Presidential Chair.
1879-1899.
264
INDEX
Acton, Lord, 218
Agassiz, Louis, 79
Airy, Rev. W., Vicar of Keysoe, 43
Akkas, pigmy tribes of Central Africa,
198, 200, 201
Aldworth, visit to Lord Tennyson at,
204
Alma, battle of, 22
Alnwick Castle, visits to, 211, 228
Amory, Dr., 3
Andaman islanders, cranial characters,
in
Anthropological Institute, 192, 197
Anthropology, 190 et seq.
Anthropometric Laboratory at South
Kensington, 197
Anthropometry, 196
Apes, brains of, 65 ; vocal organs of,
119
Argyll, Duke of, correspondence with
Sir William Flower, 107-122,
127 ; Trustee of British Museum,
123 ; guest with Sir William
at Aldworth, 204-209 ; reminis-
cences of Duke of Wellington, 207
Armstrong, Lord, 211
Army Medical Department. See
Appendix I.
Ashmolean Museum, 196
Asquith, Right Hon. H. H., 197
Athenaum on Sir William Flower's
services to anthropology, 201,
202
Australia, native dogs, 110
Avebury, Lord, visit to, 228
Aves, in Natural History Museum,
142, 143
Baden - Powell, General Robert
Stephenson Smyth, C.B., 41
Baden-Powell, Rev. Professor, 41 ;
officiates at marriage of Sir
William H. Flower, 43 ; death,
45 ; obituary notice, 47
Baden -Powell, Sir George Smyth,
M.P., 41
Bailey's Magazine, 214, 215
Baillie, Lady Frances, 89, 90
Balaclava, battle of, 25. See Ap-
pendix I.
Balfour, Professor F. M., on elasmoid
fishes, 117
Balfour, Henry, 196
Balfour, Mr., Secretary of the Royal
College of Surgeons, his recollec-
tions of Lincoln's Inn Fields, 76,
77
Balmoral Castle, visit to, 216
Banks, Sir Joseph, 134
Barton, J. Kingston, 229, 240
Basque whale fishery, 173
Battenburg, Prince Henry of, 217
Beaconsfield, Earl of, 133, 193
' Bearing reins " on horses, protest
against, 215
Bell, F. Jeffrey, 148
Beneden, Professor van, 103, 172
Benson, Most Rev. E. W., Arch-
bishop of Canterbury, 124, 150,
155
Bentham, George, 124 n.
Berthillon, M., anthropometric system,
197
Bethnal Green, lecture to boys at, 159
Biddulph, Colonel, of Rathrobin, 80 ;
visits to, 229, 234
Biddulph, Mrs. (Sir William Flower's
second daughter),writesofyounger
days with her father, 80 ; holiday
in Switzerland, 160
265
266
SIR WILLIAM FLOWER
Bille, M. de, Danish Minister, 232
Blumenbach, Johann F. f his five races
of man, 197
Blunt, Rev. Gerald, 241
Boehm, Sir Edgar, 155
Bond, Sir Edward, 124, 125 ; letter
to Sir William Flower, 126
Bonney, King George of, 79
Booth collection of birds at Brighton,
145, 146, 187 ., 213
Botanical Department in Natural
History Museum, 134, 147
Boulenger, G. A., F.R.S., 138, 148
Bradley, Very Rev. George Granville,
Dean of Westminster, 243
Breslin, Dr. , and soldiers' stocks, 1 5
Brighton, opening of Booth Museum,
146
British Association, meeting at Cam-
bridge (1862), 65; Sir William
Flower President of, at Newcastle
(1889), 1 80, 211; presses the
claims of Anthropology at 1881
and 1894 meetings, 192, 196
Brock, Thomas, R.A., 188
Brooke, Sir Victor, Life of, by Leslie
Stephen, 219 ;/.
Browning, Robert, 79
Bruce, Lady Augusta. See Stanley,
Lady Augusta
Buckingham Palace, garden parties at,
216
Buckland, Frank, 71 ; on study of
taxidermy, 72 ; tribute to Sir
William Flower, 171
Bullen, Frank T., 240
Burns, John, M. P. , 204
Burton Constable, sperm whale at,
171
Busk, Professor George, at University
College, 7 ; joint translator of
Kolliker with Professor Huxley,
85
Cambridge University, Sir William
Flower an LL.D. of, 224
Canterbury, Archbishops of, 124, 150,
155 ., 188, 203
Carpenter, Dr. W. B., 124 .
Carruthers, William, F.R.S., 147
Cawdor, Earl, visit to, 228
Cecil, Lord Eustace, 241 n.
Cetacea, development of, ill; Sir
William Flower an authority on,
167 ; display of, in Natural His-
tory Museum, 135 ., 148, 230.
See also Whales
Chamberlain, Right Hon. Joseph, 1 58
Chambers, Alberta Maitland. See
Flower, Mrs. Arthur
Chambers, Dr. Thomas King, 213
Chelsea Industrial Exhibition, open-
ing of, 161
Childers, Right Hon. Hugh C. E.,
125, 126, 158
Chillingham, visits to, 212, 228
Chloroform, use of, at the Crimea,
29. See Appendix I.
Church, Rev. R. W., Dean of St.
Paul's, 91
Church Congress (1883), Sir William
delivers address at, 93
Civil Service dinner, speech at, 212
Clark, J. Willis, Registrary of Cam-
bridge University, 52 ., 129,
1 66 ; on reforms in Hunterian
Museum, 73
"Club, The," 218.
Cobbett, William, 92
Coleridge, Lord, 218
Conroy, Sir John, Bart. , 93 n.
Constable, Sir Clifford, 171
Cornwall, holiday in, 210
Craniology, 107-110, 191
Crimean War, 16 et seq. See App. I.
Cromer, Lord, 236
Crowther, W. L., of Hobart Town,
presents skeletons of whales ^to
Hunterian Museum, 167
Cruise of the "Cachalot" 174, 240
Cuvier, 176 ; his races of man, 197
Dartmoor, summer residence at, 80
Danvin, Charles, 49, 63 ., 64, 67,
79> 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