THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
ENGLISH 
 
 MEN OF SCIENCE 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 J. REYNOLDS GREEN, Sc.D. 
 
 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER 
 
All Right* Reserved 
 

SIR WILLIAM FLOWER 
 
 BY 
 
 R. LYDEKKER 
 
 PUBLISHED IN LONDON BY 
 J. M. DENT & CO., AND IN NEW 
 YORK BY E. P. DUTTON & CO. 
 
 1906 
 
kr- 
 
 Lvb 
 PREFACE 
 
 ALTHOUGH the complete manuscript of this volume was 
 placed in the hands of the editor before the publication 
 of the late Mr. C. J. Cornish's Life of Sir William 
 Flower (in 1 904), yet the present writer was aware that 
 such a work was in progress, and that it would deal 
 with the social and personal rather than with the 
 scientific side of Sir William's career. Consequently 
 it was decided at an early period of the work to con- 
 centrate attention in the present volume on the latter 
 aspect of the subject ; as indeed is only fitting in the 
 case of a biography belonging to a series specially 
 devoted to men of science. An incidental advantage of 
 this arrangement is that the writer has been able in the 
 main to confine himself to the discussion of topics with 
 which he is more or less familiar, rather than to attempt 
 to chronicle events and episodes to which he must of 
 necessity be a stranger, and to attempt an appreciation 
 of a fine character for which he is in no wise qualified. 
 
 It will be obvious from the above, that any references 
 in the text to earlier biographies do not relate to Mr. 
 Cornish's volume. 
 
 In the course of the text, it has been necessary to 
 make certain allusions to the condition and the mode of 
 exhibition of the specimens in the public galleries of the 
 Zoological Department of the Natural History Museum 
 
 IW35Q267 
 
vi PREFACE 
 
 previous to the new regime inaugurated by Sir William 
 Flower. The writer may take this opportunity of 
 stating that these are in no wise intended to convey the 
 slightest reflection on those who had charge of the 
 galleries previous to the new era. Technical museum- 
 installation and display is a comparatively new thing ; 
 and the old plan of arrangement had become obsolete, 
 not for want of attention, but because a more advanced 
 scheme had been developed by gradual evolution, and 
 the adoption of this involved a clean sweep. 
 
 In conclusion, the writer has to express his best 
 thanks to Mr. C. E. Fagan, of the Secretariat of the 
 Natural History Museum, for kindly reading and re- 
 vising the proof sheets. 
 
 HARPENDEN LODGE, 
 
 HERTS, July 1906. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 PAGE 
 GENERAL SKETCH OF FLOWER.'s LIFE . I 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 AS CONSERVATOR OF THE MUSEUM OF THE COLLEGE OF 
 
 SURGEONS, AND HUNTERIAN PROFESSOR . . 3! 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 AS DIRECTOR OF THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM . 57 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 AS PRESIDENT OF THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY . . 89 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 GENERAL ZOOLOGICAL WORK ... . . 95 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 WORK ON THE CETACEA . . . . 1 39 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 ANTHROPOLOGICAL WORK . . ... . 153 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 MUSEUM AND MISCELLANEOUS WORK .... 169 
 
 APPENDIX (LIST OF BOOKS AND MEMOIRS) . . 179 
 
Life of Flower 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 BORN on 3oth November 1831 at his father's house, 
 " The Hill," Stratford-on-Avon, William Henry Flower 
 was a man who had the rare good fortune not only to 
 make a profession of the pursuit he loved best, but 
 likewise to attain the highest possible success in, and 
 to be appointed to the most important and influential 
 post connected with that profession. As he tells us in 
 that delightful book, Essays on Museums, he was pleased 
 to designate as a " museum " when a boy at home a 
 miscellaneous collection of natural history objects, kept 
 at first in a cardboard box, but subsequently housed in 
 a cupboard. And as a man he became the respected 
 head of the greatest Natural History Museum in the 
 British Empire, if not indeed in the whole world. Very 
 significant of his future attention to details and of the 
 importance he attached to recording the history of 
 every specimen received in a museum, is the fact that 
 he compiled a carefully drawn-up catalogue of his first 
 boyish collection. 
 
 This early and persistent taste for natural history was 
 not, as we learn from the same collection of essays, in- 
 herited from any member of either his father's 'or his 
 A 
 
2 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 mother's family, but appears to have been an "idio- 
 pathic " development. His isolated position in this 
 respect may, perhaps, have caused Flower in later life 
 to notice more specially than might otherwise have been 
 the case, how comparatively rare is the development 
 of an ingrained taste for natural history among the 
 adult members of the British nation. This idea was 
 exemplified by his remarking on one occasion to the 
 present writer that he often wondered how many 
 persons out of every thousand he passed casually in the 
 street, or met in social intercourse, had the slightest 
 sympathy with, or took any real interest in the subjects 
 which formed his own favourite pursuits and lines 
 of thought. 
 
 As regards his parentage, his father was the late 
 Edward Fordham Flower, who was a Justice of the 
 Peace for his county, and from whom the son inherited 
 his tall and stately figure and dignified bearing. Edward 
 Flower, who was a partner in the well-known brewery 
 at Stratford-on-Avon, was the eldest son of Richard 
 Flower, of Marden Hill, Hertfordshire, who married 
 Elizabeth, daughter of John Fordham, of Sandon Bury, 
 in the same county. In 1827 Edward married Celina, 
 daughter of John Greaves, of Radford Semele, Warwick- 
 shire, by whom he had, with other issue, Charles 
 Edward, late of Glencassly, Sutherlandshire, and William 
 Henry, the subject of the present memoir. 
 
 Edward Fordham Flower was noted not only for his 
 philanthropy, but for his efforts to abolish the bearing- 
 rein, which in his time was neither more nor less than 
 an instrument of downright torture to all carriage 
 horses. As the result of his efforts in this direction, 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 3 
 
 was founded in 1890, by Mr. C. H. Allen, of Hampstead, 
 a small local society for that district and Highgate, 
 having for its object the abolition, or at all events the 
 mitigated use, of the bearing-rein for draught-horses of 
 all descriptions. That body did good work in this 
 direction for many years in the north of London ; and 
 by its means the Hampstead Vestry was induced to 
 prohibit the use of the bearing-rein on the horses in its 
 employ an example subsequently followed by many 
 large coal-owners and others connected with horses. 
 
 From this small beginning arose in 1897 the now 
 flourishing society known as the Anti-Bearing Rein 
 Association, of which, as was appropriate, Mr. Archibald 
 Flower, a grandson of Edward Fordham Flower, became 
 Co.-Hon. Secretary with Mr. Allen, while the late 
 Duke of Westminster, and the late Sir W. H. Flower 
 (the subject of this biography) respectively accepted 
 the positions of Patron and President. 
 
 In all the obituary notices it is stated that William 
 Henry was the second son of Edward Fordham and 
 Celina Flower. This, however, as I am informed by 
 Mr. Arthur S. Flower (the eldest son of Sir William), 
 is not strictly the case. As an actual fact, the eldest 
 son of the aforesaid Edward and Celina was really 
 Richard, who died in infancy, so that Charles, who was 
 born second, grew up as the eldest son, and William 
 Henry as the second, whereas he was really the third. 
 
 The fair-haired and blue-eyed William not being 
 intended to succeed his father in the business, was 
 permitted from his early years fortunately for zoo- 
 logical science to pursue that innate love of natural 
 history which, as we have seen, developed itself in very 
 
4 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 early years and continued unabated till the close of his 
 career. That career naturally divides into three epochs. 
 Firstly, the period of boyhood and early manhood ; 
 secondly, the long period of official life at the museum 
 of the Royal College of Surgeons ; and thirdly, the 
 time during which the subject of this memoir occupied 
 the post of Director of the Natural History Branch 
 of the British Museum, together with the short interval 
 which elapsed between his resignation of that position 
 and his untimely death. To each of the latter periods 
 a separate chapter is devoted. It has, however, 
 been found convenient, instead of restricting the present 
 chapter to the first epoch, to include within its limits 
 a general sketch of Flower's whole life. A fourth 
 chapter is assigned to the period during which he was 
 President of the Zoological Society of London, although 
 this was synchronous with part of the period covered 
 by the second, and with the whole of that treated of 
 in the third chapter. Finally, the full description 
 of his scientific work is reserved for subsequent 
 chapters. 
 
 According to information kindly furnished by his 
 widow, Lady Flower, delicate health prevented William 
 Flower from being much at school during his boyhood, 
 and he was thus largely dependent upon his mother a 
 sensible and well-read woman for his early education. 
 He was also in the habit of accompanying his father in 
 his rides, whereby he became much interested in all 
 that concerns horses and their well-being. Best of all, 
 as regards opportunity for developing a love of animal 
 life, he was in the habit of taking long, solitary rambles 
 in the country, thereby acquiring a knowledge of Nature 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 5 
 
 which could be obtained in no other manner, and 
 developing his powers of observation. 
 
 This innate taste for natural history appears to have 
 been further fostered in early life by frequent intercourse 
 with the late Rev. P. B. Brodie, an enthusiastic zoologist 
 and geologist ; but whether this took place during school 
 or college life the writer has no means of knowing. Be 
 this as it may, it appears that after a preliminary 
 education, partly at home and partly at private schools, 
 Flower matriculated at London University in 1849, (the 
 year of his present biographer's birth), attaining honours 
 in Zoology ; and that during the same year having made 
 up his mind to adopt the study and practice of Medicine, 
 or of Surgery as a profession, he entered the Medical 
 Classes at University College and became a pupil at the 
 Middlesex Hospital. It was apparently largely, if not 
 entirely, owing to his fondness for zoology that young 
 Flower selected Medicine as a profession, since at the 
 time, as indeed for many years subsequently, this was 
 practically the only career open to young naturalists 
 devoid of sufficient private means whereby they might 
 hope to be able to devote a certain amount of time and 
 attention to the pursuits and more especially Com- 
 parative Anatomy towards which their inclinations 
 tended. 
 
 At University College Flower had a distinguished 
 career, gaining the gold medal in Dr. Sharpey's class of 
 Physiology and Anatomy, and the silver medal in Zoology 
 and Comparative Anatomy ; the gold medal in the latter 
 subjects having been carried off the same year by his 
 fellow- student, Joseph Lister, who in after years became 
 the distinguished surgeon, and, as Lord Lister, was for 
 
6 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 some time President of the Royal Society of London. 
 In 1851 the year of the Great Exhibition Flower 
 passed his first M.B. examination at London University, 
 coming out in the first division. In the same year he 
 made a tour in Holland and Germany, while in 1853 ^ e 
 visited France and the north of Spain ; bringing home 
 in both instances numerous sketches in pencil and sepia 
 of the scenery and people of the countries traversed. 
 
 In all the obituary notices of Flower that have come 
 under the present writer's notice, it is stated that he 
 obtained the post of Curator of the museum of the 
 Middlesex Hospital after his return from the Crimea. 
 This is, however, proved to be incorrect by his first 
 zoological paper, " On the Dissection of a Species of 
 Galago," which was contributed to the Zoological 
 Society of London in 1852, and appeared in the 
 Proceedings of that body for the same year, where the 
 author describes himself as the holder of the post in 
 question. As a matter of fact, he was elected Curator 
 in 1854, anc * resigned the post in I854. 1 
 
 Flower never took the degree of M.D., but three 
 years after passing his M.B. he became (on 2yth March 
 1854) a member of the Royal College of Surgeons 
 of England. 
 
 A few weeks after this event a call was made for 
 additional surgeons for the army then serving in the 
 Crimea, and young Flower, partly, perhaps, from 
 patriotic motives, and partly with a view of extending 
 his practical experience in surgery, promptly volunteered 
 his services, which were accepted. After spending a few 
 
 1 The writer is indebted to the Secretary of the Middlesex Hospital for 
 these particulars. 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 7 
 
 idle months with the Depot Battalion then stationed at 
 Templemore, in Ireland, he was gazetted as Assistant- 
 Surgeon to the 63rd (now the First Battalion of the Man- 
 chester) Regiment ; and in July 1854 embarked with his 
 regiment at Cork for Constantinople. On its arrival in the 
 east the regiment was at once hurried up to join the main 
 army at Varna, whence it proceeded to take part in the 
 expedition to the Crimea, where both officers and men 
 suffered severely from exposure to the inclemencies of 
 the climate and an insufficient commissariat during 
 the early months of the campaign. For ten weeks 
 together, it is reported, neither officers or men took off 
 their clothes, either by night or by day, and for the first 
 three weeks all ranks were compelled to get such sleep 
 as they could obtain on the bare ground. Flower, who 
 was present at the battles of the Alma, of Inkerman, and 
 of Balaclava, as well as at the fall of Sebastopol, under- 
 went many and thrilling experiences during the campaign, 
 alike in the field and in the hospital. The hardships 
 and privations which caused the strength of his regiment 
 to be reduced by nearly one-half within the short period 
 of four months, could not but tell severely on the 
 constitution of the young surgeon, which was never 
 very robust ; and from some of the effects of these 
 he suffered throughout his life. Nevertheless, in spite 
 of all this, in the intervals of duty, Flower, with but 
 scant materials at his disposal, managed to find time and 
 energy sufficient to make a considerable number of 
 vivid pen-and-ink, or dashes of ink-and-water, sketches 
 of his surroundings, including one of his own tent 
 overturned by the terrible snow-storm of 1 4th Novem- 
 ber 1854, anc ^ a secon d of the wrecked condition of the 
 
8 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 camp in general at the end of the tempest. A pano- 
 ramic view of Constantinople and a sketch of the 
 military hospital at Scutari were also among his artistic 
 productions at this period. In recognition of his services, 
 Flower, after being invalided home, received from the 
 hands of Her Majesty, Queen Victoria, the Crimean 
 medal, with clasps for the Alma, Inkerman, Balaclava, 
 and Sebastopol ; while he was also permitted to accept 
 from H.M., the Sultan, the Turkish war-medal. 
 
 Apparently Flower had never entertained the idea of 
 taking up the profession of an army surgeon as a per- 
 manency, and after his return to London he definitely 
 resigned military service, with the intention of settling 
 down to private medical practice in the Metropolis. In 
 the spring of 1857 he passed the examination qualifying 
 for the fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons ; 
 and about this time, or perhaps immediately on his return 
 to London, he joined the staffof the Middlesex Hospital 
 as Demonstrator in Anatomy. During the next year 
 (1858) he was elected to the post of Assistant-Surgeon 
 to the same Institution, where he resumed the Curator- 
 ship of the museum and was also appointed Lecturer on 
 Comparative Anatomy. Although a large portion of his 
 time while at the hospital was devoted to surgical and 
 other duties connected with the medical profession, his 
 Lectureship and Curatorship required that he should 
 devote a considerable amount of attention to the more 
 congenial study of Comparative Anatomy. 
 
 It was during his connection with the Middlesex 
 Hospital that his first scientific work was published, this 
 being the well-known and useful little volume entitled 
 Diagrams of the Nerves of the Human Body, which 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 9 
 
 appeared in 1861, and has passed through three editions. 
 During this period of his career he also contributed to 
 Holmes' System of Surgery an article on " Injuries to the 
 Upper Extremities," which contained certain original ob- 
 servations- with regard to dislocations of the shoulder- 
 joint ; and he likewise wrote an essay on the same subject 
 to the Pathological Society, as well as several articles 
 on various surgical subjects to the medical journals of the 
 day. But even at this comparatively early period of his 
 career Flower's published scientific work was by no means 
 strictly confined to his ostensible profession, for his two 
 first papers on Comparative Anatomy the one "On 
 the Dissection of a Galago " (Lemur) ; and the other " On 
 the Posterior Lobes of the Cerebrum of the Quadru- 
 mana " appeared during the period in question. During 
 this period, as the writer of his obituary notice in the 
 " Record " of the Royal Society well remarks, there is 
 little doubt that Flower had breathing time, after his 
 Crimean experiences, to collect his energies and gather 
 up a store of valuable information which stood him in good 
 stead in later years, when he had frequently less leisure 
 to devote to pure study. 
 
 It was, moreover, during his official connection with 
 the Middlesex Hospital that Mr. Flower married Georgina 
 Rosetta, the youngest daughter of the late Admiral W. 
 H. Smyth, C.S.I., etc., a well-known astronomer, who 
 was for some time Hydrographer to the Admiralty and 
 likewise Foreign Secretary to the Royal Society, the 
 wedding taking place in 1858 at the church of Stone, in 
 Buckinghamshire, near the bride's home. This happy 
 union had in many ways an important influence upon the 
 future career of the young surgeon, for, in addition to 
 
io LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 her father, several of the relatives of Mrs. (now Lady) 
 Flower were more or less intimately connected with 
 scientific work and scientific people ; among them being 
 Sir Warrington Smyth (sometime Inspector-General of 
 Mines), Professor Piazzi Smyth, General Sir Henry 
 Smyth, and Sir George Baden Powell. It was to Lady 
 Flower that Sir William dedicated his last work, the 
 volume entitled Essays on Museums. A tour through 
 Belgium and up the Rhine followed the marriage. 
 
 Although it scarcely comes within the purview of this 
 biography to allude to the issue of this marriage, it may 
 be mentioned that of the three sons born to Sir William 
 Flower, the second alone, Stanley Smyth, inherited his 
 father's zoological tastes. Captain S. S. Flower (who 
 takes his first name from Dean Stanley, of Westminster, 
 an intimate friend of the family, after serving for some 
 time in the 5th Fusileers, obtained the appointment of 
 Director of the Royal Museum at Bangkok, Siam, 
 after which he was made Director of the Khedival 
 Zoological Gardens at Giza, near Cairo, to which post 
 (which he still holds) was subsequently added that of 
 Superintendent of Game Protection in the Sudan. Cap- 
 tain Flower has not only raised the menagerie at Giza 
 to a high state of perfection, but has contributed several 
 papers to the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of 
 London on the zoology of Siam and the Malay countries. 
 
 To revert to the proper subject of this memoir, during 
 his tenure of the aforesaid official posts at the Middle- 
 sex Hospital it was apparent to his intimate scientific 
 friends among whom were included the late Professor 
 T. H. Huxley and the late Mr. George Busk that the 
 inclinations of Flower were all on the side of com- 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER n 
 
 parative anatomy rather than towards practical surgery 
 or medicine. Accordingly, when the appointment of 
 Conservator to the Museum of the Royal College of 
 Surgeons became vacant in 1 86 1 by the death of Mr. 
 Quekett, Flower was strongly recommended by Huxley 
 (then Hunterian Professor), Busk, and other friends as 
 a suitable successor, and was in due course elected by the 
 Council. When, nine years later (1870), Huxley him- 
 self felt compelled by the pressure of other engagements 
 and work to resign the Hunterian Professorship, the 
 Conservator of the Museum was appointed to the vacant 
 chair, thus once more bringing together two posts which 
 had been sundered since Owen's resignation. 
 
 On his appointment to the Conservatorship of the 
 Museum of the College of Surgeons, Flower once for 
 all definitely abandoned medicine as a profession, and 
 determined to devote the whole of his energies for the 
 future to the study of his beloved comparative anatomy 
 and zoology. Nevertheless, he always remained in touch 
 with his old profession, as he was always in sympathy 
 with those who were actively practising the same. 
 Indeed, since the collections under his charge included 
 a large pathological series, while during his tenure of 
 office a large display of surgical instruments was added 
 to the exhibits, he could not, even had he so desired, 
 cut himself entirely adrift from old associations and old 
 studies. 
 
 Since a considerable amount of space in a later chapter 
 is devoted to Flower's work as Museum Curator and as 
 Hunterian Lecturer, it will be unnecessary to allude 
 further to it in this place, although it will be appro- 
 priate to quote the elogium on his efforts in this sphere, 
 
12 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 pronounced by the President of the Royal Society, when 
 bestowing the Royal Gold Medal in recognition of his 
 services to zoology. 
 
 " It is very largely due," runs the address, " to his 
 incessant and well-directed labour that the museum of 
 the Royal College of Surgeons at present contains the 
 most complete, the best ordered, and the most accessible 
 collection of materials for the study of vertebrate 
 structures extant." 
 
 As regards his Hunterian lectures, it has been well 
 remarked that few could have any idea of the amount 
 of labour they involved, nor would any one be likely to 
 guess this from the ever-ready and earnest efforts of the 
 lecturer to give to others that knowledge he had so 
 laboriously, and yet so pleasantly, acquired within the 
 walls of the museum. 
 
 In addition to the official Hunterian lectures, Flower 
 during this portion of his career commenced the delivery, 
 as opportunity occurred, of lectures of a much more 
 popular description, at the Royal Institution and else- 
 where, by means of which he appealed to a wider 
 audience than any that could be attracted to technical 
 discourses, and at the same time was enabled to give a 
 wide circulation to the discussion of subjects connected 
 with his own special studies which had more or less of 
 a general interest. In one of his earlier discourses of 
 this type he discussed at considerable detail the deformi- 
 ties produced in the human foot by badly-designed boots 
 or other covering among both civilised and barbarous 
 nations. Indeed, " fashion in deformity " was at all 
 times a favourite theme with the Hunterian Professor ; 
 and in a lecture on this subject he uttered, for him, a 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 13 
 
 strong protest against the evils caused by the corset 
 among European females, illustrating his remarks with 
 a ghastly figure of a female skeleton distorted by the 
 undue pressure of that fashionable article of costume. 
 
 In 1871, and again in later years, Professor Flower 
 acted as Examiner in Zoology for the Natural Science 
 Tripos at Cambridge, where his suave and dignified 
 manner, and innate courtliness rendered him as great a 
 favourite as in the Metropolis. He was during some 
 portion of his career Examiner in Anatomy at the Royal 
 College of Veterinary Surgeons. 
 
 Flower's official connection with the museum of the 
 Royal College of Surgeons was brought to a close by 
 Owen's resignation of the Post of Superintendent of the 
 Natural History Department of the British Museum, 
 when it was felt by all that the efficient and successful 
 administrator of the smaller museum in Lincoln's Inn 
 Fields, was the one man specially fitted in every way to 
 have supreme charge of the larger establishment in the 
 Cromwell Road. Professor Flower was accordingly 
 selected by the three principal trustees the Archbishop 
 of Canterbury, the Lord Chancellor, and the Speaker of 
 the House of Commons to fill this important post, into the 
 duties of which he entered during the same year. His ad- 
 ministration of the museum which lasted until he was 
 compelled by failing health to send in his resignation a 
 few months before his death is fully discussed in the 
 fourth chapter, and was in every way a complete success. 
 
 During his long and successful official career Sir 
 William was the recipient of a number of honours (in 
 addition to the medals he received for his Crimean 
 service), and he was likewise on the roll of the more 
 
1 4 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 important societies connected with the branches of 
 biological study in which he was specially interested. 
 
 Of the Royal Society Sir William was elected a 
 Fellow in 1864 at the relatively early age of thirty- 
 three and he served on the Council of that body for 
 three separate periods, namely from 1868 to 1870, from 
 1876 to 1878, and again from 1884 to 1886, while in 
 1884 and 1885 he was one of the Vice-Presidents. In 
 1882 his conspicuous services to zoological science was 
 recognised by the bestowal upon him of a Royal Gold 
 Medal one of the most honourable distinctions in the 
 gift of the Society ; the other recipient in the same year 
 of a similar honour being Lord Rayleigh. In handing to 
 Professor Flower this medal, the President dwelt upon 
 the value of his contributions to both zoology and an- 
 thropology, referring, in connection with the former 
 science, to his paper on the classification of the Carnivora, 
 and, in respect to the latter, to the then recently pub- 
 lished first part of the "Catalogue of Osteological 
 Specimens in the Museum of the Royal College of Sur- 
 geons," in which descriptions and measurements of 
 between 1 300 and 1400 human skulls are recorded. The 
 present writer has been informed that Flower refused 
 to be nominated for the Presidentship of the Royal 
 Society, owing to the fear that the calls made upon his 
 time by that office would interfere with his official duties. 
 Of the Zoological Society Professor Flower became a 
 Fellow so long ago as the year 1851, that is to say, 
 three years previous to the commencement of his Crimean 
 service. After serving for several periods on the Council 
 he was elected to the honourable (and honorary) office 
 of President on the death of the Marquis of Tweeddale 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 15 
 
 in 1879, an d ' m this important position he remained till 
 his death. It should be added that Flower never 
 received one of the medals of the Zoological Society, 
 and this for the very good reason that such rewards are 
 bestowed in recognition of gifts to the Society's Mena- 
 gerie, and not for contributions to zoological knowledge. 
 Flower's contributions to both the Transactions and the 
 Proceedings of the Society were numerous, and, needless 
 to say, valuable ; the earliest in the former having been 
 published in 1866, and in the latter in 1852. With very 
 few exceptions, these communications relate to mammals. 
 Fuller details with regard to Sir William's Presidency 
 of the Zoological Society will be found in a later 
 chapter. 
 
 Of the Linnean Society, Flower was elected a Fellow 
 in 1862, but he does not appear to have ever taken any 
 active part in the administration of that body, or to have 
 contributed to its publications, although for a time he 
 was a Vice-President. 
 
 To the Geological Society, on the other hand, of 
 which he became a Fellow in the year 1886, Sir William 
 contributed three papers on paleontological subjects, by 
 far the most important of which was one on the affinities 
 and probable habits of the extinct Australian marsupial 
 Thylacoleo. Further allusion to this is made in the sequel. 
 Of the other two, one recorded the occurrence of teeth 
 of the bear-like Hyatnarctus in the Red Crag of Suffolk, 
 and the other that of a skull of the manatee-like Ha/i- 
 therium in the same formation. 
 
 Of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and 
 Ireland Flower was elected a Vice-President in 1879, 
 while in 1883 he succeeded to the Presidential chair, 
 
1 6 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 and occupied that position till 1885. Of his numerous 
 contributions to anthropological science, many appeared 
 in the journal of the Institute. 
 
 In the annual meetings of the British Association for 
 the advancement of science, Flower, from an early date, 
 took a lively interest. At the Norwich meeting, in 1868, 
 he acted as Vice-President of the section of Biology, 
 white he was President of the same section at the 
 Dublin meeting of 1878. At York he presided over 
 the section of Anthropology in 1 88 1 ; he was a Vice- 
 President at the Aberdeen meeting of 1885, while for 
 the second time he occupied the Presidential chair of 
 the Anthropological section in 1894 at Oxford, when 
 his opening address on Anthropological progress dis- 
 played great breadth of thought and generalisation. 
 Finally, he was President of the Association at the 
 meeting held in Newcastle-on-Tyne in 1889, ^ s 
 address at the latter meeting forming the first article in 
 Essays on Museums. 
 
 Among other offices of a kindred nature to the 
 above, it may be mentioned that Sir William was 
 President of the section of Anatomy at the International 
 Medical Congress held in London in August 1 88 1. 
 His address on that occasion (reprinted as article 7 of 
 the volume just cited) being on the Museum of the 
 Royal College of Surgeons. In July 1893 ^ e acte d as 
 President of the Museum's Association at their London 
 meeting, when, after referring to the general scope of 
 that body, and a brief survey of some of the chief 
 museums of Europe, he sketched out a plan for an ideal 
 building of this nature. This address also appears in 
 Essays on Museums. Sir William, the year before 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 17 
 
 his death, had also undertaken to preside over the 
 meeting of the International Zoological Congress held 
 at Cambridge in the summer of 1898, but was pre- 
 vented by failing health ; his place being filled by Lord 
 Avebury (Sir John Lubbock). On 29th November 
 1895, Sir William Flower delivered an address at the 
 opening of the Perth Museum, in which he pointed out 
 the special function of local museums. Five years 
 earlier (3rd November 1890) he had delivered another 
 address on a very similar occasion, namely, the opening 
 of the Booth Museum, in the Dyke Road, Brighton, 
 famed for its unrivalled collection of British birds, the 
 great majority of which had been shot and subsequently 
 mounted in a most artistic manner by its founder. This 
 splendid collection, it may be mentioned, was bequeathed 
 at Mr. Booth's death to the British Museum, but it 
 was reluctantly declined by the Trustees, who waived 
 their right in favour of the Corporation of Brighton. 
 At the end of October 1896, Sir William, then in fail- 
 ing health, somewhat rashly undertook a journey to 
 Scotland to assist Lord Reay in the inauguration of the 
 Gatty Marine Laboratory at St. Andrews. 
 
 Another important address delivered by Flower was one 
 read before the Church Congress at their meeting, held 
 in October 1883, at Reading, on ' Recent Advances in 
 Natural Science in Relation to the Christian Faith." It 
 is reprinted in Essays on Museums. In this address 
 Flower, while proclaiming his full adherence to the 
 doctrine of the transmutation of species and the evolution 
 of every organic form from a pre-existing type, urged 
 that this did not in the least shake his confidence in all 
 the essential teaching of the Christian religion. At the 
 B 
 
1 8 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 same time he pointed out that the new doctrine in no 
 wise detracted from the position of the Divine Ruler of 
 the world as the controller, and indeed the originator, 
 of animal development. 
 
 Shortly after his retirement from the post of Con- 
 servator, Professor Flower was elected a Trustee of the 
 Hunterian Collection of the Royal College of Surgeons. 
 Many years later, in 1 88 1, he became a Trustee of Sir 
 John Soane's Museum, in Lincoln's Inn Fields. 
 
 Mention has already been made of the fact that in an 
 early stage of his career Sir William became an M.B. of 
 London, and that later on he was elected to the Fellow- 
 ship of the Royal College of Surgeons. In addition to 
 these professional qualifications, he was also the recipient 
 of honorary degrees from the two elder Universities. 
 Thus in 1891 he was made a D.C.L. of Oxford, the 
 public orator of the University, when the degree was 
 conferred, acclaiming him as a living proof of the truth 
 of the old saying, dp^yj avdpa. dei%ti, attributed to one of 
 the seven wise men of Greece, and as a man who had 
 passed with increasing distinction from one important 
 official post to another ; and he was likewise a D.Sc. of 
 Cambridge. But this by no means exhausts the list 
 of his academic honours, Edinburgh, St. Andrews, and 
 Trinity College, Dublin, claiming him on their roll of 
 honorary LL.D.'s, while in 1889 he received from 
 Durham the degree of D.C.L. The Edinburgh degree, 
 it may be mentioned, was conferred on the occasion of 
 the celebration of the tercentenary of the University. 
 Sir William was also a Ph.D. 
 
 Nor were Flower's conspicuous services to zoological 
 science suffered to remain unrecognised by the Govern- 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 19 
 
 ment of his country, for he was created a C.B. in 1887, 
 three years after his first appointment to the British 
 Museum, and five years later (1892) followed the 
 higher distinction of the K.C.B. But this does not 
 exhaust the list of official honours, for in 1887 Sir 
 William received from Her Majesty, the late Queen 
 Victoria, the Jubilee Medal. Had he lived to the date 
 of its foundation, it is possible that Flower might 
 have been admitted by his Sovereign as one of the 
 original members of the Order of Merit. 
 
 From His Majesty the German Emperor Sir William 
 Flower received the distinction of the Royal Prussian 
 order, "Pour la Merite," an honour of which he was 
 justly very proud. As a distinguished friend pointed 
 out in his letter of congratulation on learning of the new 
 distinction, "it is the one European decoration which an 
 Englishman may be proud to wear, and bestowed, as I 
 believe it to be, with the sanction of the very few who 
 have already got it. It is the one order which real 
 work, apart from rank and wealth and courtiers' trick, 
 alone can win." As another eminent friend described 
 it on the same occasion, it is truly < c the blue riband of 
 literary and scientific decorations." 
 
 Numerous foreign scientific societies, it is almost 
 unnecessary to observe, were proud to claim the name of 
 Sir William Flower on the list of their honorary members 
 or associates. It is however by no means easy to give a 
 complete list of these honourable distinctions, for Flower 
 was not one who followed the fashion of adding every 
 possible combination of letters to his name in every book 
 or paper he wrote. Perhaps the most important of 
 these distinctions was that of Foreign Correspondent 
 
20 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 of the Institute of France. Among other societies and 
 academies to which he belonged, were those of the 
 Netherlands, Sweden, and Belgium. 
 
 Although Flower's scientific writings are discussed 
 at length in the later chapters of this memoir, it may be 
 mentioned in this place that during the " eighties " he 
 contributed an important series of articles to the ninth 
 edition of the " Encyclopaedia Britannica." At the 
 commencement of that great undertaking, although the 
 article u Ape " was confided to the competent hands of 
 the late Professor St. George Mivart, some of the other 
 articles, such as the one on" Antelope," were entrusted 
 to writers who, whatever their other merits may have 
 been, had certainly no claim to be regarded as specialists 
 on the subject of mammals. It was not long before 
 this was recognised by the publishers, who forthwith 
 engaged for this section of the work the services of 
 Flower, supplemented by those of the late Dr. Dobson 
 and Mr. O. Thomas. Among the more important articles 
 by Flower were those on the Horse, Kangaroo, Lemur, 
 Lion, Mammalia (in co-operation with Dr. Dobson), 
 Megatherium, Otter, Platypus, Rhinoceros, Seal, Tapir, 
 and "Whale. These and other articles, together with the 
 one on Ape by Professor Mivart and several on the 
 smaller mammals by Mr. Thomas, were subsequently 
 combined and revised to form the basis of the Study of 
 Mammals Living and Extinct, by Sir William Flower 
 and the present writer, and was published by Messrs. 
 A. & C. Black in 1891, which long formed the standard 
 English work on the subject, although now, owing to 
 the rapid progress in zoology and the great change which 
 has taken place in nomenclature, is somewhat out of date. 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 21 
 
 The excellent little volume on The Horse in Sir 
 John Lubbock's (Lord Avebury) Modern Science Series, 
 published in 1891, and the Essays on Museums 
 (1898), also appeared during this portion of Flower's 
 career. 
 
 Although so largely occupied in the study of 
 mammals and other creatures from distant parts of the 
 world, Sir William never travelled much, and never 
 visited little known regions or did any important 
 collecting abroad. In addition to his Crimean ex- 
 periences, and the journeys in Holland, France, and the 
 Rhine country, to which allusion has been already made, 
 his foreign tours appear to have been but few. In the 
 winter of 1873-74 he was, however, enabled to enjoy a 
 trip up the Nile in company with Mrs. Flower, and he 
 visited Biarritz in 1892. During the former excursion 
 he made a number of sketches which bear ample 
 testimony to his powers as an artist. With his great 
 knowledge of anatomy, it may be here mentioned, 
 coupled with his skill with the pencil, he enjoyed a 
 great advantage over many contemporary zoologists in 
 being able to draw accurate and life-like portraits of the 
 animals he loved so well. Nevertheless, if only from 
 lack of time, he never attempted to illustrate with 
 his own hand any of his numerous scientific contributions 
 at all events in later years. Owing to need for com- 
 plete rest, after a short sojourn in the early part of 1897 
 at Marazion, on the south coast of Cornwall, he spent 
 much of the following winter abroad ; and after his 
 resignation of the Directorship of the Museum in 1898, 
 he spent the following winter at San Remo, from which 
 he returned less than two months before his death. 
 
22 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 As regards the closing scenes of his life, a very few 
 words must suffice. For the last two years of his 
 existence he had evidently been in failing health, largely 
 due to his incessant exertions and from his refusal 
 to spare himself, even when warned of the absolute 
 necessity of so doing by his medical adviser. In 
 August 1898, after a long period during which he had 
 been compelled to devote little or no attention to his 
 official duties, he placed his resignation of the Director- 
 ship of the Museum in the hands of the Trustees. The 
 aforesaid sojourn at San Remo during the following 
 winter effected some slight temporary improvement in 
 his health, but on his return to London, in May 1899, lt 
 was painfully apparent that his constitution never too 
 robust was shattered beyond hope of permanent 
 recovery. And, after a slight temporary rally, from his 
 malady of heart-failure, a sharp relapse occurred on 
 Thursday, 29th June, followed by pneumonia, and on 
 Saturday, 1st July, Sir William Flower passed peacefully 
 away, at the age of sixty-seven years, at his residence, 
 26 Stanhope Gardens, London. 
 
 A memorial service was held on the following 
 Wednesday at St. Luke's Church, Sidney Street, Chelsea, 
 which was attended by a large and sympathetic congre- 
 gation of friends and scientific men, including Sir 
 Edward Maunde Thompson, the Chief Librarian and 
 Director of the British Museum, and Professor E. Ray 
 Lankester, Sir William's successor in the Directorship of 
 the Natural History Branch of the same. 
 
 Sir William was undoubtedly a man of high and 
 noble character, endeared to all with whom he was 
 brought into intimate relations by his unfailing courtesy 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 23 
 
 and charm of manner. To the present writer, it may 
 be said perhaps without undue egotism, he was a friend 
 and counsellor such as cannot be expected more than 
 once in a life-time. 
 
 No better summary of Sir William's general character 
 and high attributes can perhaps be given (certainly the 
 present writer cannot attempt to rival it) than the one 
 drawn up by his biographer in the "Year-book" of 
 the Royal Society for 1901, which may accordingly be 
 quoted in extenso : 
 
 " In private life no one was more beloved and 
 esteemed. He was in every sense a domestic man, 
 finding the highest joys that life brought him with 
 his family and children. The same courtly bearing and 
 high tone, the same preference for all that was good, was 
 in private circles mingled with the same genial smile, 
 the fascinating account of something interesting or novel, 
 and the respect and deference to others, which was part 
 of his upright, unselfish nature. Many a young natura- 
 list will gratefully remember the kind encouragement 
 and valued advice he was ever ready to offer, and the 
 stimulus which the sympathetic interest of a leader in 
 the department gave him. 
 
 " In the busy life of Sir William and in the constant 
 calls on brain and nervous system strong though these 
 were there came times when a feeling of lassitude with 
 headache and spinal uneasiness, if not prostration, 
 showed that the indoor life and the strain of many 
 duties had told with severity both on the central nervous 
 system and on the heart. His annual holiday sufficed in 
 many cases to recruit his energies, especially when he 
 visited Scotland and the charming home of his friends, 
 
24 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Drummond, of Megginch. There he met 
 other friends, such as Dean and Lady Augusta Stanley 
 [after whom a son and a daughter were respectively 
 named] and Colonel Drummond-Hay, of Seggieden, 
 brother of Mr. Drummond. Moreover, he was always 
 interested in the splendid collection of birds made by 
 Colonel Drummond-Hay during his wanderings with 
 the Black Watch." 
 
 Another passage from the same memoir of his life 
 runs as follows : 
 
 " One side of Sir William's life deserves special notice, 
 viz., his social influence, and the endeavour to popularise 
 the great institution with which he was officially con- 
 nected. These influences, developed at the Museum 
 of the College of Surgeons with great success, were 
 brought to bear on a much wider circle in connection 
 with the National Museum and as President of the 
 Zoological Society ; and no one was more fitted than he 
 either for the courtly circle or the large gatherings of 
 working men who flocked on Saturday afternoons to the 
 galleries of the museum. In all his many and varied 
 social functions in his prominent positions he was ably 
 seconded by one who identified herself with his every 
 engagement, and to whom his last volume of collected 
 addresses was dedicated. A man of wide sympathies, he 
 is found at one time addressing a Civil Service dinner, at 
 another a Volunteer gathering, now descanting on evolu- 
 tion to a Church Congress, and again speaking at a 
 Mayoral banquet, a girls' school, or an industrial exhi- 
 bition. The strain on his physique demanded by these 
 efforts would have been great to an ordinary man, but 
 it must have been serious to one whose main energies 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 25 
 
 were heavily taxed by exhausting scientific work. His 
 powerful constitution was thus slowly but surely sapped, 
 yet to an eager mind and a generous heart, such as his, 
 little heed was paid to himself. 
 
 " Taken all in all, we shall not soon see so talented 
 and so accurate a comparative anatomist, so impressive 
 a speaker, so facile an artist, or a public man with a 
 higher type of character." 
 
 The zoological and anthropological side of Sir William's 
 work (with which the present writer is more competent 
 to deal than he is with his social relations and character) 
 is discussed at length in later chapters of this memoir ; 
 but a few observations may be here introduced on sub- 
 jects which scarcely come within the category of purely 
 scientific work. 
 
 At intervals during his life-time Flower communicated 
 a considerable number of letters to the Times and other 
 journals on topics more or less intimately connected with 
 animals and animal life. His sympathy with the crusade 
 against the tight bearing-rein, initiated by his father, 
 has already received mention. Equally marked was his 
 sympathy with the movement against the wearing by 
 ladies of the plumage of birds (other than game-birds, 
 etc.), and more especially the so-called " osprey plumes " 
 really the breeding-plumes of the egrets and white 
 herons -in the so-called decoration of their bonnets and 
 hats. The extreme cruelty involved at least in the 
 case of the " osprey s" in this practice, which entails 
 the destruction of the birds during the nesting-season, 
 when these nuptial plumes are alone donned, and con- 
 sequently in many instances the destruction of the help- 
 
26 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 less young by slow starvation, was painted in forcible 
 language by more than one letter from Flower's pen. 
 Happily, as the result of these and other letters from 
 sympathetic naturalists, and the foundation of the Society 
 for the Protection of Birds (whose general aims were 
 likewise strongly advocated by Sir William), this detest- 
 able practice has been much diminished of late years, 
 although very much remains to be done in this way 
 before there can be any pretence of saying that birds, 
 even in this country, are treated by man as they deserve. 
 
 On another occasion he wrote, deprecating the whole- 
 sale destruction of bottle-nosed whales, which had been 
 advocated on account of the enormous quantities of fishes 
 devoured by these cetaceans. The question of pelagic 
 sealing in Bering Sea, and the best way of preventing 
 unnecessary slaughter, and thus eventual extermination, 
 of the sea-bears and sea-lions which visit the Pribiloff 
 Islands, also occupied his attention. And to him was 
 confided the duty of selecting the naturalists (Professor 
 d'Arcy Thompson and Captain Barrett-Hamilton) who 
 represented British interests in the International Com- 
 mission despatched to those islands in 1896 and 1897, to 
 report on the sealing generally and the habits of the sea- 
 bears, or fur-seals. 
 
 The best mode of disposing of the bodies of the dead 
 was also a subject to which Sir William devoted a share 
 of his attention, and he was a strong advocate for 
 cremation, or, failing this, for burial in wicker caskets 
 in light sandy soil. 
 
 The effects of the weather on " Cleopatra's Needle " 
 a comparatively short time after it had been set up on the 
 Thames Embankment $ the best means of utilising and 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 27 
 
 beautifying the gardens in Lincoln's Inn Fields ; and the 
 anomaly that while a heavy book could be sent by post 
 for a few pence, the charge on a heavy letter, at the 
 time in question, was considerable, were among many 
 other miscellaneous topics upon which he wrote. 
 
 In conversation it was Sir "William's great delight, 
 whenever possible, to turn the subject to his own par- 
 ticular studies and pursuits ; but, as mentioned by an 
 exalted personage on an occasion referred to in the 
 sequel, he never wearied his hearers. In a new or rare 
 animal, his delight was almost childish ; and the present 
 writer has often reflected how intense would have been 
 his pleasure had he been spared to see the first speci- 
 men brought to this country of that wonderful animal, 
 the okapi of the Semliki Forest. 
 
 To his official subordinates Sir William was also 
 readily accessible possibly almost too much so ; and he 
 had always a word of praise for work faithfully carried 
 out under his direction, even if, from a slight misunder- 
 standing of his instructions, it had not been executed 
 precisely on the lines he himself would have desired. 
 He was never above lending a hand himself at manual 
 work ; and the writer well recollects an occasion at the 
 museum where a large animal was, with some difficulty, 
 being moved, and Sir William, although at the time 
 manifestly unfit for severe physical effort, would insist 
 upon aiding in the task. 
 
 As a host, Sir William Flower, ably seconded by 
 Lady Flower, had few rivals and no superiors ; and 
 although he absolutely detested tobacco, such was his 
 good-nature, that he would not deny his male friends 
 the luxury of an after-dinner cigarette the idea of 
 
28 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 ladies smoking would probably have been too much 
 even for his good-nature and tolerance of other people's 
 little weaknesses. 
 
 This chapter may be fitly brought to a close by 
 referring to the fact that it was largely owing to the 
 advocacy of Sir William that a statue of his intimate 
 friend Huxley was placed in the Central Hall of the 
 Natural History Museum, in company with those of 
 Darwin and Owen, so that u Huxley and Owen, often 
 divided in their lives, would come together after death 
 in the most appropriate place and amidst the most 
 appropriate surroundings." In this Valhalla of men 
 pre-eminent in British biological science of the nineteenth 
 century, Flower's own bust has found its home ; but of 
 this more anon. 
 
 In this connection it may be added that Sir William 
 Flower wrote for the Proceedings of the Royal Society 
 the obituary notice of Sir Richard Owen, who had been 
 his predecessor in his own two most important offices. 
 Despite the fact that Flower had been instrumental in 
 overthrowing at least one of Owen's " pet theories," this 
 biographical notice is written in the kindest and most 
 sympathetic spirit, giving full credit to the " immense 
 labours and brilliant talents " of this truly remarkable 
 man. 
 
 An earlier obituary notice from Flower's pen which 
 appeared in the same journal was devoted to a sketch of 
 the life of George Rolleston, the brilliant Professor of 
 Anatomy and Physiology of Oxford, whose comparatively 
 early death in 1 88 1 was one of the real losses to 
 biological science. 
 
 Of a more varied and popular nature were Flower's 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 29 
 
 reminiscences of his friend Huxley, which appeared in 
 the North American Review for September 1895. A 
 fourth biographical notice was the "eulogium" on 
 Charles Darwin, delivered by Sir William at the centenary 
 meeting of the Linnean Society, held on 24th May 1888, 
 in which the speaker acknowledged the incomparable 
 importance of Darwin's work, and incidentally avowed 
 his own acceptance of the doctrine of evolution. Com- 
 pared to Darwin's achievements, he observed, "most of 
 the work which we others do is but irregular, guerilla 
 warfare, attacks on isolated points, mere outpost 
 skirmishing, while his was the indefatigable, patient, 
 unintermittent toil, conducted in such a manner and on 
 such a scale that it could scarcely fail to secure victory 
 in the end." 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 AS CONSERVATOR OF THE MUSEUM OF THE COLLEGE 
 OF SURGEONS, AND HUNTERIAN PROFESSOR. 
 [1861-1884.] 
 
 THE death, in 1 86 1, of the eminent histological 
 anatomist, Professor Quekett, rendered vacant the 
 important post of Conservator of the Museum of the 
 Royal College of Surgeons of England in Lincoln's Inn 
 Fields. This museum, it is almost superfluous to 
 mention, was founded by the great anatomist, John 
 Hunter, and is hence often known popularly, although 
 not officially, as the Hunterian Museum. 
 
 " Originally a private collection," observed Flower 
 in his Presidential address to the Anatomical section of 
 the International Medical Congress, held in London in 
 the summer of 1 88 1, "embracing a large variety of 
 objects, it has been carried out and increased upon much 
 the same plan as that designed by the founder, with 
 modifications only to suit some of the requirements of 
 advancing knowledge. The only portion of Hunter's 
 biological collection which have been actually parted with 
 are the stuffed birds and beasts, which, with the sanction 
 of the Trustees appointed by the Government to see that 
 the college performs its part of the contract as custodians 
 of the collection, were transferred to the British Museum, 
 and a considerable number of dried vascular preparations, 
 which having become useless in consequence of the 
 deterioration in their condition, resulting from age and 
 
32 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 decay, have been replaced by others preserved by better 
 methods." 
 
 In regard to the special purposes served by this 
 museum, it is mentioned in the same address that it is 
 maintained by the College of Surgeons " for the benefit 
 not only of its own members, but for that of the 
 profession at large, and indeed of all who take any 
 interest in biological science, whether the young student 
 preparing for his examination, or the advanced worker 
 who has here found materials for many an important 
 contribution by which the boundaries of knowledge 
 have been materially enlarged. To all such it is freely 
 open without fee or charge. Even the written or 
 personal introduction of members, still nominally required, 
 is never asked for on the four open days from any 
 intelligent or interested visitor; and on the one day of 
 the week on which it is closed for cleaning, facilities are 
 always given to those who are desirous of making 
 special studies, and to the increasing number of lady 
 students, whether artistic, scholastic, or medical. Artists 
 continually resort to the museum to find opportunities 
 of studying anatomy of man and animals, which no other 
 place in London affords ; and of late years it has been 
 the means of a still wider diffusion of knowledge, by 
 the visits which have been organised on summer 
 Saturday afternoons by various associations of artizans, 
 to whom a popular demonstration of its contents is 
 usually given by the Conservator." 
 
 Elsewhere in the same address we find the following 
 passage in connection with the teaching functions of this 
 body : 
 
 "The various professorships and lectureships that 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 33 
 
 are attached to the College have grown up chiefly in 
 consequence of one of the conditions under which the 
 Hunterian Collection was entrusted to it by Government 
 that a course of no less than twenty-four lectures 
 shall be delivered annually by some member of the 
 College upon Comparative Anatomy and other subjects, 
 illustrated by the preparations." 
 
 For some years previously to Professor Quekett's 
 death the offices of Conservator of the Museum of the 
 College and of Hunterian Professor of Anatomy had been 
 disassociated ; the occupant of the professorial chair at 
 the date in question being the late Professor T. H. 
 Huxley, while, as already mentioned, Quekett held the 
 Conservatorship. At an earlier date the two offices had, 
 however, been held conjointly ; Owen having fulfilled the 
 duties of both for a period of no less than twenty-five 
 years. 
 
 It may be added that, from the varied nature of the 
 collections under his charge, the Conservator is expected 
 to have a knowledge not only of comparative anatomy 
 and zoology, but likewise of palaeontology, physiology, 
 surgery, and pathology. 
 
 Such a wide range of knowledge is possible to few 
 men at the present day, but it was possessed to a very 
 considerable extent by Mr. Flower, even at this com- 
 paratively early stage of his career ; and as the appoint- 
 ment was congenial to his tastes, he applied for, and in 
 due course was elected to, the Conservatorship. The 
 acceptance of this involved the complete abandonment 
 of practice as a surgeon a course of action which, 
 I believe, was never regretted. For eight years Mr. 
 Flower discharged the duties of the Conservatorship to 
 c 
 
34 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 the satisfaction of the Council of the College ; and when, 
 in 1869, Professor Huxley found himself compelled by 
 the pressure of other duties to relinquish the Hunterian 
 chair, Flower was elected in 1870 to fill the vacancy. 
 He thus, for the first time in his career, became entitled 
 to the designation of u Professor," and he continued to 
 hold the two offices till his transference to the British 
 Museum. Here it may perhaps be well to mention, in 
 order to avoid confusion, that in the early part of 
 Flower's official career at the College of Surgeons the 
 post of Articulator to the museum was held by a name- 
 sake Mr. James Flower. 
 
 For the first eight years of his connection with the 
 museum in Lincoln's Inn Fields the time and attention 
 of Flower were almost entirely devoted to the improve- 
 ment, augmentation, and rearrangement of the collections 
 under his charge ; and even when his duties as Hunterian 
 Professor claimed a large share of his time, no efforts 
 were spared to maintain the former rate of progress in 
 the museum. 
 
 To record in detail the improvements and alterations 
 made in the museum under Flower's able administration 
 would obviously not only occupy a large amount of 
 space but would, likewise, be wearisome to the reader. 
 Attention will therefore be concentrated on a few 
 salient features in connection with his work. 
 
 Although the anatomy of man naturally took a pro- 
 minent place in what used to be called the " physio- 
 logical" series, yet the preparations illustrating this 
 subject were in the main restricted to the viscera ; the 
 details of regional anatomy and of the arrangement and 
 distribution of muscles, vessels, and nerves not finding 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 35 
 
 a place in the original scheme of the museum. This 
 appeared to Flower to be a serious omission, and he 
 soon set to work to exhibit human anatomy largely on 
 account of its paramount importance to the members of 
 the medical profession on a much more extensive 
 scale than was previously the case, thereby affording by 
 means of permanent preparations a ready demonstration, 
 accessible at all times, of the structure of every part of 
 the human frame. To those who have already learnt 
 their anatomy, it has been well remarked, and who wish 
 to refresh their memory, or verify a fact about which 
 some passing doubt may be felt, or to those who are 
 precluded by circumstances from visiting the dissecting 
 room, the preparations of this series must prove of great 
 value. 
 
 In connection with this series may be mentioned 
 the fact that Flower published during the year he took 
 office the work which heads the list of his numerous 
 scientific contributions, namely, Diagrams of the 
 Nerves of the Human Body, exhibiting their Origin, 
 Divisions and Connections, which was favourably 
 received by the medical profession. In the preparation 
 of the anatomical series, Flower's almost unrivalled 
 powers of dissection stood him in good stead, and it 
 was probably during this period of his career that he 
 first acquired the rudiments of that originality and care 
 in museum arrangement and display that led to his being 
 called in after life by a German savant " the Prince of 
 Museum Directors." 
 
 Perhaps, however, the portion of the museum under 
 his charge in which Flower was most deeply interested 
 was that devoted to the dentition and osteology of 
 
36 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 the different orders of the Mammalia. As regards 
 the osteological series, he expressed himself in the 
 above-mentioned address of 1 88 1 in the following 
 words : 
 
 " On this head we claim to be somewhat in advance 
 of other museums, on account of the improvements 
 which have been made of late years in preparing and 
 articulating dried skeletons, and in displaying portions 
 of the bony framework in an instructive manner. 
 Formerly all the bones were rigidly fixed together, so 
 that their articular surfaces, if not actually destroyed, 
 were completely concealed, and no bone could possibly 
 be removed and separately examined. The aim of a 
 series of changes in the method of mounting skeletons 
 introduced here, and n9w adopted, more or less com- 
 pletely, in many other museums, has been to obviate all 
 these difficulties, and to make each bone, as far as 
 possible, independent of all the rest, whilst preserving 
 the general aspect and form of the entire skeleton. 
 
 " Another improvement in the osteological series in- 
 troduced within the last twenty years has been the forma- 
 tion of a special collection designed to show the principal 
 modifications of each individual skeleton throughout 
 the vertebrate classes, by the placing the homologous 
 bones of a number of different animals in juxta-posi- 
 tion. For convenience of comparison, the specimens 
 of this series are all placed in corresponding positions, 
 mounted on separate stands, and to each is attached a 
 label bearing the name of the bone and the animal to 
 which it belongs. This series is especially instructive 
 to the students of elementary osteology, and forms an 
 introduction to the general series." 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 37 
 
 It might have been added with perfect truth that this 
 series of the detached homologous bones of different 
 animals is of equal value and importance to both the 
 palaeontologist and the evolutionist ; since with its assist- 
 ance the former has a ready means of ascertaining the 
 nearest relationships of any fossil bone that may be brought 
 under his notice, while the latter is able to observe the 
 modifications that any particular bone has undergone 
 in different groups of animals. He may notice, for 
 instance, the elongation and slenderness distinctive of the 
 humerus, or arm-bone, of the bat, and contrast it with the 
 short and broad contour characterising the same bone in 
 the mole, while he may observe the elongation of some 
 of the bones of the hind-limbs distinctive of jumping 
 mammals, and their almost total disappearance in the 
 whales and dolphins. If the preparation of this series 
 of specimens (which appears to have been closely con- 
 nected with his lectures on the osteology of the 
 Mammalia, and their subsequent incorporation in the 
 well-known volume noticed in the sequel) had been 
 the sole limit of the work accomplished by Flower, it 
 would still have been sufficient to entitle him to the 
 gratitude of posterity. 
 
 It was while engaged in the development of the 
 collections of this museum that Flower made his im- 
 portant observations on the homologies and mode of 
 succession of the teeth of various groups of mammals, and 
 more especially the marsupials. Here, too, it was that 
 he undertook the investigations which led to his publica- 
 tion of a new scheme of classification for the Carnivora ; 
 and it was likewise during his Conservatorship that he 
 published his valuable series of observations upon the 
 
38 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 comparative anatomy of the mammalian liver. These 
 and other kindred subjects may, however, better be con- 
 sidered at greater length in a later chapter. It must 
 suffice therefore, to add in this connection that during 
 Flower's term of office the unrivalled series of human 
 skeletons and skulls underwent a very marked and im- 
 portant increase. 
 
 By no means the least important part of Flower's work 
 in connection with the museum of the College of Sur- 
 geons was the compilation and publication of the 
 first two volumes of the Catalogue of Qsteological Sped- 
 mens the first, dealing with man alone, issued in 
 1879, anc * the second, written with the aid of his 
 assistant, Dr. J. G. Garson, and treating of the other 
 members of the mammalian class, in 1884. The import- 
 ance of these works consists in the fact of their being a 
 very great deal more than mere catalogues of the contents 
 of one particular museum. They are, on the contrary, 
 systematic treatises, embodying the views of their chief 
 author on such important subjects as zoological nomen- 
 clature and classification, and on the best method of 
 arranging museums which include specimens of the den- 
 tition and osteology of both living and extinct animals. 
 They accordingly deserve notice at some considerable 
 length, not only on this account, but as forming a record 
 of the great changes Flower introduced into the museum 
 at this period under his charge. 
 
 It appears that the first printed list of the contents 
 of the museum was published in the year 1831. In a 
 few years, however, it became evident that a work of a 
 more ambitious nature was required; and in January 
 1842, the then Conservator, Professor Owen, presented 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 39 
 
 a report to the Council, on the supreme advantage to be 
 gained by combining in the proposed new Catalogue both 
 the recent and the fossil osteological Catalogues. Acting 
 on this, the Committee of Council resolved that such a 
 Catalogue should be prepared and published, and the 
 duty of doing this was thereupon confided to Mr. 
 Owen. 
 
 For some reason or other, this excellent and far-seeing 
 resolution was not acted upon in its entirety ; and al- 
 though catalogues were in due course compiled by Owen 
 and published, the specimens belonging to animals still 
 extant were entered in volumes quite distinct from 
 these devoted to fossil bones and teeth ; while the two 
 series of specimens were likewise kept apart in the 
 museum itself. " Hence," as Flower subsequently ob- 
 served, " each series was incomplete, and required 
 reference to the other for its perfect illustration and 
 comprehension." These defects were remedied during 
 the administration of Flower, who not only arranged the 
 extinct specimens in their proper position among those 
 belonging to recent animals, but likewise followed the 
 same admirable plan in drawing up the Catalogues. 
 Later on, as we shall see in the sequel, he endeavoured 
 to introduce the same scheme into the Natural His- 
 tory Museum, but was prevented by the force of 
 circumstances from carrying his views into full effect, 
 although a small step in the right direction was ac- 
 complished. 
 
 The first part of the Catalogue of the osteological 
 specimens in the museum of the College which, as 
 already said, is devoted to man alone, is a most laborious, 
 accurate, and valuable work, dealing first with the 
 
40 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 general osteology of man, then with his dentition, and, 
 thirdly, with the special characters of the osteology and 
 dentition of the different races of the human species 
 a line of study which had formed the subject of several 
 of his lectures as Hunterian Professor. Nor is this by 
 any means all, for the introduction to this volume forms 
 a valuable compendium of the principles and rules of the 
 science of craniology ; the remarks on the mode of 
 measuring skulls, and the method of calculating from 
 such measurements " indices," whereby skulls of different 
 types can be compared with one another with exactness, 
 being models of accuracy and clearness, and rendered 
 the more valuable from the tables by which they are 
 accompanied. For measuring the cubic contents of 
 skulls, Flower was convinced that mustard-seed formed 
 the best and most accurate medium. 
 
 In addition to its value as a summary of the contents 
 of that portion of the museum of which it treats, and as 
 a precis of its chief author's views at that time as to the 
 classification of mammals, the second part of the Cata- 
 logue is of special importance on account of containing 
 an expression of opinion on the subject of zoological 
 nomenclature a subject on which Flower had previously 
 spoken in no uncertain tones in his Presidential Address 
 to the Zoological section of the British Association at 
 the meeting held in Dublin in 1878, which is republished 
 in Essays on Museums. 
 
 The keynote of Flower's introduction to his Catalogue 
 was the urgent need of uniformity of nomenclature 
 among zoologists ; and on this, and the subject generally, 
 he expressed himself as follows : 
 
 " As there is no matter of such great importance in a 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 41 
 
 catalogue as the correct naming of the objects described 
 in it, this part of the subject has engaged a very large 
 share of attention in preparing the work. I am not 
 sanguine enough to suppose that the names I have 
 adopted always after careful research and considera- 
 tion will in every case be deemed satisfactory by other 
 zoologists, yet I hope that some advance will have been 
 made towards that most desirable end a fixed and 
 generally recognised nomenclature of all the best-known 
 species of mammals. Having selected the generic and 
 specific name which I considered most appropriate, I 
 have given the place and date of their first occurrence, 
 but have only admitted such synonyms as have found 
 their way into standard works, judging it better that 
 the remainder should be buried in oblivion, or at all 
 events only retained in professedly bibliographical 
 treatises. In selecting the name chosen, I have been mainly 
 guided by the views which have been gradually gain- 
 ing general currency among conscientious naturalists 
 of all nations, and which were formulated in what is 
 commonly called the Stricklandian Code, adopted by a 
 Committee of the British Association for the Advance- 
 ment of Science in 1842, and revised and reprinted by 
 the Association in 1 865) anc ^ again in 1878. . . . The 
 regulations laid down in these codes for the formation 
 of new names are unimpeachable; and although some 
 of the rules for the selection of names already in existence 
 have given rise to criticism, and are occasionally difficult 
 of practical application when an endeavour is made to 
 enforce them too rapidly, they do in the main, when 
 interpreted with discretion and common-sense, lead to 
 satisfactory results. As what we are aiming at is simply 
 
42 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 convenience and general accord, and not abstract justice 
 or truth, there are cases in which the rigid law of 
 priority, even if it can be ascertained, requires qualifi- 
 cation, as it is certainly not advisable to revive an obsolete 
 or almost tfnknown name at the expense of one, which 
 if not strictly legitimate, has been universally accepted 
 and become thoroughly incorporated in zoological and 
 anatomical literature ; and it is often better to put up 
 with a small error or inconvenience in an existing name 
 than to incur the much larger confusion caused by the 
 introduction of a new one." 
 
 These are weighty words of wisdom, and it must be 
 a matter for profound regret to all persons of thoroughly 
 philosophical and well-balanced minds that, by the newer 
 school of naturalists led by an American section they 
 have not only been received without the attention they 
 merit as coming from a man of Flower's wide experience 
 and mature judgment, but have been absolutely ignored 
 and the principle they inculcate treated with disdain and 
 contempt. Obscure names, frequently of the most 
 barbarous construction and sound, have been raked up 
 from all conceivable sources and substituted for the 
 well-known terms adopted by Flower and many of his 
 contemporaries ; while, to make matters worse, the 
 good old rule that no names antedating the twelfth 
 edition of the Sy sterna Nature of Linnaeus should 
 be recognised in zoological literature has, so far as 
 mammals are concerned, been treated absolutely as a 
 dead letter. 
 
 If it be asked what has been the result of thus ignor- 
 ing the deliberately expressed and matured views of a 
 judicial mind like Flower's, and whether we are per- 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 43 
 
 ceptibly nearer the attainment of uniformity in the matter 
 of biological nomenclature, the reply must be that the 
 subject is in a more unsatisfactory state than ever, and 
 the desired end as far off. It is perfectly true, indeed, 
 that a section of the students of the systematic side of 
 zoology have agreed among themselves to employ only 
 such names as they believe to be the earliest, quite irre- 
 spective of the obscurity of their origin or the rule that 
 such names should be compounded according to classic 
 usage. When, however, we take a broader survey of 
 the field of biology, we find that, almost to a man, 
 the anatomists, the palaeontologists, the geologists, the 
 evolutionists, the students of geographical distribution, 
 and other writers who discuss the subject from aspects 
 other than the purely systematic, adhere to the more 
 conservative side in respect of nomenclature. Moreover, 
 even if this were not the case, we should be but little 
 forwarder, seeing that in works like Darwin's Origin 
 of Species and Wallace's Geographical Distribution of 
 Mammals which must remain classical so long as 
 zoology lasts as a science the older style of nomen- 
 clature is used. Consequently, even if the proposed 
 emendations and changes were universally adopted, the 
 names employed by these and other contemporary 
 writers would still have to be learnt and committed to 
 memory by all zoological students ; so that, instead of 
 one series of names, as would have been practically the 
 case had Flower's proposal been loyally adopted by his 
 contemporaries and followers, we are compelled to know 
 and remember a double series. 
 
 Whether in the end there will not be a reversion 
 to the judicial and temperate conservative compromise 
 
44 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 proposed by Flower and almost everything in this 
 world is based more or less upon compromise from 
 the headstrong and radical mode of procedure fol- 
 lowed by some of the younger zoologists, remains to be 
 seen. 
 
 Another subject on which Flower insisted very 
 strongly in the work under consideration was the 
 inadvisability of multiplying generic and family divi- 
 sions in zoology. Here again we may quote his own 
 words. 
 
 " I do not mean," he writes, " that with the advance- 
 ment of knowledge improvements cannot be continually 
 made in the current arrangement of genera. The older 
 groups become so unwieldy by the discovery of new 
 species belonging to them that they must be broken up, 
 if only for the sake of convenience ; newly discovered 
 forms which cannot be placed in any of the established 
 genera must have new genera constituted for them, and 
 fuller knowledge of the structure of an animal may 
 necessitate its removal from one genus into another ; 
 all these are incidents in the legitimate progress of 
 science. Such alterations should, however, never be 
 made lightly and without a full sense of responsibility 
 for the difficulties which may be occasioned by them, 
 and which often can never be removed. Complete 
 agreement upon this subject can never be expected, as 
 the idea of a genus, of an assemblage of animals to which 
 a common generic name may be attached, cannot be 
 defined in words, and only exists in the imagination of 
 the different persons making use of the expression ; but 
 there might be no difficulty in coming to some general 
 agreement, if individual zoologists would look at the 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 45 
 
 idea as held by the majority, and would not give way 
 to the impulse to bestow a name wherever there is the 
 slightest opening for doing so." 
 
 Here, again, we have golden words, which are 
 unfortunately ignored by a large number of the 
 zoologists and palaeontologists of the present day. 
 Most noteworthy, perhaps, in the whole passage, is the 
 emphasis given to the fact that generic groups are but 
 arbitrary creations of the human, and that, far from 
 being natural realities, they are solely and simply 
 formed as matters of convenience, so that their limits 
 are absolutely dependent upon individual or collective 
 opinion. 
 
 Consequently, when we hear it said as we may that 
 such and such an animal must constitute a genus by 
 itself, we may be assured that in nine cases out of 
 ten the speaker is talking nonsense. It may do so, 
 but this is purely as a matter of convenience for 
 purposes of classification. As examples of Flower's 
 broad and far-seeing way of looking at the limits of 
 generic groups, we may take his inclusion of the foxes 
 in the same group as the wolves, of the polecats and 
 weasels with the martens, of the two-horned with the 
 one-horned rhinoceroses, and of the blackbirds with the 
 thrushes ; and yet in all these instances, as in many 
 others, a large number of his successors many of whom 
 cannot lay claim to anything approaching his intellectual 
 capacity and his power of separating essentials from 
 trivialities cannot be content with the grand simplicity 
 of his scheme of classification. What they gain by 
 their involved systems and minute subdivisions is best 
 known to themselves to the public such complexity 
 
46 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 tends to render zoology, which ought to be one of the 
 most attractive and delightful of all sciences (and it was 
 one of Flower's endeavours to make it as much so as 
 possible), repulsive and distasteful. 
 
 The present writers opportunities of intercourse 
 with Professor Flower during his tenure of the Conser- 
 vatorship of the Museum of the College of Surgeons 
 were but few and intermittent, and restricted to the 
 latter part of that time, he may therefore be pardoned 
 for quoting from a biographer who appears to have 
 enjoyed more favourable opportunities in this respect. 
 Before doing so, however, the writer cannot refrain 
 from putting it on record that his own appointment to 
 the Geological Survey of India in the early seventies 
 was largely due to the influence of Professor Flower, 
 who had been his examiner in the Natural Science 
 Tripos at Cambridge, in December 1871. 
 
 To revert to the subject of Flower's personality 
 in connection with his appointment in Lincoln's Inn 
 Fields, his biographer in the " Year-Book " of the Royal 
 Society for 1901 writes as follows : 
 
 "His tenure of office, viz., twenty-two years, as 
 Conservator of the museum of the Royal College of 
 Surgeons, was a splendid record of original and laborious 
 work, of great administrative capacity, and of unvarying 
 courtesy to visitors. The museum was most popular 
 under his management. There, amidst the almost 
 unrivalled collections, the tall, fair-haired, and earnest 
 worker was daily to be found, minutely studying, 
 comparing and measuring, or giving directions for the 
 extension, arrangement, and classification of the varied 
 and valuable contents. From a scientific point of view 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 47 
 
 no post could have been better adapted to the man or 
 the man to the post. With many and varied lines of 
 study lying conveniently around him, in the quietude 
 of an office less conspicuous and exacting than the 
 British Museum, in the full vigour of manhood, and in 
 the midst of sympathetic seniors, friends, and assistants, 
 it can well be imagined that Sir William's powers 
 attained great development, and that perhaps he 
 never felt so full of happiness and satisfaction with his 
 original work. It could not well be otherwise. His 
 conscientious devotion to duty, his remarkable skill 
 in devising methods of mounting, his artistic eye, his 
 tact with subordinates, and the esteem in which he was 
 held by zoologists and comparative anatomists at home 
 and abroad, give a clue to his subsequent career, 
 and show the training of one of the most accomplished 
 and courtly comparative anatomists our country has 
 produced." 
 
 But there was another side to Flower's work during 
 the greater part of his official connection with the Royal 
 College of Surgeons, and one which brought him into 
 wider and closer contact with the public than was the 
 case with his Conservatorship. This was the delivery 
 of the lectures which form the chief, if not the sole, 
 duty of the Hunterian Professor. According to the 
 statutes of the College, the annual course of lectures, 
 which is short, must be on a different subject each year, 
 but must in all cases be illustrated by preparations in 
 the museum. 
 
 The present writer was privileged to attend only 
 one of these courses on the general structure of the 
 Mammalia and is therefore not competent to speak 
 
4 8 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 from experience of these lectures as a whole. Never- 
 theless the one course was amply sufficient to con- 
 vince him of the lecturer's special qualifications for 
 his task. Flower was indeed an ideal lecturer, endowed 
 with a fine presence, a suave and yet penetrating voice, 
 great power of expression, a slow and impressive 
 delivery, and, above all, an absolute mastery of his 
 subject (whatever it might be) down to the minutest 
 and apparently most insignificant details. For him, 
 every detail of structure, whether functional or rudi- 
 mentary, had a significance and a meaning, and he 
 would never rest satisfied till he had found out what 
 that meaning was, and had laid the whole of the 
 evidence on which he based his conclusions before his 
 audience. That audience, which generally included a 
 considerable number of the elder members of the 
 medical profession, as well as many well-known 
 zoologists and anatomists, invariably listened with rapt 
 attention to the story told so admirably by the accom- 
 plished lecturer. 
 
 Of these lectures, the first course, delivered in 1870 
 on the Osteology of the Mammalia, is perhaps the one 
 which has rendered Flower most widely known 
 among zoological students, since, as noticed below, 
 it became the basis of a valuable little volume. 
 
 His introductory lecture in February 1870 was 
 largely devoted to the subject of plan, or " type," in 
 Nature, and to the evidence in favour of the transmuta- 
 tion of species and evolution of organised beings a 
 doctrine which was at that time by no means so widely 
 accepted, even among scientific men, as it is at the 
 present day. In this address the lecturer prefaced his 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 49 
 
 remarks by explaining that since the main part of his 
 anatomical knowledge was derived from the splendid 
 series of specimens and preparations in the museum 
 under his charge, so he intended to act as the mouth- 
 piece of the specimens themselves. After this intro- 
 ductory lecture followed the regular course for the 
 year, which was devoted to the Osteology of the 
 Mammalia, and it is perhaps this series which has 
 rendered the name of Flower most familiar to the 
 ordinary students of scientific zoology and comparative 
 anatomy, since it was published during the same year as 
 a volume in Macmillan's Manuals for Students, under 
 the title of An Introduction to the Osteology of the 
 Mammalia : being the Substance of a Course of Lectures 
 delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons of England. 
 Such was the success of this admirable little volume 
 which has ever since formed the recognised text-book 
 on the subject of which it treats, that a second edition 
 was called for in 1876, and a third in 1885. In expand- 
 ing and revising the latter in which, by the way, the 
 second half of the original title was dropped the 
 author, owing to the pressure of official duties, called 
 in the assistance of Dr. J. G. Garson, of Cambridge, a 
 well-known zoologist and anatomist. 
 
 This book, to be properly appreciated, should be 
 studied in connection with the series of homologous 
 bones of different species of mammals arranged by 
 Flower himself in the museum of the College of 
 Surgeons, to which reference has been made in an 
 earlier part of this chapter, and from which most of the 
 illustrations were drawn. The figures of the dog's 
 skull have been reproduced in a large number of 
 
50 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 zoological and anatomical works. The plan followed 
 in this volume forms an admirable model for all works 
 of a kindred nature. In the first chapter the author 
 discusses the classification of the mammalia; in the 
 second he describes the skeleton of that group as a 
 whole ; while in the remainder the modifications pre- 
 sented by the various bones in the different groups are 
 described in considerable detail. A special feature is 
 the sparing use of technical terms, and the careful 
 explanation of the meaning of those of which the use 
 was unavoidable. Besides being carefully revised and 
 brought up to date, the third edition differed from its 
 predecessors by including a table of the number of 
 vertebrae found in a large series of species. 
 
 In the following year (1871) the Hunterian course, 
 which comprised no less than eighteen lectures, was 
 devoted to the functions and modifications of the teeth 
 of mammals, from man to the monotremes, although it 
 was not known at that time that either of the two generic 
 representatives of the latter group really possessed 
 true teeth, the discovery of these organs in the 
 Australian duckbill not having been made till many 
 years later. 
 
 Among other subjects included in his Hunterian 
 lectures was the anatomy and affinities of the Cetacea, 
 or whales and dolphins, a group of mammals in 
 which Flower almost from the first displayed a 
 marked and special interest, and on which he became 
 one of the first authorities. Since, however, this 
 is a subject to which fuller reference is made in a 
 later chapter, it need not be further discussed in 
 this place. 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 51 
 
 In 1872 Flower's Huuterian lectures were devoted 
 to the subject of the digestive organs of mammals ; 
 these lectures being reported, with illustrations, in 
 the Medical Times and Gazette of the same 
 year. 
 
 Perhaps the most important and certainly the most 
 voluminous of these lectures was the series on the 
 " Comparative Anatomy of Man," which extended over 
 several years, the course for 1880 dealing especially 
 with the skulls of the Fiji, Tongan, and Samoan islanders. 
 The subject of anthropology, or the study of the 
 different races of mankind from a zoological stand- 
 point, shared indeed with that of the Cetacea a large 
 part of the Professor's attention, and the two together 
 formed, perhaps, his favourite lines of investigation. 
 In regard to the problems presented by the human 
 race when viewed from this standpoint, Flower has 
 expressed himself as follows : 
 
 " Comparative anatomy is specially occupied in study- 
 ing the differences between one man and another, 
 estimating and classifying their differences, and especi- 
 ally discriminating between such differences as are only 
 individual variations (variations which, when extreme, are 
 relegated to the department of the teratologist) and 
 those that are inherited, and so become characters of 
 different groups and races of the human species. 
 Physical anthropology, moreover, extends its range 
 beyond merely comparing and registering these differ- 
 ences of structure. It also occupies itself with 
 endeavouring to trace their cause, and the circumstances 
 which may occasion their modifications. It endeavours 
 also to form a classification of the different groups of 
 
52 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 mankind, and so to throw light upon the history and 
 development of the human species." 
 
 The races towards which special attention was directed 
 in these lectures were mainly those inhabiting the 
 islands of the Indian Ocean and the Pacific, namely, the 
 diminutive and degraded Andamanese, the Australians, 
 and their near but very distinct neighbours, the Tas- 
 manians, long since extinct, the Melanesians or Oceanic 
 Negroes, and the Polynesians. With the exception of 
 the latter, which the Professor regarded as an aberrant 
 and somewhat mixed modification of the Malay stock, 
 all these different island races were considered to belong 
 to the black or negroid branch of the human species ; 
 and it was suggested that the Andamanese were the 
 purest living representatives of a great "Negrito" 
 stock, which had been formerly widely distributed, and 
 had given rise to the true African negroes on the one 
 hand, and to the Oceanic negroes on the other. As 
 regards his view that the aboriginal Australians are 
 members of the negroid branch, it will be pointed 
 out in a later chapter that an alternative opinion has of 
 late years gained considerable favour among anthro- 
 pologists. 
 
 The Hunterian lectures of Flower were, however, by 
 no means restricted to the negro-like races of the 
 islands of the southern oceans. On the contrary, the 
 Professor devoted much attention in the course of trje 
 series to the various races to be met with in our Indian 
 dependencies, dwelling especially on the so-called 
 Dravidian (i.e. non- Aryan) tribes of the Nilgiris and 
 other districts of southern India, and likewise on the 
 still more remarkable and primitive Veddas of Ceylon. 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 53 
 
 The Mongols, as typified by the Tatars and Chinese, 
 and their relationship on the one hand to the Eskimo, 
 and thus with the " Indians" of America, and on the 
 other with the Malays, were also discussed at consider- 
 able length in these lectures. 
 
 The origin of the Egyptians was also a subject to 
 which much attention was devoted by the Hunterian 
 Professor. " The much vexed questions," he said, 
 " who were the Egyptians ? and where did they come 
 from ? receive no answer from anatomical investigations, 
 beyond the very simple one that they are one of several 
 races which inhabit all the lands surrounding the Mediter- 
 ranean Sea ; that they there lived in their own land far 
 beyond all periods of time measured by historical events, 
 and that in all probability it was there that they gradu- 
 ally developed that marvellous civilisation which has 
 exercised such a powerful influence over the arts, the 
 sciences, and the religion of the whole western world." 
 The truth of these suggestions has been fully confirmed 
 by the subsequent researches of Professor Flinders 
 Petrie. 
 
 As a whole, these Hunterian lectures on anthropological 
 subjects were a great success, and won for the Pro- 
 fessor increased respect and admiration from scientific 
 men of all classes. They paved the way for the pre- 
 paration of that invaluable Catalogue of the anthropo- 
 logical specimens in the museum of the College to which 
 allusion has already been made. 
 
 When in 1884 Professor Flower, on the resignation 
 of Sir Richard Owen, accepted the Directorship of the 
 Natural History Departments of the British Museum, 
 and was thus compelled to sever his official connection 
 
54 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 with the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, 
 after a service of two-and-twenty years, the following 
 resolution, on the motion of Sir James Paget, seconded 
 by Mr. Erichsen, was unanimously passed by the Council 
 of the College : 
 
 That the Council hereby desire to express to Mr. 
 William Henry Flower their deep regret at his resigna- 
 tion of the office of Conservator. 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 those offices. That they are 
 glad to acknowledge that the great increase of the 
 museum during those 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 
 while he has increased the value and utility 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 reputation of the College, 
 by the numerous works which have gained for him 
 a distinguished position amongst the naturalists and 
 biologists of the present time. And that, in their 
 placing on record their high appreciation 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 all will unite with them in wishing him complete 
 success and happiness in the important office to which 
 he has been elected." 
 
 This is indeed a splendid, although by no means ex- 
 aggerated, testimonial to the success of Flower's 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 55 
 
 administration of the Museum of the College' of 
 Surgeons, and to the good and lasting work he there 
 effected work which paved the way to the improve- 
 ments he was subsequently able to effect in the Natural 
 History Museum. 
 
 Note. On Owen's retirement the post of Super- 
 intendent of the Natural History Departments of the 
 British Museum, which he had filled, was merged into 
 the new office of Director ; a wider scope being given 
 to the duties of the post. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 AS DIRECTOR OF THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM 
 [1884-1898] 
 
 ON the resignation in 1884 by Sir Richard Owen of 
 the post of Superintendent of the Natural History 
 Departments of the British Museum, which four years 
 previously had been transferred to the magnificent 
 new building in the Cromwell Road, officially known 
 as the British Museum (Natural History), but more 
 commonly designated the Natural History Museum, 
 it was felt by all competent to form an adequate opinion 
 on the subject that Professor Flower was the one man 
 specially and peculiarly fitted for the post. And 
 accordingly, in the course of the year in question, he 
 was duly appointed to that most important and influential 
 position, which may be regarded as conferring upon its 
 occupant the status of the leading official zoologist 
 in the British Empire. It was in this position that 
 Flower became most widely known to the general 
 public ; and here that he received the honours, firstly 
 of C.B., and later on K.C.B., conferred upon him by his 
 Sovereign. 
 
 At the date when Sir William (then Professor) 
 assumed the reins of office, the position of Director of 
 the Natural History Museum was of a somewhat 
 anomalous and peculiar nature. At that time (as now) 
 the administration of the museum was divided into 
 57 
 
58 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 four sections, or departments, namely Zoology, Geology 
 (or rather Palaeontology), Botany and Mineralogy, each 
 of which was presided over by a " Keeper," who had 
 practically unlimited control, both as regards finance and 
 general arrangement, of his own section. Consequently, 
 as regards these four departments, the Director had very 
 little control over the museum he was nominally sup- 
 posed to govern; and his functions were to a great 
 extent limited to regulating the t( foreign policy " of the 
 institution under his charge, that is to say, its relations 
 to the parent establishment at Bloomsbury, to the 
 Treasury, and to the world at large. In fact, as Sir 
 William once remarked to the present writer, the 
 Director at that time had to find a sphere of work 
 for himself. 
 
 Fortunately, such a sphere of work lay ready to hand, 
 and Flower immediately entered upon it with character- 
 istic energy and enthusiasm. 
 
 So long ago as the year 1859, Sir Richard Owen, in 
 one of his reports to the Trustees of the Museum, 
 recommended that the new building, in addition to 
 affording ample space for the general series of natural 
 specimens exhibited to the public, should likewise 
 include a hall, or other suitable apartment, for the 
 display of a series of specimens calculated to convey 
 an elementary idea of the general principles of systematic 
 natural history and biological classification to the large 
 proportion of the ordinary public visitor not conversant 
 with that subject. In other words, the feature of the 
 proposed section would be the exhibition of a series of 
 specimens selected to show the more typical characters 
 of the principal groups of organised (and, it was at the 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 59 
 
 time added, crystallised) forms. This, it was urged, 
 would constitute an epitome of natural history, and would 
 convey to the eye, in the easiest and most ready manner, 
 an elementary knowledge of the sciences in question. 
 
 In every modification which the plans of the new 
 building underwent, a hall for the purpose indicated in 
 the above passages formed, as Sir William has himself 
 remarked, a prominent feature ; being in the later stages 
 of the development of the building called, for want of 
 a better name, the " Index Museum." 
 
 The increasing infirmities of age, coupled with the 
 short time during which he presided over the Natural 
 History collections in their new home, combined, how- 
 ever, to prevent Owen from making any real progress 
 with the so-called Index Museum; and although he 
 furnished the idea of the scheme and planned the 
 general installation of the hall, the selection and 
 installation of its contents were left to his successor. 
 And, with the vast experience gained by Sir William 
 during his tenure of office in the Royal College of 
 Surgeons, they could not possibly have been left to 
 abler hands. 
 
 Here it is necessary to explain that, whether by 
 design or by accident, history sayeth not, the Index 
 Museum and the Central Hall generally were not 
 included in any one of the four great administrative 
 departments of the Museum, so that they consequently 
 came under the immediate and exclusive control of the 
 Director himself. 
 
 Nor was Flower long in setting to work at the task 
 which thus lay awaiting his master-hand ; and the 
 Index Museum, as fast as the exigencies of finance 
 
60 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 and the difficulties of procuring suitable specimens 
 permitted, gradually assumed the shape and character 
 familiar to all visitors of the building, not that in these 
 respects it exactly followed the lines suggested by 
 Owen. In place of being, as was originally proposed, 
 a sort of epitome or index of the main collections in 
 the galleries, it developed rather into something " more 
 like the general introduction preceding the systematic 
 portion of treatises on any branch of natural history." 
 
 Whether, in view of this departure from the original 
 conception, Sir William, if starting de novo, would have 
 grouped all these separate collections in a single apart- 
 ment, or whether he would have split them up and 
 placed them at the commencement of the various series 
 in the exhibition galleries to which they respectively 
 pertain, may be a moot point. But, at anyrate, no 
 detriment to his work would ensue if such a splitting-up 
 should be thought desirable in the future. And con- 
 siderable advantages would undoubtedly result if the 
 series displaying the general morphology and anatomy 
 of the mammals were placed at the entrance of the 
 mammalian gallery, and so on with the other series at 
 present exhibited in the Index Museum. 
 
 Be this as it may, the series of specimens and pre- 
 parations arranged in the Index Museum under the 
 immediate superintendence of Flower is probably 
 unrivalled in its way, and displays in a marked manner 
 that attention to detail and that eye to artistic effect 
 which were among his special attributes. In the " bay " 
 devoted to mammals, special attention was given to the 
 display of specimens illustrating the various forms 
 assumed by the teeth in the different orders and 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 61 
 
 families, and their mode of succession and replacement ; 
 subjects in which Flower always displayed special 
 interest, and in regard to which he made some important 
 discoveries. Here, too, were exhibited during the latter 
 half of his tenure of office the skeletons and half models 
 of a man and a horse, placed in juxtaposition, in order to 
 display the special adaptations and modifications for, 
 on the one hand, the upright posture and great brain- 
 capacity, and, on the other, for the high degree of speed 
 and endurance essential to an otherwise defenceless 
 quadruped living, in a wild state, on open plains. In 
 this exhibit, which forms the frontispiece to his well- 
 known and deservedly popular little work on The 
 Horse, Sir William always took an especial pride ; 
 and it was one of the first objects to which he directed 
 the attention of the many illustrious and distinguished 
 visitors who sought his guidance in viewing the collec- 
 tions under his charge. Another specimen in the same 
 " bay " of which he was especially proud is the 
 skeleton of a young chimpanzee, dissected by Dr. Tyson, 
 and described by that anatomist in a work published 
 in 1699, under the title of the Anatomie of a Pigmie, 
 being the earliest scientific description of any man- 
 like ape. 
 
 As regards the vertebrate "bays," Sir William 
 himself (always of course with the aid of trained 
 assistants) took an active part in the selection and 
 arrangement of the specimens. In the case of the 
 invertebrate groups, on the other hand, the task was 
 left more to his subordinates ; while as regards the 
 botanical section such relegation was, of necessity, 
 practically complete. Although it has been previously 
 
62 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 referred to elsewhere, it may be mentioned that it was 
 during the work on the Index Museum the discovery of 
 the absence in certain groups of birds of the fifth cubital 
 quill-feather was made ; a fact now familiar to naturalists 
 under the title of diastaxy, or aquintocubitalism. 
 
 A special feature of the vertebrate section of the 
 Index Museum was the attention devoted to the mount- 
 ing of the skins of the mammals exhibited. In an 
 address delivered to the British Association in 1889, 
 Flower referred to " the sadly neglected art of 
 taxidermy, which continues to fill the cases of most of 
 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 impossible for the creature to have assumed 
 while alive." And he was determined that the speci- 
 mens of this nature in the section of the museum under 
 his own immediate superintendence should be the best 
 of their kind, and should serve as models for the 
 renovation of these in the zoological galleries which he 
 had determined to undertake so soon as the opportunity 
 was afforded. 
 
 Neither was he less particular in regard to labels de- 
 scribing the exhibits. In the address already referred to, 
 he had written that " above all, the purpose for which 
 each specimen is exhibited, and the main lesson to be 
 derived from it, must be distinctly indicated by the 
 labels affixed, both as headings of the various divisions 
 of the series and to the individual specimens. A well- 
 arranged educational museum has been defined as a 
 collection of instructive labels, illustrated by well-selected 
 specimens." Most, if not all, of the descriptive labels in 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 63 
 
 the vertebrate series of the Index Museum were written 
 by the hand of the Director himself, while all came under 
 his personal supervision before being placed in the 
 museum. Labels of a descriptive nature had hitherto 
 been mainly, if not entirely, conspicuous by their absence 
 on the zoological side of the museum ; and for some time 
 the Index series alone afforded an example of the nature 
 of the Director's views on this all-important subject. 
 Nor was this all; for in addition to these descriptive 
 labels, other and larger labels were affixed in the cases, 
 bearing the names of the various "classes," "orders," 
 and " families," to which the specimens respectively 
 pertained; the limits of the space occupied by each 
 group being indicated by black laths, varying in width 
 according to the grade of the group they demarcated. 
 By this means systematic divisions were clearly indi- 
 cated ; and on no consideration would Flower permit of 
 any single specimen being placed elsewhere than in its 
 proper systematic position. 
 
 Another innovation so far at anyrate as the 
 zoological side of the museum was concerned was the 
 placing of small maps alongside each specimen or each 
 group, to illustrate, by means of colour, the geographical 
 distribution of the species or group. 
 
 As regards the function of the Index Museum, it 
 may be admitted that instead of, as originally intended, 
 serving as an elementary guide in natural history to the 
 uninstructed public, this exhibit is more generally used 
 by serious zoological students, of whom numbers may 
 from time to time be seen, book in hand, and sometimes 
 under the guidance of a teacher, intently poring over 
 the contents of the cases. Such a use although not 
 
64 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 perhaps the prime object of a national museum is, 
 however, at least as important as catering to the require- 
 ments of the ordinary visitor. 
 
 The display in systematic and serial order of the 
 external characters and internal anatomy of the leading 
 types of living and extinct animals and plants formed, 
 however, only a part of Flower's scheme of exhibits 
 for the central hall of the museum. Such specimens 
 occupied only the ' bays " or alcoves on the west and 
 east sides, and there remained the large central floor 
 space for exhibits of other descriptions. Advantage 
 was taken of this to display examples of the phenomenon 
 of seasonal colour-change in birds, accompanied in some 
 instances, as in the ruff, by the development of special 
 plumes round the neck, or elsewhere ; the two species 
 selected for illustration being the aforesaid ruff and the 
 wild duck or mallard; the latter bird, together with 
 many other members of its tribe, being remarkable on 
 account of the assumption by the males at certain 
 seasons of the year of an "eclipse" plumage, almost 
 indistinguishable from that distinctive at all times of the 
 year of the female. Other cases were devoted to 
 showing some of the more remarkable kinds of variation 
 produced from a single wild stock by domestication 
 and artificial selection ; the species exhibited for this 
 purpose being several types of the common fowl, the 
 various kinds of pigeons, and the more remarkable 
 strains of the canary. The introduction of domesticated 
 breeds, whose peculiarities are entirely, in the outset at 
 anyrate, the result of man's interference with the 
 ordinary course of Nature, is a notable feature of this 
 portion of the work of Flower, and indicates his sense of 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 65 
 
 the important bearing of such artificial variations on the 
 doctrine of the evolution of organic nature. ' ' Mimicry " 
 by animals of one group of those of another also formed 
 an important part of this introductory series of exhibit ; 
 as did likewise the colour-adaptation of animals to their 
 inorganic surroundings. This latter phenomenon is 
 specially illustrated by a series of animals (mammals, 
 birds and reptiles) from the Libyan desert, which are 
 set up amid rocks and sand from the same locality so as 
 to imitate as nearly as possible the natural conditions. 
 And this case, together with one of these to be noticed 
 immediately, affords an excellent example of Sir William's 
 painstaking efforts to make the exhibits in the museum 
 as realistic as possible, and also his influence and per- 
 suasive power in inducing friends or correspondents to 
 aid his endeavours. For in both these instances the 
 animals and their inanimate surroundings were collected 
 on the spot by generous and enthusiastic donors. 
 
 The second instance of the adaptation of animals to 
 their surroundings is afforded by the two cases display- 
 ing respectively a summer and a winter scene in Norway, 
 with the birds and mammals in the one in their brown 
 dress, and in the other in their snow-white livery. 
 Since Sir William's death an Arctic fox, in the appro- 
 priate dress, had been added to each case, with a decided 
 improvement to the general effect. 
 
 Another exhibit of the above nature is devoted to the 
 phenomenon of albinism and melanism among animals ; 
 the two cases in which the specimens are shown 
 containing an extraordinary number of species, varying 
 in size from leopards to mice, in which these remarkable 
 colour-phases are respectively displayed. The admission 
 
66 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 of such departures from the ordinary type into the 
 museum justifies, it may be mentioned, the introduction 
 of abnormalities of a more startling nature. Finally, as 
 illustration of a transition from one species towards 
 another, Sir William caused to be set up a series of 
 typical specimens of the common and the hooded crow, 
 together with offspring produced by the union of the 
 two, which are to a great extent intermediate between 
 the parent forms. In the same cases is a series of gold- 
 finches, showing a complete gradation between birds of 
 different coloration, and commonly regarded as belonging 
 to distinct species. 
 
 All the above instances serve to demonstrate, however 
 inadequately, Flower's broad conception of the field 
 to be covered by a national and educational museum, 
 altogether apart from the exhibition of specimens illustra- 
 tive of systematic natural history. It is no secret that 
 Sir William wished to add a series illustrative of the 
 present geographical distribution of animals on the 
 surface of the globe ; but, for lack of space, all that 
 could be attempted in this direction was the exhibition 
 of the British fauna, together with a map displaying the 
 division of the world into zoological regions, according 
 to the scheme of Messrs. Sclater and Wallace. 
 
 For several years, apart from administrative duties, 
 Flower devoted practically the whole of his available 
 time to the elaboration of the Index Museum and the 
 other exhibits in the Central Hall, although he found 
 opportunity to draw up a list of the specimens of 
 Cetacea (whales and dolphins^ in the collection of the 
 Museum, which was published by order of the Trustees 
 in 1885. Probably, indeed, this list was compiled 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 67 
 
 before active work on the Index Museum had com- 
 menced. It is a very useful work to the student of the 
 group, although limited to species represented in the 
 Museum collection. 
 
 In the autumn of the year 1895 there occurred, 
 however, an event, which may be said to have 
 revolutionised Flower's position in the Museum, and 
 gave him that immediate personal control over the 
 zoological collections which was essential to the full 
 development and perfection of his scheme of museum 
 reform and expansion. At that date Dr. Albert Giinther 
 retired from the position of Keeper of the Zoological 
 Department ; and it was then resolved by the Trustees 
 of the Museum that this post should be held by 
 Sir William (who, by the way, had been made C.B. in 
 1887 and K.C.B. in 1892), in conjunction with the office 
 of Director. 
 
 This arrangement was continued throughout the 
 remainder of Sir "William's term of office, and was like- 
 wise renewed when he was succeeded by Professor E. 
 Ray Lankester, the present holder of the combined posts. 
 
 This, then, gave Flower, as already stated, the 
 opportunity for which he had so long been waiting; 
 and in January 1 896 he undertook the supervision of the 
 reorganisation and rearrangement of the mammal gallery. 
 
 Here a digression of some length must be made, 
 in order to make the reader acquainted in a certain 
 degree with the conditions then prevalent in the 
 museum in connection with the galleries open to the 
 public. In the first place, as already indicated, while 
 the skins and bones of recent animals were contained 
 and exhibited in the Zoological Department, the remains 
 
68 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 of their extinct relatives, and even the fossilised bones 
 and teeth of the living species, were relegated to 
 the Geological Department, which occupies the ground- 
 floor of the opposite side of the building. To make 
 matters worse, the skeletons of living mammals were 
 exhibited on the second floor of the zoological side of 
 the building (instead of, as they should have been, 
 on the ground floor), and thus as far away as they 
 could possibly be from those of their extinct predecessors. 
 
 Such an unnatural and illogical sundering of 
 kindred objects was altogether repugnant to the mind 
 of Flower, who in his address to the British Association 
 in 1889, to which allusion has been already made, 
 expressed himself as follows : 
 
 " For the perpetuation of the unfortunate separation 
 of palaeontology from biology, which is so clearly a 
 survival of an ancient condition of scientific culture, and 
 for the maintenance in its integrity of the heterogeneous 
 compound of sciences which we now call ' geology,' the 
 faulty organisation of our museums is in a great measure 
 responsible. The more their rearrangement can be made 
 to overstep and break down the abrupt line of demarca- 
 tion which is still almost universally drawn between 
 beings which live now and those which have lived in 
 past times, so deeply rooted in the popular mind, and so 
 hard to eradicate even from that of the scientific student, 
 the better it will be for the progress of sound biological 
 knowledge." 
 
 The force of circumstances, coupled with the expense 
 which would have been involved, was, however, too 
 much for even a man with Flower's force of character 
 and determination, and the attempt to merge the 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 69 
 
 palaeontological withfthe zoological collections was con- 
 sequently perforce abandoned. 1 As a compromise a 
 certain number of fossil specimens, or casts of the same, 
 were to be introduced among the recent mammals ; 
 while, conversely, a few skeletons of the latter were to 
 take their place among the remains of their extinct 
 forerunners. 
 
 In another mooted change, Sir William (as it lay 
 entirely in the Department under his own special con- 
 trol) was, however, more successful. Previously it had 
 been the practice in the museum to separate the skeletons 
 and skulls and horns of mammals from the mounted 
 skins, placing the former in a gallery by themselves, 
 known as the Osteological Gallery. As a result of this, 
 if a visitor wanted to ascertain the peculiarities of the 
 skeleton of any mammal of which the skin was exhibited, 
 he had to mount to the gallery above, and on his arrival 
 there, very probably forgot the essential features of the 
 skin. One of the first resolves in connection with the 
 rearrangement was to do away with the Osteological 
 Gallery altogether, and to place a certain proportion of 
 the skeletons and skulls in juxtaposition with, or near 
 by, the stuffed skins. 
 
 Another feature of the old method of exhibition in 
 vogue in the museum was the crowding together of a 
 vast number of specimens, good, bad, and indifferent 
 (mostly either the second or third), many of which were 
 duplicates, in such a manner that the great majority 
 could scarcely be seen at all, while the effect of those that 
 
 1 At the cost of a gap in the systematic series, a step has been subse- 
 quently made in this direction by the transference of the elephants and 
 sea-cows to the Geological Department. 
 
70 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 were more or less visible was marred and obscured by 
 the adjacent specimens. To add to this unsatisfactory 
 state of affairs was the bad condition due either to age, 
 to bad taxidermy, or both combined of the bulk of 
 the specimens. Moreover, by some inconceivable 
 Vandalism, dating apparently from a very remote epoch 
 in the museum's history, every specimen was mounted 
 on a stand of polished sycamore, the effect of which 
 was to mar even a first-class specimen of taxidermy. 
 When to the above is added the fact that, beyond the 
 scientific and in most cases also the popular name of the 
 species, nothing in the way of indicating the serial 
 position of the various groups was attempted, while all 
 that was done in the way of descriptive labels was the 
 suspension here and there of frames containing extracts 
 from the " Guide" to the gallery, it may be imagined 
 that the state of the collection was very far indeed 
 behind the Director's idea of what it should be. More- 
 over, although in the case of the smaller animals a 
 systematic arrangement was followed, the cases con- 
 taining the larger species were disposed without any 
 reference to the systematic position of the latter. 
 
 In regard to such matters the Director had, in the 
 address quoted, already expressed his own views in no 
 uncertain tone, as is evident from the following passage 
 relating to the arrangement of specimens in the public 
 galleries : 
 
 " In the first place," he writes, " their numbers must 
 be strictly limited, according to the nature of the subject 
 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 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 71 
 
 another, every one being perfectly and distinctly seen, 
 and with a clear space around it. ... Every specimen 
 exhibited should be good of its kind, and all available 
 skill and care should be spent upon its preservation and 
 rendering it capable of teaching the lesson it is intended 
 to convey. . . . Every specimen exhibited should have 
 its definite purpose, and no absolute duplicate should 
 on any account be permitted." 
 
 The purport of these golden words, which at the 
 time they were written indicated an entirely new 
 departure in museum arrangement and display, was, so 
 far as possible, followed in the rearrangement of the 
 mammal galleries. In the first place, the upper portions 
 of the cases, which were far too high above the ground 
 to permit of the proper exhibition of small specimens, 
 were, except in those containing large mammals, 
 closed up and employed for displaying the labels relating 
 to the larger groups and the maps illustrating their 
 geographical distribution. Then, again, the shelves, 
 in place of being arranged one above another like those 
 in a wardrobe, were reduced in number, and in most 
 instances in width, so as to be suited to the best possible 
 display of the specimens they were intended to carry. 
 Duplicate specimens of all kinds, as well as representa- 
 tives of species having but little general interest, were 
 relentlessly weeded out and consigned to the store 
 series ; while efforts were made to procure new 
 examples, mounted in the best possible manner, of 
 all species and these were by far the great majority 
 represented by badly - mounted, or old and faded 
 specimens. This part of the business was found, how- 
 ever, to be a matter which must necessarily occupy much 
 
72 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 time, as it is impossible to procure examples of rare or 
 large species, in a condition fit for stuffing, at the 
 precise moment when they are required ; and there is 
 also the question of expense, which becomes very heavy 
 indeed when renovating and replacing a collection of the 
 proportions of that of the National Museum. This 
 portion of the work has therefore been going on 
 uninterruptedly ever since the first start was made, and 
 is indeed being continued at the present time ; for it 
 has been found by experience that a collection of this 
 nature, owing to the terribly bleaching effects of 
 sunlight, requires constant renovation, and that ex- 
 hibited museum specimens have only a definite and 
 limited period, varying to a considerable extent according 
 to the colour and nature of the hair in individual 
 species, during which they are fitted to be publicly 
 shown. Instead of a museum, when once arranged, 
 being " a joy for ever," it requires constant attention 
 and renovation, so that even, to keep them in proper 
 order, the mammal galleries alone in the Natural 
 History Museum demand a large proportion of the time 
 of one of the officials. 
 
 Not the least important of the changes made in the 
 mammalian galleries under the supervision of Sir 
 William Flower was the alteration of the colour of the 
 stands on which the specimens were mounted. These, 
 as already said, were of polished sycamore, the bright 
 reflection from which was exceedingly unbecoming 
 to the specimens, to say nothing of the obvious lack of 
 aesthetic fitness in mounting stuffed mammals upon 
 a polished surface of this nature. Before anything 
 in the way of a change was attempted, Sir William 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 73 
 
 sought the advice of his friend, the late Lord Leighton, 
 after consultation with whom, it was finally decided 
 that in future the stands should be of a good " cigar- 
 colour." This was effected, in the first instance, by 
 scraping and staining the original sycamore stands a 
 work of great labour and expense ; but all new ones 
 were subsequently made of wood more easy to work, 
 walnut being employed in the case of the smaller sizes. 
 Even this improvement, great as it undoubtedly was, 
 did not, however, by any means represent the full 
 extent of the changes in this direction. After a short 
 experience of the aforesaid " cigar-coloured " stands, 
 it was found that the general effect was much improved 
 by gouging out the upper surface of these, with the 
 exception of a narrow rim round the margin, to a 
 depth of a quarter or half an inch, and covering it with 
 a thin layer of sand or earth, upon which leaves, pebbles, 
 etc., might be disposed if required. Instead of 
 "skating on sycamore tables," the animals were by 
 this means shown standing on a very good imitation of 
 a natural land surface. 
 
 Nor was this all. At an early period during the 
 rearrangement of the mammal galleries, Sir William 
 suggested that many of the larger species might be 
 mounted upon imitation ground-work covering the 
 entire floor of the cases in which they were exhibited. 
 This idea was forthwith put into execution in several 
 cases, notably in these containing the lions, the tigers, 
 and the group of fur-seals from the PribilofF Islands, 
 presented by Sir George Baden-Powell. Supposed 
 difficulties with regard to the cleaning of the glass of 
 the cases prevented this plan from being carried out to 
 
74 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 any greater extent during Sir William's lifetime. But 
 these presumed difficulties were subsequently overcome, 
 and of late years a considerable number of the cases 
 containing the larger species of mammals have been 
 treated in this manner with excellent effect and a vast 
 increase to the general attractiveness of the museum. 
 In some instances a merely conventional ground- work has 
 been introduced, but in others a more realistic effect has 
 been attempted. A notable example of this is the 
 reindeer-case, in which the artificial ground-work is 
 covered with rocks, lichen, moss, and birch-stems 
 obtained from the reindeer pastures of Norway. 
 Similarly, the Arctic musk-oxen have been placed on an 
 imitation snow-slope. Although, as already said, much 
 of this work has been carried out since his death, 
 the idea originated entirely with Flower. A similar 
 grouping of animals on artificial ground-work when 
 possible in imitation of the natural surroundings has 
 been instituted in some of the American museums, but 
 whether following Flower's lead, or as an original 
 inspiration, I am unable to say. 
 
 At the time when Sir William took over the office of 
 Keeper of the Zoological Department (in addition to the 
 Directorship), the scheme then in vogue at the museum 
 scarcely assigned to man his real zoological position 
 at the head of the order Primates in the mammalian 
 class. It is true that in the osteological gallery the 
 genus Homo was represented by a couple of skeletons 
 and a series of skulls. But in the gallery devoted to 
 stuffed specimens man, as an integral portion of the 
 exhibited series, was conspicuous by his absence. This 
 by no means suited the views of the Director, who in an 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 75 
 
 obituary notice of Owen quoted with approval a 
 statement of the great anatomist to the effect that no 
 collection of zoology could in any way be regarded 
 as complete without a large amount of space being 
 devoted to the display of the physical characteristics of 
 the various races of the human species. " The series of 
 zoology would lack its most important feature were the 
 illustrations of the physical characters of the human 
 race omitted." Such a series, thought Owen in 1862, 
 would require a gallery of something like 150 feet in 
 length, by 50 feet in width, for its proper display. 
 Stuffed specimens being, of course, out of the question, 
 the series was to include *' casts of the entire body, 
 coloured after life, of characteristic parts, as the head 
 and face, skeletons of every variety arranged side by 
 side for facility of comparison, the hair preserved in 
 spirit, showing its characteristic sign and distinctive 
 structures, etc." Had photography been in anything 
 like its present advanced position in 1862, no doubt its 
 aid would have been claimed in illustrating the various 
 racial types of the human species. 
 
 A gallery of anything like the dimensions required by 
 Owen was quite out of the question when Flower 
 planned the addition of an anthropological section to the 
 mammalian series, but one-half of the portion of the 
 upper mammal gallery now open to the public was 
 reserved for this purpose, so that man took his proper 
 place in the zoological series immediately after the 
 gorilla, chimpanzee, and the other man-like apes, which, 
 in their turn, were preceded by the lower types of 
 monkey. In the main, the specimens exhibited in this 
 series follow on the lines suggested by Owen, including 
 
76 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 coloured casts of the upper part of the body, or the 
 head and neck alone, specimens of the hair, skulls, 
 skeletons, etc. 
 
 In addition to these is a series of photographs of 
 heads enlarged to natural size, and including, whenever 
 possible, a full face and a profile view of each individual 
 represented. Flower took great interest in these 
 photographs (as in the anthropological series generally), 
 and made several experiments before finally deciding as 
 to the scale to which they were to be enlarged. As 
 facilities for photographing in the museum itself were at 
 the time very limited, Flower enlisted the assistance of 
 Dr. H. O. Forbes, Director of the Liverpool Museums, 
 who entered enthusiastically into the project, and under 
 whose superintendence the great majority of the repro- 
 ductions from photographs now exhibited was pro- 
 duced ; the arrangement being that Liverpool should 
 have a copy of every photograph forwarded for 
 reproduction. 
 
 The races of mankind were arranged in the gallery 
 according to Flower's own scheme, fuller reference to 
 which is made elsewhere in the present volume. Flower 
 himself did not survive long enough to see the arrange- 
 ment he had plotted out fully installed. Of late years, 
 although some progress has been made in this direction, 
 the series of coloured casts of the various human races 
 has not increased so rapidly as Flower had hoped they 
 would ; but, nevertheless, a fairly representative series 
 had been brought together, and there is, at present, 
 ample space for additions when opportunities of acquiring 
 new specimens occur. It should be added that Flower 
 inaugurated the plan of making a collection of photo- 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 77 
 
 graphs of the various human races to be kept in the 
 study series. 
 
 It must not, however, be supposed that Flower, 
 during his too brief tenure of the office of Keeper 
 of the Zoological Department, by any means confined 
 his attention to the mammalian galleries. On the 
 contrary, he had with his own hands rearranged two 
 of the cases in the bird gallery, namely, those con- 
 taining the humming-birds and the woodpeckers ; and 
 shortly before his resignation he was planning the re- 
 arrangement of all the cases in this section ; a work 
 which since his death has been carried out to completion 
 on the same lines. In this connection it is, however, 
 only fair to state that in the obituary notice of Flower, 
 published in the " Year-Book" of the Royal Society for 
 1901, full justice has not been done to his predecessors. 
 The passage in question runs as follows : 
 
 " Every effort was made to give the specimens 
 natural postures and natural surroundings. Thus, for 
 example, the tree on which the woodpecker was at 
 work, was cut down, the foliage modelled in wax, and 
 all the surroundings carefully kept. Hovering birds 
 were suspended by fine wire or thread. Birds making 
 nests in holes, such as the Manx shearwater, sand- 
 martin and kingfishers, either had the actual parts or a 
 model of these beside them, just as the nests of the 
 gannets and guillemots on the Bass Rock were shown 
 with their natural environment." 
 
 The obvious inference from this would be that the 
 cases of birds mounted in imitation of their natural 
 environment, inclusive of the splendid model of a portion 
 of the Bass Rock, with its feathered inhabitants placed 
 
78 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 in the " pavilion " at the end of the bird gallery, are due 
 to the initiation of Flower. This is far from being the 
 case; and he himself would have been the very last 
 man to claim credit which was not his due. As a 
 matter of fact, the idea of mounting birds in this manner 
 originated with Dr. Bowdler Sharpe during the Keeper- 
 ship of Dr. Giinther ; the first case installed on these 
 lines being the one containing the common coot. The 
 series was continued during Dr. Giinther's term of office, 
 and was kept up by Flower after his succession to the 
 Keepership. As regards the Bass Rock model, this was 
 also installed during Dr. Giinther's Keepership, and, I 
 believe, while Owen was Superintendent. "What Flower 
 did initiate in the bird gallery was the rearrangement of 
 the wall-cases on much the same lines as the mammal 
 galleries, including the rejection of duplicates and 
 uninteresting species, and the replacement of worn-out 
 and badly-mounted specimens, by new and artistically 
 set-up examples, and the addition of maps and descrip- 
 tive labels. As a matter of fact, the replacement and 
 remounting of specimens have been carried out to a 
 much greater extent among the birds than has been 
 found possible with the mammals. A large number of 
 the birds have been mounted by Cullingford of Durham, 
 whereas nearly all the mammals have been set up by 
 three London taxidermists, namely Rowland Ward, 
 Ltd., Gerrard, and Pickhardt. This plan of employing 
 several firms of taxidermists, instead of giving all the 
 work to one, was much favoured by Flower, as it 
 gave rise to a healthy competition and rivalry, and 
 thus produced better results ; the different firms 
 being kept up to the mark by having their names affixed 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 79 
 
 to the more important examples of their respective 
 work. 
 
 Before his last illness Flower had in contemplation 
 a plan for treating the reptile and fish galleries (in 
 which the crowded exhibits displayed a monotonous 
 and dismal "khaki" hue) on the above lines, but this 
 work was left for his successor, by whom it is in course 
 of being carried out with characteristic energy and 
 originality. 
 
 There is, however, another section of the zoological 
 department of the museum which owes its conception 
 entirely to Sir William Flower, and which he was for- 
 tunately spared to complete. This is the whale-room, 
 or whale-annexe, as it might be better called ; for it is a 
 temporary structure of galvanised iron, lined with match- 
 boarding built out from the north-west angle of the 
 building, and entered by a passage leading out of the 
 corridor alongside the bird gallery. At the time that 
 Flower took over the Keepership of the Zoological 
 Department, with the exception of a skeleton of the 
 sperm-whale, placed in the middle of the Central Hall, 
 the specimens of Cetacea were housed in a portion of the 
 basement, never intended for a public gallery and very 
 unsuited to that purpose. The collection consisted 
 mainly of skeletons and skulls, together with samples 
 of whalebone and teeth ; for it had been found by 
 experience that it was a practical impossibility to mount 
 the skins of the larger whales for exhibition purposes. 
 Indeed, there is great difficulty in doing this even in 
 the case of the dolphins, porpoises, and smaller whales, 
 owing to the fact that their skins are saturated with 
 oil, which, even after the most careful preparation, is 
 
8o LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 almost sure, sooner or later, to exude through the pores, 
 and render the specimens unsightly, if not absolutely 
 unfit for exhibition. 
 
 Previously to Flower's attempt to make an adequate 
 and striking exhibition of the bodily form of the larger 
 whales, some of the smaller members of the group, such 
 as the killer-whale, had been modelled in America in 
 papier-mach ; one such model of the species in question 
 being exhibited in the museum. Flower, however, 
 conceived the idea of making models in plaster of even 
 the largest species of whales ; but, in order to save 
 both material and space, resolved that these should be 
 restricted to one-half of the animal, and should be con- 
 structed upon the actual skeleton, thereby ensuring, 
 with the aid, when possible, of measurements taken from 
 carcases, practically absolute accuracy as regards size 
 and proportion. In due course, after great labour and care, 
 such half-models were built up on the skeletons of the 
 sperm-whale, the southern right-whale, and two species 
 of fin-whale, or rorqual, while others were made of 
 some of the smaller kinds, such as the narwhal and the 
 beluga or white whale. Skeletons and skulls of other 
 species, together with complete models or stuffed skins, 
 or models of the head alone, of many of the porpoises 
 and dolphins, and other specimens illustrating the 
 natural history of the Cetacea, were likewise placed 
 in the new annexe, which was opened to the public 
 on Whit Monday 1897. Flower had always been im- 
 pressed with the great structural difference between 
 the toothed whales, as represented by the sperm-whale, 
 grampuses, porpoises, dolphins, etc., on the one hand, 
 and the whalebone whales, such as the right-whales, 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 81 
 
 humpbacks, and finners, on the other ; and in order to 
 emphasise this essential distinction, he caused the skele- 
 tons and models of the one group to be mounted with 
 their heads in one direction, while those of the second 
 were turned the opposite way. 
 
 Although it was found impossible to obtain a 
 skeleton of the Greenland right-whale, Flower was 
 able to persuade Captain Gray, a well-known whaler, 
 to carve a miniature model in wood, which gives an 
 excellent idea of the proportions, especially the huge 
 size of the head and mouth, of this interesting 
 species. Sketches on the walls of the building 
 illustrate the habits and mode of capture of the sperm- 
 whale, while others serve to show the bodily form 
 of species not yet represented by models. 
 
 At the time it was opened this exhibit was 
 absolutely unique ; and, in the belief of the writer, 
 it remains so to the present day. Unfortunately, the 
 size and design of the building, which has a row 
 of wooden posts down the middle, are such as greatly 
 to interfere with the proper effect of the specimens 
 exhibited ; and it is much to be hoped that means will 
 be found to erect a larger gallery, of a more permanent 
 nature, which will not only allow the contents of the 
 present structure to be adequately seen, but will likewise 
 leave space to permit of models of other species, such 
 as the humpback whale, to be added to the series. 
 
 Hitherto I have dwelt exclusively upon Sir William's 
 efforts to improve the museum under his charge, from 
 the point of view of the general public, that is to say, as 
 an institution for the exhibition of natural history 
 specimens. It must, however, be always remembered that 
 
82 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 this was but one side of his task, and that he laboured 
 hard during the whole time of his official connection 
 with the museum not only to increase the study, or 
 reserve, collections (which are those on which the real 
 scientific work of the museum is almost exclusively 
 based), but to add to the space available for their 
 storage and for the workers by whom they are 
 studied. 
 
 Early in his career as Director he recognised the in- 
 sufficiency of the accommodation of this nature, although, 
 as usual, he expressed his opinion in extremely cautious 
 and guarded language. For instance, in his address as 
 President of the Museum Associations in 1893, a ^ ter 
 referring to the deficiencies of all, at that time, modern 
 museums, which were described as having been built 
 during a period when opinion was still divided as to the 
 proper function of institutions of this nature, he continued 
 as follows : 
 
 " In none, perhaps, is this more strikingly shown than 
 in our own built, unfortunately, before any of the 
 others, and so without the advantages of the experience 
 that might have been gained from their successes or their 
 shortcomings. Though a building of acknowledged 
 architectural beauty, and with some excellent features, 
 it cannot be taken structurally as a model museum 
 when the test of adaptation to the purpose to which it 
 is devoted is rigidly applied." 
 
 This unsuitableness, it may be added, is apparent not 
 only in the lack of accommodation for the study series, 
 but in the exhibition galleries themselves, where 
 architectural ornament interferes with the proper display 
 of the specimens, if indeed it does not absolutely 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 83 
 
 preclude their being placed on the walls, while an 
 excess of light (which has been partially remedied by 
 blocking up the lower portion of the windows in some 
 of the zoological galleries) causes the specimens to 
 become prematurely bleached and faded. 
 
 As regards the deficiency of accommodation for the 
 study series in the museum, Sir William endeavoured to 
 remedy this, so far as possible, by closing some portions 
 of the galleries previously open to the public a step, 
 which, however necessary, tended to mar the building, so 
 far as exhibition purposes are concerned. 
 
 " While thus maintaining," writes his biographer in 
 the Year-book " of the Royal Society for 1901, the 
 high scientific reputation of the great National Museum, 
 he continued to popularise the institution and science 
 by taking parties of working men round the museum on 
 Sundays, and occasionally a distinguished visitor, like 
 Dr. Nansen, would also join the group. Nor was he 
 less attentive to members of the Royal Family, or to 
 distinguished statesmen, like Mr. Gladstone, who 
 honoured the museum with their presence. Foreign 
 rulers, like the Queen of Holland, the Prince of Naples, 
 the Empress Frederick of Germany, and the King 
 of Siam, were also interested in the collection, so that 
 the popularity and welfare of the museum were greatly 
 extended by the Director's tact and urbanity. Formerly, 
 he had taken a leading part in interesting the Prince of 
 Wales (his present Majesty), who was present at 
 Sir James Paget's Hunterian Oration in 1877, * n the 
 Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, and in 
 arranging for an exhibition of the Prince's hunting 
 trophies at the Zoological Society shortly afterwards, 
 
84 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 so in his new sphere royal and other powerful influences 
 were utilised for the improvement and popularising of the 
 collection." 
 
 King Edward, as Prince of Wales, it may be added, 
 was a constant attendant at the meetings of the Board 
 of Trustees at the Museum during Sir William Flower's 
 administration ; and would occasionally, at the close of 
 the meeting, accompanied by the Director, make an 
 inspection of some of the galleries. As indicative 
 of the interest he took in the details of the arrangement 
 of the museum, it may be mentioned that on one of 
 these tours of inspection His Majesty took exception to 
 the position assigned to the head of a reindeer, and 
 desired that it might be placed elsewhere. 
 
 One other point in connection with Sir William's 
 administration may be noticed. Ever since its establish- 
 ment the hall and public exhibition galleries of the Natural 
 History Museum had been guarded during exhibition 
 hours by members of the Metropolitan Police an 
 arrangement which involved a very large expense to 
 the country. Flower suggested that, provided two or 
 three police sergeants and constables were detailed for 
 special duty, the general work of guarding the collec- 
 tions could be equally well done by members of the 
 Corps of Commissionaires, thereby not only effecting 
 a considerable financial saving, but likewise a fresh area 
 of employment for a very deserving class of the 
 community. This arrangement, which was found to 
 work smoothly and satisfactorily, has remained in force 
 ever since. It may be added that the opening of the 
 museum for a limited number of hours on Sunday 
 afternoons commenced during Flower's tenure of office j 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 85 
 
 this arrangement being common to other institutions of 
 a like nature. 
 
 At the special recommendation of the Trustees, the 
 Treasury, when Sir William reached the age for 
 retirement, according to Civil Service rules, extended 
 his term of office for three years. A lengthened period 
 of physical weakness and prostration rendered it, 
 however, impossible for Flower to avail himself of 
 the whole of this extension, and in July 1898 the state 
 of his health was such that he felt himself compelled 
 to send in his resignation. 
 
 When this resignation was accepted by the Standing 
 Committee of the Trustees of the Museum, a special 
 Minute, signed by Lord Dillon, gave expression to the 
 regret felt by that body and the Trustees generally at 
 the retirement of Sir William, to whom every 
 compliment was paid as a worthy successor of Sir 
 Richard Owen, and as one who had done so much 
 towards the re-organisation of a museum pre-eminent 
 amongst institutions of its kind. 
 
 To enter upon the relations of Flower to his 
 subordinates in the Museum is treading upon somewhat 
 delicate ground ; it may be safely affirmed, however, 
 that to those who were in full sympathy and accord with 
 his way of looking at things and his schemes for the 
 general advancement and improvement of the institution 
 under his charge, no truer friend or kinder master 
 could possibly have been found. Owing to the fact 
 that the time of the permanent officials of the museum 
 is for the most part fully occupied in working out the 
 store collections, and registering and, when necessary, 
 describing new acquisitions, Sir William soon found 
 
86 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 that he had not sufficient skilled labour at his disposal 
 wherewith to carry out the installation of the Index 
 Museum and his meditated improvements in the 
 exhibition series. Accordingly he obtained the assent 
 of the Treasury to employ the services of a few 
 scientific men not on the staff of the museum 
 for these purposes ; an arrangement which has been 
 continued under his successor. 
 
 Sir William's services to the museum, as well as to 
 science in general, are commemorated by a bust, executed 
 by Mr. T. Brock, and placed on the south side of the 
 entrance to the first " bay " of the Index Museum. 
 The funds necessary for this were raised by the 
 " Flower Memorial Committee," to which Mr. F. E. 
 Beddard, Prosector of the Zoological Society, acted as 
 Secretary. The bust, which in a profile view, is an 
 excellent likeness of the late Director, was unveiled on 
 26th July 1903, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, in 
 the presence of a representative assemblage of men of 
 science and personal friends, as well as of statesmen. 
 
 The proceedings were opened by Professor E. Ray 
 Lankester, the Director of the Museum, who moved 
 that Lord Avebury (better known in scientific circles as 
 Sir John Lubbock), the Chairman of the Memorial 
 Committee, should take the chair. The Chairman, 
 having taken his seat, expressed his pleasure in being 
 called upon to preside at the ceremony, on account of 
 his admiration and respect for the late Sir William 
 Flower, and for the services he had rendered to 
 zoological science. 
 
 Dr. Philip Lutley Sclater, the Secretary of the 
 Zoological Society, also spoke as an old and intimate 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 87 
 
 friend of the late Director, with whom he had been 
 brought into specially close contact during the long 
 period the latter presided over the Zoological Society. 
 
 The Archbishop of Canterbury, in a brief speech 
 previous to unveiling the bust, referred to two traits in 
 Flower's character which had specially struck his 
 Grace, and which were seldom found associated in the 
 same individual, one of these being his great love of 
 talking on his own special subjects of study, and 
 the other that, in spite of this, he never bored even the 
 least interested of his hearers. During his Directorship 
 Flower had done more to popularise the museum, and 
 museums generally, than had any other man of science. 
 
 The proceedings closed with the usual vote of thanks 
 to the Chairman. 
 
 In addition to writing numerous scientific memoirs, 
 Flower found time during his tenure of the Directorship 
 of the museum to prepare for publication two volumes of 
 considerable interest. The first was the one on The 
 Horse, issued in 1891, to which fuller reference is made 
 in a later chapter; and the second, the well-known 
 Essays on Museums, which appeared in 1 898, and consists 
 of a collected series of essays, articles, addresses, etc., 
 on natural history and kindred subjects. A melancholy 
 interest attached to this volume (which is dedicated to 
 Lady Flower), since, as we are told in the preface, it 
 was compiled during a period of enforced restraint from 
 active occupation, which was evidently only the prelude 
 to the final breakdown. 
 
 It was also during his Directorship of the Museum 
 that The Study of Mammals saw the light. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 AS PRESIDENT OF THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY 
 [1879-1899] 
 
 DURING a portion of his tenure of office as Conservator of 
 the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, and 
 throughout the whole of his Directorship of the Natural 
 History Museum, Sir William Flower occupied the 
 Presidential Chair of the Zoological Society of London 
 the oldest body of its kind in existence. The events 
 narrated in the present chapter occurred therefore 
 during the period covered by its two immediate pre- 
 decessors; nevertheless, this method of treatment, 
 although breaking the chronological order, has been 
 found, on the whole, the most convenient. 
 
 The Zoological Society, it may be observed, has 
 been in the habit of selecting its presidents from three 
 distinct classes. As in the case of the late Prince 
 Consort, the president may be a personage of exalted 
 rank without any claim to a special knowledge of 
 zoology. . On the other hand, as exemplified by the 
 Earl of Derby, who filled the office in the "fifties," the 
 Marquis of Tweeddale in the " seventies," and the Duke 
 of Bedford at the present time, he may combine high 
 rank with a more or less pronounced taste for and 
 knowledge of natural history, or, finally, as in the case 
 of the founder, Sir Stamford Raffles, he may be selected 
 
 89 
 
90 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 solely for his eminence as a zoologist or as a lover of 
 animals. 
 
 On the death of the Marquis of Tweeddale, 2pth 
 December 1878, Professor Flower was selected by the 
 Council to fill the presidential chair ; the appointment 
 being duly ratified at the Annual Meeting of the Society 
 held the following spring. From that date till the 
 year of his death, Flower was annually re-elected 
 president by the unanimous vote of the meeting. He 
 made an admirable president, his deliberate mode of 
 speaking being specially well adapted to the comments 
 expected from a scientific man occupying the presidential 
 chair at the scientific meetings. From his wide know- 
 ledge of zoology, anatomy, and palaeontology, he was 
 able to speak to the point on almost all the papers read 
 at the Society's meetings ; and those privileged to listen 
 to his remarks on any specimen in which he was speci- 
 ally interested will not readily forget the impressive 
 manner in which he brought its more salient and char- 
 acteristic features to the notice of his hearers. Many 
 of his more important scientific memoirs communicated 
 to the Society had been published in its Proceedings or 
 Transactions, before he accepted the presidential chair, in 
 days when the calls on his time were not so pressing 
 or so numerous as they afterwards became ; but even 
 after his elevation to the presidency several valuable 
 memoirs were received from him, the most important being, 
 perhaps, one on the classification and affinities of the 
 dolphins, to which fuller reference is made in another 
 chapter. 
 
 During Flower's presidency several important events 
 and changes occurred in the affairs of the Zoological 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 91 
 
 Society ; and although the management was to a very 
 great extent in the hands of the Secretary, Dr. P. L. 
 Sclater, yet in matters of extreme importance the 
 influence and opinions of the president always made 
 themselves felt the more so, perhaps, that they were not 
 in special evidence in the case of trivial matters. In the 
 early eighties the Society suffered severely from financial 
 depression, its income in the years 1883 and 1884 
 falling far below its expenditure. Thanks, however, 
 to the patient sagacity and great administrative powers 
 of the president and secretary, the affairs of the Society 
 were soon put on a much more satisfactory basis, and 
 long before the death of the former, a state of prosperity 
 was reached which had seldom, if ever, been equalled, 
 and certainly never excelled. 
 
 In the first year of his presidency, Flower delivered 
 one of the Davis lectures in the Society's Gardens, the 
 subject being birds that do not fly, and he also lectured 
 in the two following years, selecting as his subjects in 
 1 88 1 firstly whales, and secondly dolphins. The 
 following year was notable on account of the sale to 
 the great American showman, Barnum, of the African 
 elephant " Jumbo." The reason for thus parting with 
 a valuable and interesting animal was that it was 
 unsafe to keep it in the gardens any longer. The sale, 
 as stated in the " Record" of the Society, caused a good 
 deal of public excitement, but the Council would not 
 have parted with the animal unless satisfactory reasons 
 for so doing had been laid before it by the responsible 
 Executive of the Gardens. 
 
 A still more important event occurred in 1883, namely 
 the transference of the Society's Offices and Library from 
 
92 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 No 1 1 to No 3 Hanover Square ; the freehold of the 
 latter house having been secured by the Council at a cost 
 of 16,250. Such an important transaction would not, 
 we may be assured, have been allowed to take place 
 without the most careful deliberation and consideration 
 on the part* of the President. 
 
 On the first meeting of the Society, held on 1st April 
 1884, in its new premises, the President took the 
 opportunity of congratulating the Fellows present on 
 the very great improvement in the Meeting-room, the 
 Library, and the Offices, resulting from the change. The 
 Society had occupied the old house, No II Hanover 
 Square, for forty-one years, and had long since quite 
 outgrown the accommodation it afforded in all the three 
 departments mentioned above. 
 
 The income of the Society had increased from 9 1 37 
 in 1843 to 28,966 in 1883, with a corresponding 
 increase of clerical work. The Library had been almost 
 entirely formed since the earlier of these dates, and 
 was rapidly increasing, and the attendance of the 
 Fellows at the evening meetings for scientific business 
 had been such that the old rooms were quite inadequate 
 for their accommodation. The President trusted that 
 the increased facilities afforded by the move would be 
 taken advantage of by the Fellows in promoting, with 
 even greater zeal than previously, the work for which 
 the Society was founded, and in maintaining and extend- 
 ing the high reputation it had acquired in the scientific 
 world. 
 
 Few presidents or chairmen, whether of scientific 
 societies or of commercial companies, could have had a 
 more satisfactory record of progress to lay before their 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 93 
 
 supporters. The following account of certain events 
 in the Society's history which took place in 1887 is 
 extracted from the " Record " of its work : 
 
 " In ordertomark the Jubilee of her late Majesty Queen 
 Victoria which took place this year, in some special way, it 
 was decided to hold the General Meeting in June in the 
 Gardens. After the usual formal business had been 
 transacted, the Silver Medal awarded to the Maharaja 
 of Kuch-Behar was presented to His Highness in person, 
 and suitably acknowledged. Professor Flower, C.B., 
 President of the Society, then delivered an address, 
 which was printed as an Appendix to the Council's 
 Report. It dealt in general terms with the principal 
 points in the history of the Society, from its foundation 
 in 1826, tracing its progress throughout. The con- 
 nection of the Royal Family with the Society as Patrons 
 and Donors, the scientific meetings, the publications, the 
 Davis Lectures, the menagerie, and the recent improve- 
 ments in the Gardens were passed in review. The 
 President concluded by appealing for the continued 
 support of the public, either by becoming Fellows or by 
 visiting the Gardens, and expressed the hope that the 
 ' brief record of the Society's history would show that such 
 support was not undeserved by those who have had the 
 management of its affairs.' A reception held after the 
 meeting was numerously attended by the Fellows and 
 their friends, and by many specially invited guests, 
 among whom were the Queen of Hawaii and Princess 
 Liliokalani, the Thakor Sahib of Limdli, H.H. the 
 Prince Devawongse, and the Maharaja of Bhurtpore." 
 
 The reception, which was held on 1 5th June in 
 brilliant weather, was a marked success ; the number of 
 
94 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 foreign visitors in their native dresses lending additional 
 patches of colour to the scene. The President's address 
 on the occasion is reprinted in his Essays on Museums. 
 
 Referring to Sir William's death, the " Record" of the 
 Society has the following paragraph : 
 
 " On 1st July [1899] the Presidentship of the Society 
 became vacant by the death of Sir William Flower who 
 had filled the office for more than twenty years. During 
 this period Sir William Flower had regularly occupied 
 the Presidential chair, and had been constantly engaged 
 on committees and on other matters connected with the 
 Society's affairs. In Sir William Flower the Society 
 lost a zoologist of the highest ability and a most able 
 and energetic President. To succeed him the Council 
 selected His Grace the Duke of Bedford as President, 
 and their choice was confirmed at the Anniversary 
 Meeting in 1900." 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 GENERAL ZOOLOGICAL WORK 
 
 IN the course of the preceding chapters numerous 
 more or less incidental references have been made to 
 the contributions of Sir William Flower to biological 
 literature, as well as to his many improvements in 
 museum organisation and arrangement. The more 
 detailed discussion of these has, however, been reserved 
 for the present and succeeding chapters, of which the 
 first two are devoted to the zoological and the third to 
 the anthropological side of his work, while in the 
 fourth his views in regard to museums and certain 
 other subjects are taken into consideration. 
 
 Regarding the general scientific work of Flower, it 
 must be confessed at the outset that this is characterised 
 in the main by its conscientious carefulness and exactness, 
 rather than by brilliancy of thought, conception, or 
 style. Great attention to detail, both as regards the 
 work itself and in reference to authorities (which were 
 always most carefully verified), is indeed one of the 
 leading features of his labours ; but there is no epoch- 
 making discovery or comprehensive generalisation which 
 can be associated with his name. In connection with 
 his careful attention to small and apparently trivial points 
 of detail, the following passage from Professor Ray 
 
 95 
 
96 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 Lankester's obituary notice in Nature may be appro- 
 priately quoted : 
 
 " He did his own work with his own hands, and 
 I have the best reason to know that he was so deeply 
 shocked and distressed by the inaccuracy which unfor- 
 tunately crept into some of the work of his distinguished 
 predecessor, Owen, through the employment of dissectors 
 and draughtsmen, whose work he did not sufficiently 
 supervise, that he himself determined to be exceptionally 
 careful and accurate in his own records and notes." 
 
 In another passage of his notice the same writer 
 observes that : 
 
 " Caution and reticence in generalisation certainly 
 distinguish all Flower's scientific writings. Whilst he 
 was on this account necessarily not known as the author 
 of stirring hypotheses, his statements of fact gained in 
 weight by his reputation for judgment and accuracy." 
 
 Flower's zoological studies related entirely to the 
 vertebrates and almost exclusively to mammals, although 
 he devoted a few papers, such as the one on the 
 gular pouch of the great bustard, and that on the skull 
 of a cassowary, to birds. Other groups, I believe, he 
 never touched. In the earlier years of his scientific 
 career, at anyrate, his labours were in the main devoted 
 to the anatomical aspect of zoology, such subjects as 
 the dentition, osteology, and the structure and characters 
 of the brain and viscera claiming a much larger share of 
 his attention than was bestowed on the myology. In 
 latter years the classification of the major groups of the 
 mammalia received much attention from Flower. Not 
 that he was in any way what is nowadays called 
 a systematist in zoology, that is to say, he took no 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 97 
 
 active part in describing new species (not to mention 
 sub-species, which had scarcely begun to be recognised 
 by naturalists in his day), or the redefining of generic 
 groups, and other work of this nature. Indeed, as 
 mentioned in the chapter devoted to his career at the 
 College of Surgeons, he was extremely conservative in 
 this respect, and strongly opposed to the modern 
 fondness for small generic groups, and also for changing 
 generic names which, from long association, have come 
 almost to be regarded as household words and integral 
 parts of the English language. The substitution of 
 the name Procavia, for Hyrax, the familiar title of the 
 Klip-dass, was, for instance, very repugnant to him, 
 although loyally accepted when found to be coming 
 into general use. 
 
 As a matter of fact, so far as my information goes, 
 with the exception of certain whales and dolphins, and 
 one extinct sea-cow (Halitherium)^ Flower never named 
 a new species of animal, nor, I think, did he ever pro- 
 pose a new generic term. Indeed, so opposed was he 
 to any interference with names of the latter description 
 in general use, that when several such were replaced 
 by alternative ones in the Study of Mamma/s, it was 
 expressly stipulated by him that the responsibility for 
 such substitution should rest solely with the present 
 writer. 1 
 
 The modern system of forming trinomials to indicate 
 the local races, or sub-species, of mammals (as exempli- 
 fied by Giraffa camelopardalis rothschildi and Giraffa 
 camelopardalis capensis for two of the local phases of 
 
 1 An American writer has recently attributed, quite unjustifiably, the 
 names in question to Flower. 
 G 
 
98 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 the species of giraffe typified by G. camelopardalis of the 
 Egyptian Sudan and Abyssinia), was practically in its 
 infancy during the active life-time of Flower, and it is 
 doubtful how he would have approved of the extent to 
 which it has been subsequently carried. Nevertheless, 
 that he appreciated the practice of recognising minute 
 local differences of colour, size, etc., in the same species 
 of mammals is evident from an incident within the 
 writer's own knowledge, which occurred at the Natural 
 History Museum, when a tray containing the local 
 phases of one of the species of the small squirrel-like 
 rodents known as chipmunks was submitted to his 
 notice; his remark being that such variations from a 
 common type ought in nowise to be ignored, if we 
 wished to make our knowledge of animals anything like 
 complete, and that the simplest way of indicating such 
 differences was to assign them distinct names. 
 
 In a general way, however, it may be said that Sir 
 William's sympathies were with the wider and more 
 philosophical aspects of zoology rather than with the 
 details of specific and sub-specific distinction (which, by 
 the way, have scarcely any more right to be regarded 
 as real philosophical science than has stamp-collecting) r j 
 and that, from a systematic standpoint, his interest was 
 very largely concentrated on the relationships existing 
 between the mammals of to-day and their extinct pre- 
 decessors. Several of his lectures and papers, and one 
 especially of his separate works (that on The Horse) 
 were indeed devoted to this aspect of the subject ; and 
 
 1 The present writer has the less compunction in making this assertion, 
 seeing that he himself is responsible for naming no inconsiderable number 
 of these so-called sub-species of mammals. 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 99 
 
 on every possible occasion he emphasised his conviction 
 of the necessity of studying (and arranging in museums) 
 living and extinct mammals together, if we wish to 
 make our science really practical. 
 
 As a matter of fact he had the strongest possible 
 objection to the recognition of " palaeontology " as a 
 science apart from zoology, and he even went so far as to 
 mildly rebuke (in his own inimitably courteous and 
 gentle manner) the present writer, for venturing to offer 
 to the public a volume on that subject. To a great ex- 
 tent, no doubt, he was perfectly right in this contention, 
 although there are points of view from which " palae- 
 ontological" works are decidedly convenient, even if their 
 existence and production cannot be logically justified. 
 
 As regards the particular groups of mammals (other 
 than man) in which Flower was more especially in- 
 terested, there can be no doubt that the Cetacea (whales 
 and dolphins) occupied the first position. And on this 
 subject he was undoubtedly one of the first authorities, 
 his only possible rivals in this country, at anyrate, 
 being Sir William Turner and Professor Struthers. 
 Next to this group came, perhaps, the marsupials, 
 in which a most important discovery was made by 
 Flower in regard to the succession and replacement of 
 the teeth. 
 
 Not even the most sympathetic of biographers would 
 attempt for one instant to assume that his hero if a 
 zoologist could by any possibility be infallible ; and it 
 has to be recorded that many changes and amendments 
 have had to be made in Flower's conclusions. Perhaps, 
 indeed, Sir William has been to some extent especially 
 unfortunate in this respect, owing to the extreme im- 
 
ioo LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 perfection of the state of our palaeontological (I must 
 use the objectionable word) knowledge at the date 
 when much of his best work was accomplished. At 
 that time, in spite of the enormous and valuable results 
 achieved by Cuvier, Owen, and others, mammalian 
 palaeontology may be said to have been in its infancy 
 compared to its present state ; the wonderful discoveries 
 in North and South America being then either unknown 
 or only partially revealed, and the same being the case 
 with regard to those made known by the working of 
 the phosphorite beds in Central France. 
 
 These and other discoveries have, for instance, totally 
 revolutionised our ideas with regard to the affinities 
 of the different families of the modern Carnivora, and 
 have thus led to considerable modifications of the views 
 entertained by Flower as to the relationships of the 
 members of this group. 
 
 Moreover, there is another important factor which has 
 to be taken into consideration. At the time when Sir 
 William wrote his celebrated memoir on the Carnivora, 
 the effects of what is now universally known among 
 zoologists as " parallelism in development " were quite 
 unrecognised. By " parallelism " (to abbreviate the 
 expression) is meant, it may be explained, a remarkable 
 tendency which undoubtedly exists among animals of 
 markedly diverse origin to become more or less like 
 one another in at least one important structural feature, 
 when living under similar physical conditions, or specially 
 adapted for similar modes of existence. Not unfre- 
 quently this structural resemblance, when closely ex- 
 amined, is found to be less close than might at first sight 
 have seemed to be the case ; the adaptation having been 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 101 
 
 brought about by the modification of structures origin- 
 ally more or less dissimilar towards a common type. 
 In other words, the same goal has been reached by two 
 different routes. 
 
 An excellent example of this is offered by the de- 
 velopment of " cannon-bones " in the lower portion of 
 the limbs of the members of the horse tribe on the one 
 hand and those of the deer and antelopes on the other ; 
 the object of this lengthening and strengthening of this 
 part of the limb being in both instances the attainment of 
 increased speed. Whereas, however in the one instance 
 the cannon-bone is formed from one original element, 
 in the other it is the result of the fusion of two such 
 elements. In this case, indeed, the difference in the 
 structure of this part of the skeleton in the two groups 
 is so apparent as to leave no reasonable doubt as to the 
 remoteness of the affinity between their respective 
 ancestors. There is, however, a certain group of ex- 
 tinct South American hoofed mammals in which the 
 cannon-bone corresponds exactly in origin and structure 
 with that of the horse, from which it might be assumed 
 that the two animals were closely related, whereas, from 
 other evidence, we know that they are widely sundered. 
 Approximately similar structures are therefore in many 
 instances far from being indications of genetic affinity 
 between the animals in which they respectively occur. 
 Before the occurrence of this parallelism was recognised 
 by naturalists as an important factor in their develop- 
 ment, such resemblances were, however, frequently 
 regarded as indications of a common parentage, so that 
 animals which had comparatively little to do with one 
 another were brigaded as members of the same assemblage. 
 
102 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 With these preliminary remarks, we may proceed to 
 a general survey of Sir William's zoological work. It 
 has, however, been found convenient to relegate the 
 consideration of his numerous memoirs on the Cetacea to 
 the next chapter, by which means their connection will 
 be made more apparent than if they were discussed 
 among those on other sections of zoology. 
 
 The first zoological paper (and indeed the first 
 scientific work of any description) published by Flower 
 seems to have been that on the dissection of one of the 
 African lemurs belonging to the genus Ga/ago, which 
 appeared in the Zoological Society's Proceedings for 1852, 
 and serves to prove, as mentioned in the first chapter, that 
 the author was at that time holding the post of Curator 
 of the Museum of the Middlesex Hospital. The paper 
 itself is of little importance, dealing only with the 
 structure of the muscles and viscera of the species in 
 question. 
 
 The next paper on the list, which appeared in the 
 same journal for 1 860, was also written during this 
 part of Flower's career ; it is one of the few devoted 
 to the anatomy of birds, and describes the gizzard 
 of the Nicobar pigeon and other graminivorous 
 species. 
 
 About this time Flower began to devote his attention 
 to the mammalian brain ; his first contribution on this 
 subject being " Observations on the Posterior Lobes of 
 the Cerebrum of the Quadrumana, with the Description 
 of the Brain of a Galago? of which an abstract appeared 
 in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London for 
 1860, although the complete memoir was not published 
 till 1862, in the Philosophical Transactions. The date of 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 103 
 
 publication of the abstract proves that these studies were 
 commenced, and the memoir in question completed, be- 
 fore (and not, as stated by Professor M'Intosh, 1 after) 
 the author's appointment to the Conservatorship of the 
 Museum of the College of Surgeons, which did not take 
 place till the year 1 86 1 . The brain of another monkey 
 was also described in a paper on the anatomy of a South 
 American species then known as Pithed a monachus, which 
 appeared in the Zoological Society's Proceedings for 1862. 
 In the following year (1863) he published, in the 
 Natural History Review, a still more important com- 
 munication, dealing with the brain of the Malay siamang 
 (Hylobates syndactylus), one of the man-like apes, in 
 which it was shown that in this species (and probably 
 therefore in gibbons generally) the posterior part of the 
 cerebrum, or main division of the brain, overlapped the 
 cerebellum, or hind brain, to an even less degree than in 
 the American howling-monkeys, which had hitherto been 
 regarded as the lowest members of the group, so far as 
 the feature in question was concerned. That such a 
 feature should occur in one of the highest groups of 
 apes was certainly a remarkable and unexpected dis- 
 covery. Yet another contribution to the same subject 
 was made in 1864, when a paper appeared in the 
 Zoological Society's Proceedings on the brain of the red 
 howling-monkey, then known as Mycetes seniculus, but 
 of which the generic title is changed by many modern 
 naturalists to Alouata. 
 
 The earlier memoirs of this series published (in the 
 Philosophical Transactions), writes Professor M'Intosh in 
 the Scottish Review for 1900, "formed important evidence 
 
 1 Scottish Review, April, 1900, p. 5. 
 
io 4 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 in the discussions which took place between Owen and 
 Huxley in regard to the posterior lobe of the brain, the 
 posterior cornu, and the hippocampus minor. Professor 
 Owen, at the Cambridge Meeting of the British 
 Association in 1862, maintained, from specimens of the 
 human brain in spirit, and from a cast of the interior 
 of the gorilla's skull, that in man the posterior lobes of 
 the brain overlapped the cerebellum, whereas in the 
 gorilla they did not ; that these characters are constant, 
 and therefore he had decided to place man, with his 
 overlapping posterior lobes, the existence of a posterior 
 horn in the lateral ventricle, and the presence of a 
 hippocampus minor in the posterior horn, under the 
 special division Archencephala. Moreover, he grouped 
 with these features the distinctive characters of the foot 
 of man, and showed how it differed from that of all 
 monkeys. Flower's accurate investigations enabled 
 Huxley to substantiate his antagonistic position to 
 Owen's doctrines, viz., that these structures, instead of 
 being the attributes of man, are precisely the most 
 marked cerebral characters common to man with the 
 apes. Huxley also asserted that the differences be- 
 tween the foot of man and that of the higher apes 
 were of the same order, and but slightly different 
 in degree from those which separated one ape from 
 another. 
 
 The result of this controversy was the overthrow 
 (except in the mind and works of its author) of Owen's 
 separation of man on the one hand as the representa- 
 tive of a primary group the Archencephala; and of 
 apes, monkeys, Carnivora, Ungulates, Sirenians, and 
 Cetaceans on the other hand, as forming a second 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 105 
 
 group the Gyrencephaia. 1 As will be seen from the 
 above quotation, this result was very largely due to the 
 work of Flower, although it was brought into prominent 
 notice by the superior fighting powers of Huxley, who 
 was also an older, and at the time at anyrate, a better- 
 known man. It may be added that Flower himself 
 subsequently abandoned the use of the term " Quadru- 
 mana," as distinguishing apes and monkeys on the one 
 hand from man, as " Bimana," on the other, and 
 brigaded all altogether under their Linnaean title " Pri- 
 mates." 
 
 The contributions of Flower to our knowledge of 
 (and, it may be added, to the clearing up of miscon- 
 ceptions in regard to) the mammalian brain, was, how- 
 ever, by no means confined to the Primates (man, apes, 
 monkeys, and lemurs). On the contrary, his researches 
 were of equal if not indeed of more importance with 
 regard to the structure of that organ in the lower 
 groups of the class, namely the marsupials and the 
 monotremes (duckbill platypus and spiny ant-eater). 
 
 In the well-known Reade Lecture of 1859, Professor 
 Owen expressed himself as follows with regard to the 
 brain of the two groups last mentioned : 
 
 "Prior to the year 1836, it was held by comparative 
 anatomists that the brain in mammalia differed from that 
 in all other vertebrate animals by the presence of the 
 
 1 From the extract from Professor M*Intosh's notice of Flower's work 
 above cited, it might be inferred that Owen first proposed the terms 
 Archencephala, Gyrencephaia, etc., at the Cambridge Meeting of the 
 British Association in 1862. This is not so, as these terms were used by 
 him in a paper read before the Linnaean Society in 1857, and also in his 
 Reade Lecture " On the Classification and Geographical Distribution of 
 the Mammalia," delivered at Cambridge on loth May, 1859, and pub- 
 lished in London (by J. W. Parker) as a separate volume the same year. 
 
io6 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 large mass of transverse white fibres called 'corpus 
 callosum' by the anthropotomist ; which fibres, over- 
 arching the ventricles and diverging as they penetrate 
 the substance of either hemisphere of the cerebrum, 
 bring every convolution of the one into communication 
 with those of the other hemisphere, whence the other 
 name of this part the ' great commissure.' In that 
 year I discovered that the brain of the kangaroo, the 
 wombat, and some other marsupial quadrupeds, wanted 
 the ' great commissure ' ; and that the cerebral hemi- 
 spheres were connected together, as in birds, only by 
 the { fornix ' and ' anterior commissure.' Soon afterward 
 I had the opportunity of determining that the same 
 deficiency of structure prevailed in the Ornithorhynchus 
 (duckbill) and Echidna (spiny ant-eater)." 
 
 Owen's conclusions with regard to the absence of the 
 great connecting band of fibres between the hemispheres 
 of the marsupial brain were first published in the Philo- 
 sophical Transactions for 1837 ; those, with regard to the 
 same lack in the monotremes, being added in Todd's 
 Cyclopedia of Anatomy and Physiology, Article " Mono- 
 tremata." In the latter article it was also stated that 
 the brain of the echidna was further distinguished from 
 that of other mammals by the circumstance that whereas 
 in the latter the portion of the brain known as the optic 
 lobes consists of four lobes (corpora quadrigemina), in 
 the echidna and duckbill there are only a pair of such 
 lobes (corpora bigemina.) 
 
 In consequence of this supposed lack of the corpus 
 callosum in their brains, Owen separated the marsupials 
 and monotremes from other mammals in a primary group 
 by themselves, under the title of Lyencephala. 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 107 
 
 Flower's attack on these conclusions was commenced 
 by a paper which appeared in the Zoological Society's 
 Proceedings for 26th January 1864, entitled "On the 
 Optic Lobes of the Brain of the Echidna," in which it 
 was conclusively demonstrated that these structures 
 resembled those of the higher mammals in being four- 
 lobed. 
 
 More important still was his memoir " On the Com- 
 missures of the Cerebral Hemispheres of the Marsupialia 
 and Monotremata, as compared with those of the 
 Placental Mammals," which was published in the Philo- 
 sophical Transactions of the Royal Society for 1865. In 
 this was shown, it was thought, the existence in both 
 monotremes and marsupials of a distinct, although very 
 small, corpus callosum connecting the two hemispheres 
 of the brain ; the anterior commissure, which in the 
 higher mammals is the smaller connecting band, being in 
 this instance much the larger. 
 
 Recent researches have, however, tended to show 
 that Owen was after all right in denying the existence 
 of a corpus callosum in the latter groups. Even allow- 
 ing for this correction, the result of this important 
 paper was to discredit among all zoologists capable 
 of forming an adequate opinion on the subject Owen's 
 proposed fourfold division of the Mammalia into Lyen- 
 cephala, Lissencephala, Gyrencephala, and Archen- 
 cephala. And these terms have now completely 
 disappeared from zoological literature. 
 
 In those days it required no considerable amount of 
 courage to attack a man of Owen's established social 
 and scientific position on an important subject like this ; 
 and Flower's triumph was therefore the more con- 
 
io8 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 spicuous. Of course such of these discoveries as are 
 valid, if they had not been made by him, would have 
 been made later on by somebody else, as they merely 
 required accurate dissection and observation. But this 
 may be said of every discovery of a like nature ; and 
 Flower is entitled to all credit for having worked out 
 the subject in the way he did. It may be added, that, 
 with our present knowledge of mammalian morphology, 
 a classification based on the characters of the brain is 
 manifestly based on a misconception from first to last ; 
 the degree of development and specialisation of that 
 organ being purely adaptive features, and therefore not 
 dependent upon structural relationships. Had Owen's 
 classification been maintained, it would have been 
 necessary to assign the primitive Carnivora and Ungulata 
 to a group quite apart from the one containing their 
 existing representatives. 
 
 In the light of modern research, it cannot now 
 be held that the result of Flower's investigations 
 in this direction was to demonstrate the existence 
 of a corpus callosum to the brain in all the members 
 of the mammalian class. 
 
 In another paper, dealing with the brain of the Javan 
 loris, published in the Transactions of the Zoological 
 Society, Flower made a further contribution to the 
 study of this part of the organism. Previous to the 
 appearance of the memoir on the marsupial and mono- 
 treme brain, Flower had published, in the Natural 
 History Review for 1864, one on the number of cer- 
 vical vertebrae in the Sirenia (manati and dugong). 
 Apart from several papers on whales and dolphins, 
 which, as already mentioned, are reserved for considera- 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 109 
 
 tion in a later chapter, the next noteworthy zoological 
 contribution from Flower's pen appears to be one on 
 the gular pouch of the great bustard, published in the 
 Zoological Society's Proceedings for 1865. This pouch, 
 which, it may be observed is confined to the cock-bird, 
 and inflated during the breeding season, is a very re- 
 markable structure, which has recently been described 
 in greater detail by Mr. W. P. Pycraft. 
 
 Two years later (1867), Flower contributed to the 
 same journal a .paper on the anatomy of the West 
 African chevrotain, Hyomoschus aquaticus, or, as it is now 
 called, Dorcatherium aquatlcum. The specimen on 
 which the paper was based was the first of its kind 
 which had ever been dissected at least in this country ; 
 and the result of its examination was to confirm the view 
 that the mouse-deer, or chevrotains, cannot be included 
 among the true ruminants, or Pecora, but rather that 
 they form a group (Tragulina), in many respects inter- 
 mediate between the latter and the pigs and hippopota- 
 muses, or Suina. To the essential difference between 
 the chevrotains and the musk-deer, which have often 
 been confounded, Flower was very fond of recurring 
 in his later writings. 
 
 About the year 1 866 Sir William began to turn his 
 attention to the teeth of mammals, more especially as re- 
 gards the mode in which the milk or baby series is suc- 
 ceeded by the permanent teeth, and the general homology 
 of the milk with the permanent, and of the individual 
 teeth of both series with one another. As the result of 
 these investigations he published during the next few 
 years the following papers on this subject. First and 
 most important, one on the development and succession 
 
no LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 of the teeth of marsupials, which appeared in the 
 Philosophical Transactions for 1 867 . In the following year 
 he delivered before the British Association at Norwich 
 a paper entitled " Remarks on the Homologies and Rela- 
 tion of the Teeth of the Mammalia," which was published 
 in the Journal of Anatomy and Physiology for the same 
 year. In that year he also published, in the Proceedings 
 of the Zoological Society, an account of the homology 
 and succession of the teeth in the armadillos. A general 
 sketch from his pen of the dentition of mammals 
 was published in the British Medical Journal for 1871, 
 while in the Transactions of the Odontological Society 
 for the same year, appeared a paper on the first, or milk, 
 dentition of the Mammalia. 
 
 By far the most important of this series of papers is 
 undoubtedly the one on the succession and homologies 
 of the teeth in the marsupials or pouched mammals ; 
 and it is the one which contains, perhaps, the most note- 
 worthy discovery made by Flower. 
 
 Owen had previously pointed out that marsupials 
 differ from ordinary placental mammals in having four 
 (in place of three) pairs of cheek-teeth at the hinder 
 part of the series which have no milk, or deciduous, 
 predecessors, and are therefore, according to the usual 
 rule, to be regarded as true molars, in contradiction to 
 premolars, in which such deciduous predecessors are 
 generally developed. He considered, however, that all 
 the premolars in the kangaroo (and therefore presumably 
 in other marsupials) as well as the incisors or cutting 
 teeth, and the canines or tusks, were preceded by milk- 
 teeth. Flower, on the other hand (who it is only just 
 to add had a much fuller series of specimens of young 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER in 
 
 marsupials on which to work than was available to 
 Owen), was enabled to show that in the Marsupialia 
 only one pair of teeth in each jaw, at most, is preceded 
 by a milk-tooth. The tooth, in question, is the fifth 
 from the posterior end of the series, and whereas in the 
 adult animal it differs in character from those behind it, 
 its deciduous predecessor resembles the latter. The 
 replacing tooth was further considered to correspond 
 with the fourth or last premolar of placental mammals, 
 while the replaced tooth was regarded as the only one 
 in the entire series corresponding to the milk-teeth of 
 placental mammals. This view rendered it necessary, 
 of course, to regard all the four pairs of cheek-teeth 
 behind this abnormal one as corresponding to the true 
 molars of placentals, as had been done by Owen, thus 
 making, as already mentioned, marsupials to differ from 
 ordinary placentals by possessing four instead of three 
 pairs of these teeth. 
 
 Before proceeding to notice an amendment which has 
 been proposed in regard to the homology of the one 
 successional tooth of the marsupials, certain other 
 features connected with it and its predecessor discussed 
 by Flower may be briefly mentioned. He noticed, to 
 quote from an admirable epitome of his observations on 
 this point, drawn up by Professor M'Intosh in the Scottish 
 Review for 1900, " that there were considerable differ- 
 ences in the various genera as to the relative period of 
 the animal's life at which the fall of the temporary molar 
 and the evolution of its successor takes place. In some, 
 as in the rat-kangaroos, it is one of the latest, the 
 temporary tooth retaining its place and its functions 
 until the animal has nearly, if not quite, reached its full 
 
ii2 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 growth, and is not shed until all the other teeth are in 
 position and use. On the other hand, in the Tasmanian 
 wolf the temporary tooth is very rudimentary in size 
 and form, and is shed or absorbed before any other 
 teeth enter the gum. Anterior to the period of Sir 
 William Flower's communication, mammals had been, 
 in regard to the succession of their teeth, divided into 
 two groups the Monophyodonts, or those that generate 
 a single series of teeth, and the Diphyodonts, or those 
 that develop two sets of teeth, but, as he pointed out, 
 even in the most typical Diphyodonts the successional 
 process does not extend to the whole of the teeth, 
 always stopping short of those situated most posteriorly 
 in each series. The pouched animals (marsupials), he 
 stated, occupied an intermediate position, presenting, as 
 it were, a rudimentary diphyodont condition, the suc- 
 cessional process being confined to a single tooth on 
 each side of each jaw." 
 
 All this is unexceptionable. Flower, however, went 
 further than this, and claimed that the true molar teeth 
 of mammals correspond serially with the permanent 
 premolars, canines, and incisors, and not with their 
 deciduous predecessors. And he therefore urged (as 
 indeed must be the case on these premisses) that the 
 whole dentition of adult marsupials corresponds with 
 the permanent dentition of placentals. A further infer- 
 ence from this is that the milk-teeth, instead of 
 being an original development, may rather be a set 
 superadded to meet the temporary needs of mammals 
 whose permanent set is of a highly complex type. 
 
 To review the objections which have been raised 
 against these views would be entering on a very difficult 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 113 
 
 question, and one in regard to which uniformity of 
 opinion by no means exists among naturalists even at the 
 present day. It may be mentioned, however, that from 
 the circumstance of the later milk-premolars resembling 
 (as was noticed by Flower in the case of the one tooth 
 replaced in marsupials) the true molars rather than the 
 permanent premolars, it has been suggested that the 
 milk-dentition is serially homologous with the true 
 molars. And on this view, the entire dentition of 
 marsupials (with the exception of the one replacing 
 tooth) corresponds to the milk-dentition of placentals. 
 Possibly, however, the larger number of incisors which 
 distinguish many of the carnivorous marsupials from the 
 placentals may be due to the development of teeth 
 belonging to the permanent series with those of the 
 milk-set, and both persisting together throughout life. 
 Be this as it may, it is evident, on the above view of 
 the serial homology of their dentition, that marsupials, 
 instead of as Flower supposed, showing the commence- 
 ment of a milk-dentition, really exhibit the decadence 
 of the permanent series. 
 
 In this respect they display a precise similarity to the 
 modern elephants, as indeed was pointed out by Flower 
 in his original paper, although on a false premiss, for 
 he at that time regarded the anterior cheek-teeth of the 
 elephant as the representatives of the permanent pre- 
 molars, whereas they really correspond with the milk- 
 premolars. 
 
 One objection has indeed been raised with regard to 
 
 the identification of the adult marsupial dentition with 
 
 the milk-set of placentals, namely, the existence in certain 
 
 marsupialia of rudimentary teeth belonging to an earlier 
 
 H 
 
n 4 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 set than the one functionally developed. This has been 
 got over by regarding these rudimentary germs as the 
 representatives of a prelacteal series. 
 
 Passing on to another point, it has to be noticed that 
 exception has also been taken to Flower's view that the 
 replacing tooth of marsupials and its deciduous prede- 
 cessor correspond to the fourth, or last premolar of 
 placentals. The question has been discussed in con- 
 siderable detail in the Zoological Society's Proceedings 
 for 1899 by the present writer, who had for material 
 the dentition of certain extinct South American mammals 
 quite unknown to science at the time Flower's paper 
 was written. The result of these comparisons was to 
 render it evident, in the present writer's opinion, that 
 the replacing tooth of the marsupials corresponds to the 
 third, instead of to the fourth, premolar of placentals. 
 From this it follows that marsupials agree with 
 placentals in possessing only three pairs of true molars ; 
 the first of the four teeth in the former behind the 
 replacing tooth being the last milk-premolar (which is 
 never replaced) instead of, as supposed by Flower, the 
 first true molar. This conclusion, as pointed out by 
 the present writer in the paper referred to above, had 
 really been arrived at years previously by Owen, who 
 also believed the replacing tooth to correspond to the 
 third premolar of placentals. 
 
 In thus bringing marsupials into line with placentals 
 as regards their dentition, this later interpretation 
 accords well with recent discoveries in regard to other 
 parts of the organisation of the former animals. It 
 should, however, be mentioned that the newer view is 
 by no means accepted by all zoologists, although it has 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 115 
 
 received the support of the well-known American 
 paleontologist, Dr. J. L. Wortman, 1 who is specially 
 qualified to form a trustworthy opinion on a point of 
 this nature. 
 
 Finally, whatever be the eventual verdict as to the 
 serial homology of the marsupial dentition as a whole, 
 and also as to that of the replacing premolar, Flower 
 must always be credited with the discovery that 
 marsupials replace only a single pair of teeth in each 
 jaw by vertical successors. 
 
 The other papers on dentition referred to above as 
 having been "written by Flower about the same time 
 are, although interesting in their way, of far less im- 
 portance than the one published in the Philosophical 
 Transactions. Indeed the one read before the British 
 Association in 1 868 and published in the Journal of 
 Anatomy and Physiology for the same year, is little more 
 than a recapitulation of the results arrived at in the former. 
 
 The paper on the development and succession of the 
 teeth in the armadillos, published in the Zoological 
 Society's Proceedings in 1 868, is, on the other hand, of 
 considerable interest on account of its confirming the 
 fact first mentioned by the French zoologist, Professor 
 Paul Gervais, but generally overlooked by subsequent 
 writers up to that time, that the common nine-banded 
 armadillo (^Tatusia peba) differs from its relatives in 
 replacing some of its teeth by vertical successors. This 
 at the time was an unexpected feature in any member 
 of the so-called Edentate mammals ; and tended further 
 to break down the supposed hard and fast distinction 
 between monophyodonts and diphyodonts. 
 
 1 American Journal of Science , vol. xi. p, 336 (1901). 
 
n 6 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 Closely connected with the subject of dentition is a 
 paper on " The Affinities and Probable Habits of the Ex- 
 tinct Marsupial, Thylacoleo carnifex (Owen)," communi- 
 cated by Flower to the Geological Society of London 
 in 1868, and published in the Quarterly Journal of that 
 body for the same year. After alluding to the paper 
 on marsupial dentition, Professor Ray Lankester, in his 
 obituary notice of Sir William in Nature^ of 1 3th July 
 1899, observes of the communication under considera- 
 tion that " The next most striking discovery which 
 we owe to Flower seems to me to be the complete and 
 convincing demonstration that the extinct marsupial, 
 called Thylacoleo carnifex by Owen, was not a carnivore, 
 but a gnawing herbivorous creature like the marsupial 
 rats and the wombat a demonstration which has been 
 brought home to the eye even of the unlearned by the 
 complete restoration of the skull of Thylacoleo in the 
 Natural History Museum by Dr. Henry Woodward." 
 
 If we are to believe later authorities, Flower's 
 demonstration of the herbivorous nature of the creature 
 in question was by no means so " complete and con- 
 vincing " as the learned Professor would have us believe ; 
 but of this anon. 
 
 The first important paper on Thylacoleo, which was a 
 creature of the approximate size of a jaguar, whose 
 remains are met with in the superficial formations of 
 Australia, was one by Owen, published in the Philo- 
 sophical Transactions for 1859. From the general 
 characters of the skull (which was at that time only 
 known by fragments), and especially from the rudi- 
 mentary condition of the hinder cheek-teeth and the 
 enormous size of the secant replacing premolar, which 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 117 
 
 bears a certain superficial resemblance to the carnassial 
 tooth of the cats, its describer was led to the conclusion 
 that Thylacoleo was a marsupial carnivore, and " one of 
 the fellest and most destructive of predatory beasts." 
 Probably Owen's views at this time were, that the 
 creature had its nearest living relatives in the members 
 of the Australian family Dasyurida, such as the 
 Tasmanian devil (Sarcophllus ursinus), and that it bore a 
 relationship to the existing carnivorous marsupials some- 
 what similar to that presented by a lion to a dog. At 
 this time there was no evidence to show whether the 
 large teeth near the front of the jaw, the existence of 
 which was indicated in the original specimen merely by 
 its empty socket, was a canine or an incisor ; and though 
 Owen was inclined to regard it as the former, he ad- 
 mitted that it might be an incisor, in which event he 
 recognised that the affinities of the animal would be 
 more with the herbivorous, or diprotodont section of 
 the marsupials, and more especially the phalangers, or so- 
 called opossums of the colonists. This is clearly in- 
 dicated by the following sentence appended by Sir 
 Richard to his discription : " If, however, this be 
 really the foremost tooth of the jaw, it would be one of 
 a pair of terminal incisors according to the marsupial 
 type exhibited by the Macropodidez (kangaroos) and 
 Phalangistida (phalangers)." 
 
 In 1866, after receiving additional specimens from 
 Australia, Owen was enabled to describe the greater 
 part of the skull and the entire dentition of Thylacoleo. 
 The large anterior teeth were clearly recognised to be 
 incisors, which, in Owen's opinion, "proved the 
 Thylacoleo to be the carnivorous modification of the 
 
n8 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 more common and characteristic type of Australian 
 marsupials, having the incisors of the lower jaw re- 
 duced to a pair of large, more or less procumbent and 
 approximately conical teeth, or * tusks.' " Not only did 
 the additional evidence serve to confirm Sir Richard in 
 his view of the carnivorous propensities of Thylacoleo, 
 but he considered that in this extinct form we have "the 
 simplest and most effectual dental machinery for pre- 
 datory life and carnivorous diet known in the mammalian 
 class. It is the extreme modification, to this end, of the 
 diprotodont type of marsupialia." 
 
 Beyond, however, admitting its affinities with the 
 diprotodonts, Sir Richard Owen does not appear in this 
 later paper to have regarded Thylacoleo as a near relative 
 of any of the existing forms ; but in the article on 
 '* Paleontology " in the eighth edition of the Encyclopaedia 
 Britannica, published in 1859? ^ e seems to have con- 
 sidered it allied to Plagiaulax of the Purbeck strata of 
 Dorsetshire, which had been shown by Dr. Hugh 
 Falconer to be probably of herbivorous habits. 
 
 Sir William Flower, in the aforesaid paper in the 
 Geological Society's Quarterly Journal for 1 868, while 
 agreeing with Owen that Thy/acoleo was related to the 
 diprotodont rather than to the polyprotodont carni- 
 vorous marsupials, differed from the conclusion that it 
 was a carnivore. While the large cutting premolar teeth 
 were considered by Owen to resemble the carnassial 
 teeth of a lion, Flower was struck by their similarity to 
 the corresponding teeth of the rat-kangaroos and the 
 phalangers. After discussing the other teeth, he 
 concluded that "in the number and arrangement of 
 these teeth . . . Thylacoleo corresponds exactly with 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 119 
 
 the modern families Macropodid* and Phalangistidx, and 
 differs completely from the carnivorous marsupials." 
 
 After alluding to the small size of the brain-cavity 
 and the large space for the attachment of the powerful 
 muscles which worked the lower jaw, and suggesting 
 that these features may be only to be expected in a 
 large form as compared with the smaller members of 
 the same group, Flower concluded that the habits of all 
 species with the same general type of dentition must 
 necessarily be similar. And, on these premisses, it was 
 urged that Thylacoleo must in all probability have been 
 a vegetable-feeder. The large premolar may seemingly 
 have been " as well adapted for chopping up succulent 
 roots and vegetables, as for dividing the nutritive fibres 
 of animal prey." It is further suggested that the 
 nutriment of Thylacoleo "may have been some kind of 
 root or bulb ; it may have been fruit ; it may have been 
 flesh." While in conclusion it is argued that the 
 organisation of the animal did not countenance the idea 
 of its preying on the large contemporary marsupials. 
 
 Omitting reference to Owen's reply to this reversal of 
 his conclusions, and also to certain comments and addi- 
 tions to the arguments by other writers, we may pass on 
 to a paper by Dr. R. Broom, published in the Proceedings 
 of the Linnean Society of New South Wales for April 
 1898, and entitled "On the Affinities and Habits of 
 Tt>ylacoleo." 
 
 In this the author admits that the animal in question, 
 as suggested by Owen in his second paper, and more 
 fully determined by Flower, was undoubtedly a dipro- 
 todont, and that it was nearly allied to the modern 
 phalangers. With the 'latter it is indeed closely con- 
 
120 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 nected by the recently discovered extinct Burramys, 
 which differs from the existing members of that group 
 by the large size of the secant premolar. 
 
 After discussing numerous points in connection with 
 the problem, Dr. Broom states that those who believe 
 Thylacoleo to have been carnivorous, " evidently consider 
 that the molars have been reduced through their functions 
 being taken up by the large premolars. But could the 
 large premolars take up the molar function could they 
 grind ? Even those who favour the idea of Thylacoleo 
 being a vegetable-feeder, admit that the premolars were 
 cutting teeth, and the difficulty of imagining a herbi- 
 vorous animal without grinders is got over by supposing 
 that its food was of a soft or succulent nature." 
 
 But for the creature to have lived on succulent roots 
 and bulbs, the vegetation of that part of Australia 
 where it lived must, urges Dr. Broom, have been quite 
 different from what it is at the present day ; and we 
 have no justification for assuming any such change to 
 have taken place. Moreover, an animal that could only 
 slice, and not grind up, vegetable food, could apparently 
 subsist only on ripe fruit, and such is to be met with in 
 Australia only at one season of the year, when, owing 
 to the abundance of frugivorous mammals, little, i any, 
 is allowed to fall to the ground. 
 
 "It is probably however," adds Dr. Broom, "un- 
 necessary to discuss further what food Thylacoleo could 
 possibly have obtained, when we have, as I hold with 
 Owen, the most satisfactory proof from its anatomical 
 structure as to what food it did obtain. It must be 
 admitted that Thylacoleo had enormous temporal muscles, 
 and it is perfectly certain that such muscles would not 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 121 
 
 have been developed unless the animal required them. 
 For what could such powerful muscles be required ? 
 Most certainly not for slicing fruits or succulent roots 
 and bulbs, nor would they be required even for the 
 slicing of fleshy fibres. Temporal muscles are chiefly 
 used apparently for closing the jaws more or less forcibly 
 from the open position, while for the more complicated 
 movements of mastication it is the masseter and pterygoid 
 muscles that are chiefly used. Hence in all carnivorous 
 animals the temporals are largely developed and the 
 n:asseters more feebly, because the killing process 
 requires a very forcible closing of the jaws, and the 
 work to be done by the premolars and molars is com- 
 paratively little. In herbivorous animals the conditions 
 are reversed. The jaws are here rarely required to be 
 opened widely or to be closed with any great force, 
 while a very large amount of grinding work has to be 
 done ; hence the temporals are rarely much larger than 
 the masseters, and often very much smaller. When 
 we look at Thylacoleo, ^we find not only the enormous 
 temporals and only moderate masseters, but everything 
 else about the skull seems to be built on carnivorous 
 lines. Owen has shown the wonderful similarity which 
 exists between the molar machinery in Thylacoleo and 
 the lion, and it is hard to conceive as possible any other 
 cause giving rise to such a specialisation in Thylacoleo 
 than that which led to a similar specialisation in the cat 
 tribe. Another most striking feature is to be seen in 
 the condition of the incisors. Leaving out of considera- 
 tion the mode of implantation and structure of the teeth 
 both confirmatory of the carnivorous hypothesis 
 there is one point which appears to me absolutely con- 
 
122 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 elusive on the subject. Unless Owen's figures are 
 altogether unreliable, the lower incisors are quite unlike 
 those of the herbivorous diprotodonts. In such typical 
 forms as the wombat, the koala, the kangaroo, and the 
 phalanger, though there are different modifications of 
 the arrangement, we have the lower incisors meeting 
 the upper, and forming with them an instrument for 
 biting through a moderately tough, fibrous tissue, and 
 even in the very small diprotodonts, so far as I am 
 aware, the lower incisors always meet and work against 
 the upper. But in Thylacoleo we have powerful pointed 
 incisors which do not meet, but overlap. Though 
 technically incisors, they are not intended to incise, but 
 to pierce and tear. Such powerful pointed and over- 
 lapping teeth, though easily explained on the theory 
 that they were intended to kill and tear animal prey, 
 were never surely provided merely to pierce succulent 
 vegetables or ripe fruit. It might of course be argued 
 that the incisors were used as weapons of defence, as 
 apparently are the canines in the baboon ; but against 
 this idea is the objection that the incisors were put to 
 some use which wore them down and blunted them 
 more rapidly than would be the case if they were 
 chiefly used on the rare occasions when the animal had 
 to defend itself; and furthermore, were such the case, the 
 temporals would not require to be greatly developed. 
 
 " There is thus, in my opinion, no other conclusion 
 tenable than that Thylacoleo was a purely carnivorous 
 animal, and one which would be quite able to, and pro- 
 bably did, kill animals as large as or larger than itself." 
 
 This opinion as to the carnivorous habits of Thylacoleo 
 is approved by Mr. B. A. Bensley, who has specially 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 123 
 
 studied the Australian marsupials in a memoir recently 
 published in the Transactions of the Linnean Society of 
 London. 
 
 If it be correct, it reduces the net result of Flower's 
 investigations on this subject to a fuller realisation of 
 the diprotodont affinities of the animal under considera- 
 tion. 
 
 In the latter part of 1 868, Mr. Flower, as he was 
 then styled, communicated to the Zoological Society a 
 most important paper entitled, " On the Value of the 
 Characters of the Base of the Cranium in the Classification 
 of the Order Carnivora," which was published in the 
 first part of the Society's Proceedings for the following 
 year. Working on the lines suggested twenty years 
 previously by Mr. H. N. Turner, who had pointed out 
 the importance of certain peculiarities of the base of the 
 skull in the Mammalia, and especially demonstrated their 
 constancy in the different groups of the Carnivora, 
 Flower felt himself justified in dividing, on these char- 
 acters, the existing terrestrial representatives of that 
 order into three groups. These were 1st, the 
 ^Eluroidea, comprising the cats (Felidts), the fossa 
 (Cryptoproctidts), civets and mongooses (Viverrid<e) y the 
 aard-wolf (Proteleidte), and hyaenas (Hyanidd) ; 2nd, the 
 Cynoidea, including only the dogs, wolves, and foxes ; 
 and grd, the Arctoidea, embracing the bears (UrwV<r), 
 the raccoons and pandas (Procyonida and lurid<z), and 
 the weasels, badgers, otters, etc. (Mustelida). 
 
 One result of this classification from cranial character- 
 istics was to determine definitely the position of the 
 American cacomistle (Bassaris or Bassariscus), which 
 had been previously uncertain. The genus, as might 
 
2 4 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 have been expected from distributional considerations, 
 turned out to belong to the raccoon family (Procpnides). 
 As regards the relationship of the three main groups, 
 subsequent palaeontological discoveries have fully con- 
 firmed Flower's view that the Canidte (Cynoidea) occupy 
 a central, or perhaps rather a basal, position. Palaeon- 
 tology has, however, also shown that the bears ( Uru&e) 
 are a direct offshoot from the Canlda, and accordingly 
 that, if extinct forms be taken into consideration, there 
 is no justification for the separation of the two families 
 into distinct primary groups (Arctoidea and Cynoidea). 
 On the other hand, fossil forms from the Lower 
 Tertiaries of France and of North America seem to de- 
 monstrate the existence of a complete gradation between 
 the primitive dogs (Canida) and the ancestral civets 
 (Piverridx), thus breaking up the distinction between 
 the Cynoidea and the -&luroidea. Nor is this all, for 
 according to the French palaeontologists, there exists a 
 transition between the primitive civets and the early 
 weasels (Musttbd*) ; which, with what has been already 
 stated in connection with the bears, indicates that the 
 Arctoidea is a more or less artificial group, the members 
 of which have come to resemble one another to a 
 certain degree in regard to the .characters of the base 
 of the skull, owing to " parallelism." In this connection 
 it is somewhat curious to note that a certain resem- 
 blance, which had been pointed out by Turner as exist- 
 ing between the mongooses or ichneumons (Viverrida) 
 and the weasels, was regarded by Flower as of no 
 importance. Finally, it is by no means improbable that 
 the cats (Felldai] have no near kinship with the civets, but 
 may be directly sprung from more primitive Carnivora. 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 125 
 
 It is thus evident that Flower's proposed triple 
 division of the Carnivora is not altogether in accord 
 with palseontological, or phylogenetic, evidence. An 
 amendment is to merge the Cynoidea in the Arctoidea, 
 and thus retain only two groups. The observa- 
 tions recorded in the paper have a high permanent 
 value, in respect to the structure of the carnivorous 
 skull. 
 
 Another paper by Flower appeared in the Zoological 
 Society's Proceedings for 1 869, dealing with the anatomy 
 of the soft parts of that remarkable animal, the African 
 aard-wolf (Proteles cnstatus). Although the skeleton 
 had been previously described, no information had 
 hitherto been available with regard to the viscera. In 
 the paper discussed in the foregoing paragraphs Flower, 
 from the external characters, coupled with those of the 
 dentition and skeleton, had regarded the creature as the 
 representative of a distinct family, intermediate in some 
 respects between the Hycenidte and the Viverrldtz. The 
 result of the examination of the viscera was in the main 
 to support this conclusion, although it showed that the 
 Proteleidts are more closely allied to the Hy&nldte than 
 the author had previously believed to be the case. The 
 aard-wolf may, indeed, be regarded as a kind of small 
 and degraded hyaena, with an almost rudimentary type 
 of dentition, suitable to the soft substances on which it 
 feeds. 
 
 Passing on to the year 1870, we have to note the 
 appearance of two separate works bearing Flower's 
 name. The first of these was the Introductory 
 Lectures to the Course of Comparative Anatomy, de- 
 livered at the Royal College of Surgeons in that year. 
 
126 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 Far more important was the issue of the first edition 
 of that invaluable text-book, An Introduction to the 
 Osteology of the Mammalia. Since, however, mention 
 of this work had been already made in an earlier chapter, 
 it need not be further alluded to in this place. 
 
 During the same year, exclusive of those on the 
 Cetacea, several papers were published by Flower in 
 various scientific serials. Among these, bare mention 
 must suffice for one, " On the Connexion of the Hyoid 
 Arch with the Cranium," which appeared in the twentieth 
 volume of the Report of the British Association. More 
 important is the article " On the Correspondence between 
 the parts composing the Shoulder and the Pelvic Girdle 
 of the Mammalia." In this the author pointed out that 
 although the homology between the scapula in the 
 shoulder-girdle and the ilium in the pelvis had long 
 been admitted by naturalists, yet much misconception 
 existed with regard to the exact correspondence be- 
 tween the respective surfaces and borders of these 
 bones ; and he then proceeded to define and describe 
 these correspondences in considerable detail. The names 
 then assigned by Flower to the component surfaces and 
 borders of the bones in question have ever since been 
 generally adapted by naturalists. Observations were 
 also recorded with regard to the homology between the 
 coracoid bone and the ischium. A second paper in the 
 same journal for 1870 dealt with the carpus of the dog ; 
 while in 1873 he published in this medium a note on 
 the same part of the skeleton in the sloths. 
 
 Reverting once more to the Proceedings of the Zoolo- 
 gical Society, in which the bulk of his contributions 
 to the anatomy of mammals was published, we find a 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 127 
 
 paper by Flower in the volume for 1870 on the anatomy 
 of the Himalayan panda (JElurus fulgens.) 
 
 The specimen on which the paper was based was the 
 first example of this remarkable animal which had ever 
 been dissected ; and the brain and viscera were described 
 at considerable length. The result of the dissection 
 was to confirm the author's previous opinion based on 
 the external characters and skeleton as to the near 
 affinity of JElurus to the American Procyonidte ; and it 
 was left somewhat an open question, whether it should 
 be included in that group, or regarded as the repre- 
 sentative of a family (JEhtrida) by itself. In after 
 years Mr. W. T. Blanford adopted the former view. In 
 the following year (1871) Flower contributed a note to 
 the Proceedings, recording the occurrence of a specimen 
 of the ringed seal (Phoca hispida) on the Norfolk coast 
 in 1846 ; and he also wrote a paper in the same 
 volume on the skeleton of one of the cassowaries. 
 The somewhat remarkable fact that the two-spotted 
 palm-civet (Nandinia binotata) differs from the other 
 genera of the same group by the absence of a blind 
 appendage, or caecum, to the intestine, was recorded by 
 Flower in the same serial for 1872. 
 
 Of much more importance than either of the fore- 
 going were two contributions to mammalian anatomy 
 made by Sir William during the year last mentioned. 
 The one, which appeared in the Medical Times and 
 Gazette, was the report of " Lectures on the Comparative 
 Anatomy of the Organs of Digestion in the Mammalia, 
 delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons in February 
 and March, 1872." In this article, which is well 
 illustrated, will be found descriptions of the various 
 
128 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 forms assumed by the stomach in a large number of the 
 ordinal and family groups ; especial attention being 
 directed to the remarkable complexity of that organ in 
 the porpoise. The other, which was published in 
 Nature, and in abstract in the Report of the British 
 Association, dealt with the arrangement and nomen- 
 clature of the lobes of the mammalian liver. It is, 
 perhaps, one of the most valuable of the author's con- 
 tributions to visceral anatomy ; and introduced order 
 and precision where confusion had previously reigned. 
 The names then given to the different lobes of the liver 
 have been very generally adopted in zoological and 
 anatomical literature. 
 
 In 1873 Flower delivered before the Royal Institu- 
 tion a lecture on palaeontological evidence of gradual 
 modification of animal forms, which is published in the 
 Proceedings of that body for the same year. In this he 
 touched on the important evidence afforded by the dis- 
 coveries which had then been recently made in North 
 America in favour of the derivation of one animal form 
 from another, directing particular attention to the case for 
 the evolution of the horse. Another paper on the same 
 subject appears in the British Medicaljournal for 1874; 
 while, as noticed below, Sir William again lectured on 
 palaeontological evolution in 1876. 
 
 The year 1874 was noteworthy, so far as palaeontology 
 is concerned, by the appearance in the Philosophical Trans- 
 actions of the Royal Society of a paper by Flower on 
 part of a remarkable mammalian skull from Patagonia, 
 described under the name of Homalodontotherium cun- 
 ninghami. In justice to the author, it should be said 
 that he was not responsible for the undue length of the 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 129 
 
 generic name, which had been bestowed by his friend 
 Huxley four years previously in the Geological Society's 
 Journal, and which Flower was therefore compelled to 
 employ. It refers to the fact that the jaws of the new 
 animal are remarkable for the even and unbroken wall 
 formed by the teeth, which show no enlarged tusks. 
 At the time the geological age of this interesting fossil 
 was quite unknown ; but it formed the forerunner of the 
 marvellous discoveries of the remains of fossil mammals 
 of middle tertiary age in Patagonia, which have been 
 made of late years, and have done so much to increase 
 our knowledge of the past life and history of the South 
 American Continent. 
 
 Of minor interest is a paper by the then Hunterian Pro- 
 fessor in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society 
 on a much rolled and battered skull from the so-called 
 Red Crag of Suffolk, which the author referred to a 
 species of that extinct genus of sea-cows (Sirenia) known 
 as Halitherium. Such interest as the specimen possessed 
 was due to its affording the first evidence of the occurrence 
 of remains of that genus in Britain. Another paper, it 
 may be mentioned, was published by Flower in the same 
 journal for 1877, ' m which another well-known extinct 
 continental genus of mammals was added to the fauna 
 of the Red Crag of East Anglia. The paper described 
 two molar teeth, in the York Museum, from the deposit 
 in question, evidently referable to the large bear-like 
 animal known as Hyeenarctus, of which the first remains 
 had been described many years previously from the 
 Siwalik Hills of North- Eastern India. As the mention 
 of this paper has broken the chronological order of 
 treatment, it may be added that in 1876 Flower published 
 I 
 
i 3 6 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 another paper, this time in the Zoological Society's Pro- 
 ceedings, on a mammalian skull from the Red Crag. 
 The specimen referred to in this communication was 
 provisionally assigned to Cuvier's genus Xiphodon, and 
 was believed to have been originally washed out from 
 a formation much older than the Red Crag, and reburied 
 in the latter. 
 
 Next on our list comes a paper on the anatomy of the 
 musk-deer (Moschus moschiferus), contributed to the 
 serial last cited for 1875, m which the author points 
 out how widely this animal differs from the more 
 typical deer, and shows that it cannot even claim a near 
 relationship with the Chinese water-deer, despite the 
 fact that in both species the males are devoid of antlers, 
 and are armed with long sabre-like tusks in the upper 
 jaw. In several respects notably the presence of a 
 gall-bladder to the liver the musk-deer is indeed 
 nearer to the hollow-horned ruminants (Bovidae), than 
 to the other members of the deer tribe (Cervidae). 
 
 In 1876 Professor Flower delivered before the Royal 
 Institution an extremely interesting lecture on the ex- 
 tinct mammals of North America, which at that time 
 were in course of being made known to the scientific 
 world by the writings of Professors Marsh and Cope. 
 In the course of this lecture Flower alluded at consider- 
 able length to the ancestry of the horse then a com- 
 paratively new subject and also discussed the structure 
 and affinities of those gigantic many-horned mammals 
 commonly known as Dinocerata. In concluding, the 
 lecturer observed that the work accomplished in America 
 taught us " First, that the living world around us at 
 the present moment bears but an exceedingly small 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 131 
 
 proportion to the whole series of animal and vegetable 
 forms which have existed in past ages. Secondly, that, 
 notwithstanding all that has been said, and most justly 
 said, of the necessary imperfection of the geological 
 record, we may hope that there is still so much pre- 
 served that the study of the course of events which 
 have led up to the present condition of life on the globe, 
 may have a great future before it." 
 
 The subsequent discoveries of fossil mammalian re- 
 mains in such enormous quantities in Patagonia, and still 
 later in the Libyan desert, have rendered this utterance 
 almost prophetic. 
 
 During the same year (1876) appeared, in the Philoso- 
 phical ^Transactions, a notice by Flower of the seals and 
 cetaceans obtained during the Transit of Venus expeditions 
 of 1874 anc * l %75- The year 1876 likewise witnessed 
 the publication, in the Proceedings of the Zoological 
 Society, of an article on the skulls of the various exist- 
 ing species of rhinoceroses, in which it was shown that 
 the number of such species had been altogether unjusti- 
 fiably exaggerated by the late Dr. J. E. Gray and other 
 writers, and that in all probability there were really not 
 more than five. Certain characters connected with the 
 postero-lateral region of the skull were also described, 
 which served to divide these species into groups. A 
 further contribution to our knowledge of the skulls of 
 the rhinoceroses was made by Flower in 1878, when he 
 described, in the same journal, the skull of an Indian 
 specimen, which it was thought might be the Rhinoceros 
 lasiotis of Dr. Sclater now known to be (as then sug- 
 gested) merely a local race of the two-horned ' R. 
 sumatrensis. 
 
1 32 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 Between the years 1880 and 1883 several papers on 
 mammalian zoology were published by Flower in the 
 Proceedings of the Zoological Society and elsewhere, 
 none of which can be regarded as of first-rate import- 
 ance. The first of these (P.Z.S. 1880) dealt with 
 the internal anatomy of that rare mammal, the bush- dog 
 (Speothus, or Icticyon, venaticus\ of Guiana, which had 
 never previously been described. The author regarded 
 this animal as a specialised member of the Canidae, 
 showing some signs of affinity with the wild dogs 
 (Cyon) of Asia. In 1880 the museum of the Royal 
 College of Surgeons received a very large skull of the 
 elephant-seal or sea-elephant (Macrorhinus leoninus); 
 and this induced Flower to draw up some notes on that 
 enormous creature, which appeared in the above-named 
 journal for 1 88 1. The author described it as "an 
 animal which, notwithstanding its former abundance 
 and wide distribution, and its great zoological interest, 
 is still very imperfectly known anatomically, and very 
 poorly represented in collections." Fortunately, since 
 that date mainly owing to the energy and liberality of 
 Mr. Rothschild specimens of the skin and skeleton 
 of this huge seal have been secured for our museums 
 before it was too late. In the same volume Flower 
 drew attention to the evidence showing that the sea- 
 cow, or manati, of which a pair were living at the time 
 in the Brighton Aquarium, occasionally, or periodically, 
 comes ashore for the purpose of grazing. In the same 
 year appeared an article from his pen in the British 
 Medical Journal on the anatomy of the Cetacea and 
 Edentata; while in 1882 the question of the mutual 
 relationships of the mammals commonly included in 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 133 
 
 the latter order (such as sloths, ant-eaters, armadillos, 
 pangolins, and aard-varks) were discussed by him in 
 the Proceedings of the Zoological Society. 
 
 The trend of the paper last mentioned, as well as 
 that of some of his other communications published 
 shortly before, indicates that about this time, instead of 
 restricting his attention more or less entirely to their 
 anatomy, Flower was much occupied with the subject 
 of the classification of the Mammalia. And the reason 
 is not far to seek, for he had undertaken not only the 
 volume of the "Catalogue of Osteological Specimens in 
 the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons," dealing 
 with mammals other than man, but he had likewise 
 engaged (in co-operation with the late Dr. Dobson) to 
 write the article "Mammalia" for the ninth edition of 
 the Encyclopaedia Britannica. With the view apparently 
 of clearing the way for these two important contributions 
 to zoology, he published during the early part of 1883 
 in the Zoological Society's Proceedings a paper on the 
 " Arrangement of the Orders and Families of Mammalia." 
 
 To discuss this important paper in detail on the 
 present occasion is quite unnecessary ; and it will suffice 
 to state that it has formed the basis on which all 
 modern classifications of the group are framed. Indeed 
 it has been accepted by most writers with little or no 
 modification. In this scheme it was proposed to divide 
 mammals into three primary groups, or sub-classes, 
 namely, Prototheria, or Ornithodelphia, as represented 
 only by the egg-laying group ; Metatheria or Didelphia, 
 including the pouched group, or marsupials ; and 
 Eutheria or Monodelphia, comprising the whole of the 
 remaining or placental groups. Of late years, owing 
 
134 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 to the discovery of unexpected relationships between 
 placeiitals and marsupials, it has been proposed to 
 recognise only two sub-classes of mammals : the 
 Eutheria, comprising the two groups last mentioned, 
 and the Prototheria, or monotremes. The scheme chiefly 
 differed from the one proposed some years earlier by 
 Huxley in the inclusion of the Hyracoidea (klipdass) 
 and Proboscidea (elephants) as sub-orders of the 
 Ungulata, instead of their forming separate orders by 
 themselves. In this instance Flower ranked the 
 Artiodactyla, Perissodactyla, Hyracoidea, and Pro- 
 boscidea as equivalent sub-orders of Ungulata, but later 
 on he brigaded the two former together as Ungulata 
 Vera, and the two latter as Subungulata. 
 
 The above scheme was employed by Flower in the 
 article " Mammalia," written by him for the ninth edition 
 of the Encyclopedia Britannica, the volume containing 
 which appeared in 1883. This article, with others by 
 himself and other authors, formed, as will be noticed 
 later on, the basis of the Study of Mammals pub- 
 lished in 1891. Among other articles contributed by 
 Flower to the Encyclopedia were those on the Horse, 
 Kangaroo, Lemur, Lion, Mastodon, Megatherium, Otter, 
 Platypus, Rhinoceros, Seal, Swine, Tapir, Whale, and 
 Zebra. 
 
 The aforesaid scheme of classification was likewise 
 used in the second part of the " Catalogue of Osteo- 
 logical Specimens in the Museum of the Royal College 
 of Surgeons," which was written with the assistance of 
 Dr. Garson, and appeared in 1884. Since this valuable 
 work has been already noticed at some length in the 
 chapter devoted to Flower's official connection with the 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 135 
 
 College of Surgeons, it need not be further referred to 
 in this place, except that the writer may again take the 
 opportunity of expressing his regret that the views on 
 nomenclature there enunciated have not met with accept- 
 ance among the modern school of naturalists. 
 
 At the " Jubilee " meeting of the Zoological Society, 
 held in June 1887, Flower, as President, read an address 
 on the " Progress of Zoological Science" during the 
 reign of Queen Victoria, which appeared in the Report 
 of the Council of that year, and to which reference has 
 been made in an earlier chapter. 
 
 About this time the Natural History Museum received 
 a series of antlers shed year by year by one particular 
 red-deer stag, together with the complete skull and 
 antlers of the same animal ; and this gift induced Flower 
 to deliver in December 1887 a lecture on "Horns and 
 Antlers " before the Middlesex Natural History Society, 
 which is printed, with a plate of the aforesaid series of 
 red-deer antlers, in a somewhat abbreviated form, in the 
 Transactions of that Society. 
 
 If we except a few on Cetacea, noticed in the next 
 chapter, Sir William's contributions to the Zoological 
 Society's Proceedings after 1883 were not numerous or 
 of much importance. In 1884 he contributed, however, 
 remarks on the so-called white elephant from Burma, 
 then exhibited in the Society's Menagerie ; and in the 
 same year he also wrote on the young dentition of the 
 capibara. In 1887 he discussed the generic position 
 and relationships of the pigmy hippopotamus of Liberia. 
 The acquisition in the following year by the Natural 
 History Museum of specimens of that breed of Japanese 
 fowls remarkable for the excessive elongation of the 
 
136 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 tail-feathers of the cocks, led to a note on that subject 
 in the Proceedings for the same year. This paper, it 
 may be incidentally mentioned, is noteworthy, on account 
 of the evidence it affords that Sir William did not 
 regard the variations displayed by domesticated animals 
 as in any way unworthy the notice of the naturalist ; 
 while the next shows that monstrosities or abnormalities 
 at all events to a certain extent are also worthy of 
 recognition. The note incidentally alluded to in the last 
 sentence appeared in 1889, and dealt with an African 
 rhinoceros head, showing three horns. Finally, in 
 1890, Sir William exhibited and commented upon a 
 photograph of the nesting-hole of a hornbill, showing 
 the female " walled up " with mud. 
 
 The next year (1891) saw the publication of An 
 Introduction to the Study of Mammals, Living and Extinct, 
 written, as already said, in collaboration with the 
 present writer, and embodying the whole of Flower's 
 contributions to the Encyclopedia Britannica, together 
 with certain articles by other authors from the same 
 work, and such new material as was necessary in order 
 to weave these disjecta membra into one connected and 
 harmonious whole. 
 
 In the same year was also published, in the Modern 
 Science Series, Sir William's admirable little volume on 
 The Horse, which was likewise largely based on his 
 Encyclopedia articles. In this work Flower dwelt par- 
 ticularly on the vestiges exhibited by the modern horse 
 of its descent from more generalised ancestors ; and he 
 was successful in demonstrating that the structure 
 known to veterinarians as the " ergot," represents one 
 of the foot-pads of the earlier forms. 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 137 
 
 Undoubtedly the most important elements in the 
 foregoing tale of work are those relating to the 
 mammalian (and especially the marsupial) brain, and 
 the marsupial dentition. And if Flower had accom- 
 plished nothing more than this, he would have been 
 entitled to gratitude of his successors. But, as we 
 shall immediately see, all the above formed but a portion 
 of his zoological labours. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 WORK ON THE CETACEA 
 
 NEXT at any rate to the study of the various races of 
 the human species (which he took up seriously later on 
 in his career), the group of mammals to which Flower 
 devoted special attention, and which attracted his 
 greatest interest, was undoubtedly that of the Cetacea, 
 or whales, dolphins, porpoises, etc. At the time when 
 he set himself seriously to study these aquatic and 
 fish-like mammals, the zoology of the group was 
 certainly in a most confused and unsatisfactory state ; 
 partly, no doubt, owing to the comparative rarity of 
 complete specimens in our museums, and the consequent 
 difficulty of instituting accurate comparisons, and partly 
 to the reckless prodigality with which names had been 
 given to imperfect or insufficiently characterised speci- 
 mens by some of his predecessors and early con- 
 temporaries, and the needless multiplication of generic 
 terms. It was consequently at this time almost im- 
 possible to be sure which was the right name for 
 even many of the commoner species ; while in the case 
 of the rarer kinds, the confusion was almost hopeless. 
 When Flower left the subject which he only did 
 when his working days were over it was in great 
 measure thoroughly in order, although of course much 
 was left for future workers to fill in. Unhappily, his 
 views on the nomenclature of the group have not been 
 
 139 
 
140 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 accepted by all his followers ; so that a fresh and totally 
 unnecessary source of confusion has been introduced of 
 late years into a subject which had already sufficient 
 difficulties of its own. 
 
 In regard to the discrimination of species, Flower 
 took a view almost the reverse of that held by some of 
 his predecessors and colleagues ; and, as he says himself, 
 he may have consequently erred in a direction the very 
 opposite of theirs. " As species have not generally 
 been recognised as such," he wrote in the British 
 Museum List of 1885, "unless presenting constant 
 distinguishing characters capable of definition, it is 
 probable that, in the imperfect state of knowledge of 
 many forms, some may have been grouped together 
 which a fuller acquaintance with all parts of their 
 structure, external and internal, will show to be 
 distinct." 
 
 Apart from his explaining to popular audiences that 
 whales were mammals and not fishes, Flower emphasised 
 three points very strongly in regard to the organisation 
 and physiology of these animals. First of all, he 
 pointed out that, as a rule, they do not " spout " water 
 from their " blowholes." " The ' spouting,' or more 
 properly the ' blowing ' of the whale," he wrote, " is 
 nothing more than the ordinary act of expiration, 
 which, taking place at larger intervals than in land 
 animals, is performed with a greater amount of emphasis. 
 The moment the animal rises to the surface it forcibly 
 expels from its lungs the air taken in at the last inspira- 
 tion, which is of course highly charged with watery 
 vapour in consequence of the natural respiratory 
 changes. This, rapidly condensing in the cold atmo- 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 141 
 
 sphere in which the phenomena is generally observed, 
 forms a column of steam or spray, which has been 
 erroneously taken for water." 
 
 Secondly, he drew attention to the importance of the 
 rudiments of hind-limbs which occur in many whales as 
 affording decisive evidence of the descent of the group 
 from land mammals. And thirdly, he emphasised the 
 marked distinction between baleen, or whalebone, 
 whales (Mystacoceti), and toothed whales and dolphins 
 (Odontoceti) ; although he appears never to have gone so 
 far in this direction as some modern naturalists, who 
 are of opinion that these two groups have originated 
 independently of one another from separate types of 
 land mammals. 
 
 Another point to which Flower devoted a considerable 
 share of attention was the dimensions attained by the 
 larger species of whales. Previously, there is no doubt 
 that very great exaggeration had been current in this 
 respect, and that such things as I5o-feet whales are 
 unknown. With his excessive caution, and determina- 
 tion to be on the safe side, it is however probable that in 
 some instances notably the Greenland right-whale and 
 the sperm-whale Flower somewhat under-estimated 
 the maximum dimensions. 
 
 At what date Flower first began to study whales 
 seriously, it is not easy to ascertain. From the fact of 
 his contributing three papers on this subject to the 
 Zoological Society's Proceedings for 1864, it may, how- 
 ever, be inferred that by that time he had devoted no 
 inconsiderable amount of attention to the group. In 
 the first of those he described a specimen of a lesser fin- 
 whale, then recently stranded on the Norfolk coast ; 
 
1 42 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 while in a second, and much more important communica- 
 tion, he gave notes on the skeletons of whales preserved 
 in the museums of Holland and Belgium which he had 
 recently visited. Two of these he described as 
 indicating apparently new species ; although their right 
 to distinction was not maintained. In the same year 
 he described two skulls of grampuses from Tasmania, 
 which were regarded as representing a new species, 
 under the name of Orca meridional^ ; a further note on 
 these being added in the Society's Proceedings for 1865, 
 when the species was transferred to the genus Pseudorca. 
 Later still it was found that the supposed species was 
 inseparable from the typical P. crassidens; named by 
 Owen many years previously on the evidence of a 
 skeleton from the Lincolnshire Fens. In another note 
 published the same year in the same journal he showed 
 that one of the whales named by him in 1864 was 
 identical with the one now known as Balteonoptera sibbaldi ; 
 while a second paper described a specimen of the fin- 
 whale commonly known as B. musculus. A further 
 note on the synonymy of B. sibbaldi appeared in the 
 Proceedings for 1 868. 
 
 Reverting to earlier publications, in 1 866 the Royal 
 Society of London issued a volume containing transla- 
 tions by Flower of certain very important memoirs on 
 Cetacea by Professors Eschricht, Reinhardt, and Lillje- 
 borg. As these were written in a language understood 
 by comparatively few Englishmen, the translation was 
 a distinct benefit to "cetology" in this country. 
 
 Between the years 1869 and 1878 inclusive, six very 
 important memoirs on whales (including in that term 
 porpoises, dolphins, etc.) from Flower's pen appeared 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 143 
 
 in the Transactions of the Zoological Society of London. 
 The first of these, which was published in the year first 
 mentioned, was devoted to the description of the 
 skeleton of the very interesting and then little-known 
 South American freshwater or estuarine dolphins, Inia 
 and Pontcporia. In the course of this memoir it was 
 demonstrated that, in spite of the wide distance between 
 their habitats, these dolphins and the freshwater dolphin 
 of the Ganges and certain other Indian rivers, Platanista 
 gangetica, collectively form a distinct family group 
 the Platanistidae, which exhibits many very generalised 
 features. 
 
 In the second memoir of this series, which appeared 
 in 1869, Flower treated in an exhaustive manner of the 
 osteology of the sperm-whale, or cachalot. " The fine 
 skeleton of a young male which he procured for the 
 Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons," writes 
 Professor M'Intosh in his obituary notice of Sir William, 
 " formed the basis of this important paper, and enabled 
 him to add to and correct much which had been written 
 on this subject. The description of its huge cranium 
 as a large, pointed slipper, with a high heel-piece and 
 the front trodden down, the hollow limited behind by 
 the occipital crest, continued laterally into the elevated 
 ridges of the broadly expanded maxillae, which rose 
 from the median line to the edge of the skull, instead of 
 falling away, as in most Cetaceans, must be familiar to 
 all students of the group. In this vast cavity lies the 
 ' head-matter,' composed of almost pure spermaceti." 
 
 It was further demonstrated that the available evidence 
 pointed to the existence of only a single species of true 
 cachalot ; the small adult jaws not unfrequently seen in 
 
i 4 4 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 collections being apparently those of females, which are 
 known to be far inferior in size to the old bulls. 
 
 It may be added, in connection with sperm-whales, 
 that the abrupt termination of the muzzle, shown (in a 
 somewhat modified degree) in the model of the old bull, 
 set up under Sir William's direction in the Whale Room 
 at the Natural History Museum, has been said by certain 
 modern naturalists to be incorrect. Inquiries instituted 
 at the present writer's suggestion at the New Bedford 
 Cachalot-whaling Station have, however, proved that the 
 abruptness is under-estimated rather than exaggerated 
 in the restoration. 
 
 This brief reference to the Whale Room at the 
 museum, and Flower's work in superintending the 
 construction of models of several of the larger members 
 of the group, must, it may be further added, suffice in 
 this place, seeing that fuller mention of the subiect has 
 been already made in an earlier chapter. 
 
 The third memoir of the series in the Zoological 
 Society's Transactions treats of the Chinese white dolphin 
 (DelphinuSy or Prodelphinus, sinensis), and was published 
 in 1872. In the following year appeared one on Risso's 
 dolphin, Grampus griseus, in which the author directed 
 attention to certain variable markings always seen on 
 the skin of this species. These, it has been subse- 
 quently shown, are produced by the claws in the 
 suckers of the cuttlefish which forms the food of this 
 species. 
 
 The two remaining memoirs in the Transactions, 
 which appeared respectively in 1873 anc * 1878, were 
 devoted to that difficult, and at the time imperfectly 
 known group, termed ziphioid, or beaked whales. In 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 145 
 
 the first of the two attention was concentrated on the 
 aberrant and rare form known as Berardius arnuxi ; 
 while the second was exclusively devoted to the much 
 more abundant types included under the generic title 
 Mesoplodon, in allusion to the single pair of lower teeth 
 near the middle of the sides of the lower jaw, which 
 forms the single dental armature of the cetaceans of this 
 genus. The beaked whales, it should be added, had 
 been previously discussed by Flower in a preliminary 
 paper published in the Zoological Society's Proceedings 
 for 1871 and 1876, and likewise in an article communi- 
 cated in 1872 to Nature. 
 
 Special interest attaches to a paper by Flower pub- 
 lished in the Transactions of the Royal Geological 
 Society of Cornwall for 1872, and also in the Annals 
 and Magazine of Natural History for the same year, on 
 the bones of a whale dug up at Petuan, in Cornwall, 
 sometime previously to 1829, and now preserved in the 
 museum of the above-named Society. The whale re- 
 presented by these remains was made the type of the 
 new genus and species Eschrichtius robustus, by the late 
 Dr. J. E. Gray. That it was a member of the group 
 of whalebone- whales, and that it could not be identified 
 with either of the genera then known, namely Balana, 
 Bal&noptera, and Megaptera, was fully demonstrated by 
 Flower, who also showed that it agreed with the two 
 latter in having the neck- vertebrae free. 
 
 "The interesting question," he added, "remains, 
 whether this species still exists in our seas ; if extinct, 
 it must have become so at a comparatively recent period, 
 certainly long after Cornwall was inhabited by man. 
 The negative evidence of no specimen having been met 
 K 
 
146 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 with by naturalists in a living or recent state, is hardly 
 conclusive as to its non-existence, as our knowledge of 
 this group of animals is lamentably deficient. We are 
 acquainted with many species, even of very large size, 
 only through isolated individuals, and the discovery of 
 others new to science is by no means an infrequent or 
 unlooked-for occurrence at the present time." 
 
 In the opinion of the present writer, it is quite prob- 
 able that this whale may be identical with the grey 
 whale of the Pacific, described many years subsequently 
 by the late Professor Cope as Ityachianectes glaucus, in 
 which event that name will have to give place to 
 Eschrichtius robustus. 
 
 In the year 1879^ and for some time after, Flower 
 directed his attention more especially to the dolphins 
 and porpoises, which collectively constitute the family 
 Delphinidae of naturalists, and he published a series of 
 papers on this group in the Proceedings of the Zoological 
 Society. In the volume for 1879 tnere appeared, for 
 instance, one paper on the common dolphin (Delphinus 
 delphis) ; a second on the bottle-nosed dolphin, now 
 known as Tursiops tursio ; and a third on the skull of the 
 white whale, or beluga (Delphinapterus leucas). Of far 
 greater importance was, however, the appearance in 
 1883 of a paper in the same serial on the generic 
 characters of the family Delphinidae as a whole. Special 
 attention was directed in this communication to the value 
 of the pterygoid bones, on the under surface of the skull, 
 in the classification of the family ; and characters were 
 formulated which enabled the various genera to be 
 identified, wholly or in part, by this part of the skull. 
 Flower's classification of the Delphinidae has, with some 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 147 
 
 slight modifications, been very generally accepted by 
 later naturalists. Some time after the publication of 
 this paper the present writer pointed out to the author 
 that two of the generic names employed by him were 
 barred by previous use in a different sense ; and in a 
 note subsequently published in the Proceedings, these 
 were accordingly replaced. 
 
 Flower was, however, by no means forgetful of his 
 earlier love for the cachalot and beaked whales (Physe- 
 teridae); and in 1883 and again in 1884 he published 
 papers in the Proceedings on their near relatives the 
 bottle-nosed whales (not to be confounded with the 
 bottle-nosed dolphins) of the genus Hyperoodon. In 
 these investigations he was much indebted, as on several 
 previous occasions, to the observations of Captain Gray, 
 a well-known whaler. As regards the common bottle- 
 nose (H. restrains). Sir William succeeded in demon- 
 strating that the great differences which had long been 
 noticed in the skull were due to distinctions either of 
 sex or age ; the old males developing huge maxillary 
 crests with a broad and flattened front surface of 
 which there is scarcely any trace in the younger mem- 
 bers of the same sex, or in females of all ages. In 
 consequence of this difference in the skull, the head 
 of the old bull bottle-nose is easily recognisable by the 
 abrupt and prominent elevation of the forehead immedi- 
 ately behind the base of the beak. Flower was also 
 able to show that bottle-noses yield true spermaceti, 
 especially in the head ; a fact which does not appear to 
 have been previously known to zoologists, although it 
 may have been to whalers. At the present day there 
 is a considerable trade in bottle-nose sperm-oil and 
 
148 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 spermaceti ; these being often blended with the products 
 of the cachalot, from which they are distinguishable by 
 their specific gravity. In his 1882 paper Flower 
 described a water- worn bottle-nose skull from Australia, 
 which he regarded as indicating a second species of the 
 genus Hyper oodon planifrons. The correctness of this 
 determination has been demonstrated by complete 
 skeletons of the same whale from the South American 
 seas. 
 
 The last two papers on Cetacea by Sir William in the 
 Proceedings of the Zoological Society refer to the occur- 
 rence of examples of Rudolphi's rorqual (Bal&noptera 
 borealis) on the English coasts. In the one paper he 
 described a specimen stranded on the Essex shore in 
 1883, and in the other an example captured in the 
 Thames four years later. 
 
 As regards other contributions to our knowledge of 
 the Cetacea, Sir William in 1883 delivered before the 
 Royal Institution a lecture on " Whales, Past and 
 Present," which is reproduced in the Proceedings of 
 that body for the same year. A second lecture, " On 
 Whales and Whaling," was delivered before the Royal 
 Colonial Institute for 1885, and is published in the 
 Journal of the Institute for that year. The article 
 "Whale," for the ninth edition of the Encyclopedia 
 Britannica, is also the work of Flower ; it is reproduced, 
 almost as it stands, in the Study of Mammals. 
 
 The year 1885 saw the publication of the "List of 
 the Specimens of Cetacea in the Zoological Department 
 of the British Museum," a small, but nevertheless 
 valuable work, from which an extract has already been 
 made. Even when this was written, the museum con- 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 149 
 
 tained skulls or skeletons of nearly all the more 
 important and well-established representatives of the 
 order, the only notable deficiency being the large 
 whalebone whale from the North Pacific commonly 
 known as the grey whale, and scientifically termed 
 Rhachianectes g/aucus. It was not many years before 
 this gap was filled by the acquisition of a complete 
 skeleton of the species in question. 
 
 In concluding this brief notice of the work accom- 
 plished by Flower on the Cetacea, an extract may be 
 made to illustrate his views with regard to the ancestry 
 and origin of the group : 
 
 " The origin of the Cetacea," he wrote, " is at present 
 involved in much obscurity. They present no signs of 
 closer affinity to any of the lower classes of vertebrates 
 than do many other members of their own class. 
 Indeed in all that essentially distinguishes a mammal 
 from the oviparous vertebrates, whether in the osseous, 
 nervous, reproductive, or any other system, they are as 
 truly mammalian as any other group. Any supposed 
 marks of inferiority, as absence of limb-structure, of 
 hairy covering, of lachrymal apparatus, etc., are 
 obviously modifications (or degradations, as they may 
 be termed) in adaptation to their special mode of life. 
 The characters of the teeth of 'Leuglodon and other 
 extinct forms, and also of the foetal Mystacocetes, 
 clearly indicate that they have been derived from 
 mammals in which the heterodont type of dentition was 
 fully established. The steps by which a land mammal 
 may have been modified into a purely aquatic one are 
 indicated by the stages which still survive among the 
 Carnivora in the Otariidae and in the true seals. A 
 
150 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 further change in the same direction would produce an 
 animal somewhat resembling a dolphin ; and it has been 
 thought that this may have been the route by which the 
 Cetacean form has been developed. There are, how- 
 ever, great difficulties in the way of this view. Thus 
 if the hind-limbs had ever been developed into the very 
 efficient aquatic propelling organs they present in the 
 seals, it is not easy to imagine how they could have 
 become completely atrophied and their function trans- 
 ferred to the tail. So that, from this point of view, it is 
 more likely that whales were derived from animals with 
 long tails, which were used in swimming, eventually 
 with such effect that the hind-limbs became no longer 
 necessary. The powerful tail, with its lateral cutaneous 
 flanges, of an American species of otter (Lutra brasiliensis) 
 may give an idea of this member in the primitive Ceta- 
 ceans. But the structure of the Cetacea is, in so many 
 essential characters, so unlike that of the Carnivora, 
 that the probabilities are against these orders being 
 nearly related. Even in the skull of the Zeuglodon, 
 which has been cited as presenting a great resemblance 
 to that of a 'seal, quite as many likenesses may be traced 
 to one of the primitive Pig-like Ungulates (except in 
 the purely adaptive character of the form of the teeth) 
 while the elongated larynx, complex stomach, simple 
 liver, reproductive organs, both male and female, and 
 foetal membranes of the existing Cetacea, are far more 
 like those of that group than of the Carnivora. Indeed, 
 it appears probable that the old popular idea which 
 affixed the name of * Sea-Hog ' to the porpoise, contains 
 a larger element of truth than the speculations of many 
 accomplished zoologists of modern times. The fact 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 151 
 
 that Platanista^ which, as mentioned above, appears to 
 retain more of the primitive characteristics of the group 
 than any other existing form, and also the distantly 
 related Inia from South America, are both at the 
 present day exclusively fluviatile, may point to the fresh- 
 water origin of the whole group, in which case their 
 otherwise rather inexplicable absence from the seas of 
 the Cretaceous period would be accounted for. 
 
 " On the other hand, it should be observed that the 
 teeth of the Zeuglodonts approximate more to a carni- 
 vorous than to an ungulate type." 
 
 This difficulty with regard to the teeth is indeed one 
 which it is impossible to disregard, since it is scarcely 
 credible that grinding teeth such as characterise herbi- 
 vorous mammals of all descriptions could ever have 
 been modified into the teeth of whales, either living or 
 extinct. There is, moreover, the unmistakable resem- 
 blance presented by the cheek-teeth of the aforesaid 
 extinct zeuglodons to those of Carnivora. Both these 
 facts seem to point to the derivation of toothed whales, 
 at any rate, from flesh-eating rather than herbivorous 
 mammals ; although they have certainly no relationship 
 with the eared seals. 
 
 Since the foregoing passage was written it has been 
 practically demonstrated that the toothed whales, at 
 any rate, are the descendants of primitive Carnivora. 
 Professor E. Fraas, of Stuttgart, and Dr. C. W. 
 Andrews, of the British Museum, have, for instance, 
 shown that the zeuglodons are derived from the Eocene 
 group of Carnivora known as Creodontia ; while there is 
 every reason for regarding the zeuglodons themselves 
 as the ancestors of modern toothed whales. 
 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 ANTHROPOLOGICAL WORK 
 
 THE study of the physical characters of the various 
 native races of the human species that is to say, 
 anthropology, in contradistinction to ethnology 
 occupied a very prominent position in Sir William 
 Flower's scientific career ; and it is difficult to say 
 whether this or the study of whales was the branch 
 of biology on which his greatest interest was concen- 
 trated. Perhaps we might say that the two together 
 formed his especially favourite subjects. Whereas, how- 
 ever, as we have seen in the last chapter, he was study- 
 ing the Cetacea at least as early as the year 1864, when 
 papers from his pen were published, anthropology does 
 not appear to have been seriously taken up by him till 
 considerably later in life ; the first papers and lectures 
 by him that have come under the writer's notice dating 
 from 1878. 
 
 As regards the special departments of this science to 
 which Sir William devoted a large share of attention, 
 we may mention, in the first place, the discovery of the 
 best methods of accurately determining the capacity of 
 the human cranium, and the drawing-up of formulae 
 for " indexes " to serve as a basis for comparing the 
 cranial measurements of different races. Secondly, we 
 may take the classification of these races as one of his 
 most important lines of investigation. While, in the 
 
 153 
 
154 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 third place, may be noticed his partiality for the study 
 of the inferior races of mankind, more especially those 
 belonging to the black, or Negro, branch of the species ; 
 dwarf races, like the Central African Akkas, and the 
 Andaman Islanders, or exterminated types, like the 
 Tasmanians, having apparently a very strong claim on 
 his interest. And here it may be mentioned that not 
 only is anthropology largely indebted to Flower for his 
 published works on this subject, but likewise for the 
 energy he displayed in collecting specimens of the 
 osteology of dwindling races, while there was yet time. 
 It was at his initiation that Sir Joseph Fayrer was 
 induced to use his influence with the Indian authorities 
 for the purpose of securing skulls and skeletons of 
 Andamanese for the Museum of the Royal College of 
 Surgeons. The result of this was the acquisition of 
 a fine series of specimens of the osteology of this fast- 
 disappearing race, at a time when it was still compara- 
 tively uncontaminated and undeteriorated by contact 
 with Europeans. That such contact must inevitably 
 lead, sooner or later, to the disappearance of the 
 inferior, or u non-adaptive " races of mankind, was a 
 favourite dictum of Sir William's ; and its truth has 
 been confirmed by the events of the last few years. 
 
 If not actually the earliest, the first really important 
 contribution to anthropology on Flower's part was a 
 Friday Evening lecture " On the Native Races of the 
 Pacific Ocean," delivered at the Royal Institution on 
 3ist May 1878, and published in the Proceedings of that 
 body for the same year. In this lecture Sir William 
 described the native races of Oceania, or those inhabit- 
 ing the islands, inclusive of Australia, scattered through 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 155 
 
 the great ocean tract bounded on the east and west 
 respectively by the continents of America and Asia. 
 The subject was treated very largely upon the basis of 
 the collection of skulls and skeletons in the Museum of 
 the Royal College of Surgeons ; yet the lecturer was 
 careful to point out that even this extensive series was 
 wholly insufficient for the purpose of forming a classifi- 
 cation of mankind founded on physical structure. 
 
 "It can only afford certain indications, valuable as 
 far as they go, from which a provisional, or approxima- 
 tive system may be built up. Very many, indeed the 
 majority of the islands, are totally unrepresented in it ; 
 others are illustrated by only one or two individuals." 
 " Were the collection anything like representative," it is 
 added later, " it would probably be found possible to 
 distinguish the natives of each island, or, at all events, 
 of each group of islands, by cranial characters alone." 
 
 Special attention was in this course directed to the 
 Australians on the one hand, and to the frizzly-haired 
 Melanesians, or Oceanic Negroes (as distinct from the 
 straight-haired Polynesians) on the other. That the 
 Melanesians were the primitive denizens of the greater 
 part of Oceania, and that the original area they once 
 inhabited has been much circumscribed by Polynesian 
 invasion, the lecturer was fully convinced ; and the 
 great difficulty of distinguishing in some instances to 
 what extent this invasion has led, in certain cases, to 
 a mixture of the two stocks, was earnestly insisted 
 upon. At the conclusion of his discourse Flower 
 commented very strongly on the tfrgent need of making 
 anthropological collections in these islands forthwith ; 
 and, although perhaps his prophecy of impending ex- 
 
156 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 termination was a little exaggerated, it is no less urgent 
 at the present day. 
 
 " In another half century," he said, " the Australians, 
 the Melanesians, the Maories, and most of the Poly- 
 nesians will have followed the Tasmanians to the grave. 
 We shall well merit the reproach of future generations 
 if we neglect our present opportunities of gathering 
 together every fragment of knowledge that can still be 
 saved, of their languages, customs, social polity, manu- 
 factures, and arts. The preservation of tangible 
 evidence of their physical structure is, if possible, still 
 more important ; and surely this may be expected of 
 that nation, above all others, which by its commercial 
 enterprise and wide-spread maritime dominion has done, 
 and is doing, far more than any in effecting that dis- 
 tinctive revolution." 
 
 What are we doing at the present day, it may be 
 asked, to avoid this reproach ? If we may judge by the 
 slowness with which anthropological specimens came 
 into the national collections (and it is difficult to select 
 a better test), the answer must surely be, I am afraid, 
 in the negative. 
 
 Of a still more popular type than the preceding was 
 a lecture on the " Races of Men," delivered by Flower 
 in the City Hall, Glasgow, on 28th November 1878, 
 and published as a separate pamphlet. 
 
 The third, and perhaps the most interesting lecture 
 given by Flower during the year under consideration, 
 was the one at Manchester on November 3Oth, on the 
 " Aborigines of Tasmania," which is published in the 
 tenth series of Manchester Science Lectures. In this 
 discourse Flower traced the sad story of European 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 157 
 
 intercourse with this interesting people and their final 
 extermination ; pointing out that the last male died in 
 1869, and the last female in 1876. At the time this 
 lecture was delivered four complete skeletons of Tas- 
 manians of both sexes had been obtained and sent to 
 England by the late Mr. Merton Allport, of Hobart. 
 Of these, two were then in the museum of the Royal 
 College of Surgeons, while the third was in the collec- 
 tion of the late Dr. Barnard Davis, and the fourth in 
 that of the Anthropological Institute of London. Dr. 
 Davis's specimen came to the Museum of the College 
 of Surgeons after the owner's death ; and it was 
 a great source of satisfaction to Sir William that, in 
 after years, he obtained the Anthropological Institute's 
 specimen (which is remarkable for retaining the inter- 
 frontal suture of the skull) for the Natural History 
 Museum. Somewhat less than thirty Tasmanian skulls 
 were at this time known to exist in England, and a 
 few have been since acquired for public collections. 
 Flower dwelt upon the close affinity of the Tasmanians 
 to the Melanesians (although the skulls of the two are 
 perfectly distinguishable), and their wide difference 
 from their Australian neighbours. 
 
 Perhaps, however, the most important contribution 
 made by Flower to anthropology in 1878 was his paper 
 on the "Methods and Results of Measurements of the 
 Capacity of Human Crania," which appeared in the 
 Report of the British Association for that year and also 
 in Nature. 
 
 This was paving the way for the first part of the 
 valuable " Catalogue of Osteological Specimens in the 
 Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England," 
 
158 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 which appeared in the following year, and is entirely 
 devoted to man. This accurate and laborious work 
 was very far from being a mere catalogue of the 
 contents of this section of the museum under the 
 author's charge, for it is in fact to a great extent a 
 manual of the methods employed in human craniology ; 
 tables and figures being given of the manner in which 
 the measurement of skulls are made, and the method of 
 calculating " cranial indexes." For taking the cubical 
 capacity of skulls Flower employed mustard seed, and 
 the "craniometer " invented by Mr. Busk. In the 
 introduction is given a general sketch of the osteology 
 of man, followed by a dissertation on his dentition, and 
 this, in turn, by an account of the special osteological 
 and dental features of the various native races of the 
 human species. 
 
 Earlier in the same year Flower had entered in some 
 degree on the domain of ethnology by contributing to 
 the Journal of the Anthropological Institute a paper 
 illustrating the " Mode of Preserving the Dead in 
 Darnley Island and in South Australia," figuring the 
 mummified body of a Melanesian from the above- 
 named island. Another paper of somewhat similar 
 nature from Flower's pen was published in the same 
 journal for 1881, dealing with a collection of monu- 
 mental heads and artificially deformed crania of 
 Melanesians from the Island of Mallicollo, in the New 
 Hebrides. These preserved heads have attracted the 
 attention of Europeans ever since Cook's visit to the 
 island in 1774 ; and appear to be quite unique. 
 
 " Whatever the special motive among the Malli- 
 collese," wrote Flower, " whether they are the objects 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 159 
 
 of worship or merely of affectionate regard, it must be 
 very difficult for a passing traveller without intimate 
 knowledge of the language and of the condition of 
 mind and thought of the people to ascertain ; but the 
 custom is obviously analogous to many others which 
 have prevailed throughout all historical times and in 
 many nations, manifesting itself among other forms in 
 the mummified bodies of the ancient Egyptians, and 
 which has received its most aesthetic expression in the 
 marble busts placed over the mouldering bones in a 
 Christian cathedral." 
 
 Reverting to 1879, we find in the "Journal of the 
 Anthropological Institute for that year an important 
 and interesting paper by Flower on the " Osteology 
 and Affinities of the Natives of the Andaman Islands," 
 a subject to which the author made a further contribu- 
 tion in the same journal for November 1884. In the 
 first of these communications the author gave the 
 results of the examination of nineteen skeletons and a 
 large series of skulls, while in the second he was able 
 to amplify these, and thus to render his averages 
 more trustworthy by the details of no less than ten 
 additional skeletons. As in all his other papers of 
 this nature, Sir William first traced in considerable 
 detail the history of European intercourse^ with the 
 Andamanese, or " Mincopies," as they were often 
 called at one time, and then proceeded to point out the 
 external and osteological features of these interesting 
 and diminutive people. Relying to a great extent on 
 the "frizzly," or "woolly" character of their hair, 
 Flower was fully convinced that these people belong 
 to the Negro branch of the human family. 
 
160 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 "With the Oceanic Negroes, or Melanesians, as 
 they are now commonly called, we might naturally 
 suppose they had the most in common. But this is 
 not the case. Although the Melanesians vary much 
 in stature, none are so small as the Andamanese, and 
 some are fully equal to the average of the species. 
 Their crania, whenever they are met with in a pure 
 state, are remarkably long, narrow, and high. . . . The 
 pure Fijians are perhaps the most dolichocephalic 
 [long-headed] race in the world, and the New Cale- 
 donians and the New Hebrideans come near them. In 
 this respect they are therefore as distinct as possible from 
 the Andamanese. ... As is well known, the African 
 frizzly-haired races are mostly of moderate or tall 
 stature, but there are among them some, as the Bush- 
 men of the South, and others less known from the 
 Central regions, as diminutive as the Andamanese." 
 
 The lecturer then went on to state that although 
 African Negroes were, as a rule, of the long-headed 
 type, yet there were even then indications of the 
 existence of round-headed races in the heart of the 
 continent. In conclusion, it was added that although 
 their very rounded skulls probably formed a special 
 feature of the Andamanese, yet that he regarded the 
 " Negritos," or group of which that race formed a 
 section, "as representing an infantile, undeveloped or 
 primitive form of the type from which the African 
 Negroes on the one hand, and the Melanesians on the 
 other, with all their various modifications, may have 
 sprung. Even their very geographical position, in the 
 centre of the great area of distribution of the frizzly- 
 haired races, seems to favour this view. We may, 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 161 
 
 therefore, regard them as little-modified descendants of 
 an extremely ancient race, the ancestors of all the 
 Negro tribes." 
 
 On the other hand, it was suggested that long 
 isolation and restriction to a confined area might have 
 led to physical degeneration, so that the peculiarities 
 of the Andamanese type might be of comparatively 
 recent origin. 
 
 Another interesting race to which Sir William 
 devoted special attention was the Fijians, who, as 
 already incidentally mentioned, offer the most extreme 
 contrast to the round-headed Andamanese, by the 
 extreme length and narrowness of their skulls. His 
 paper on the " Cranial Characters of the Natives of the 
 Fiji Islands," appeared in the Journal of the Anthropo- 
 logical Institute for 1880 ; and was illustrated, like the 
 one on the Andamanese, with carefully drawn figures 
 of typical skulls. After mentioning that nothing 
 definite was known with regard to the anthropology 
 of one of the islands of the Fiji, or Viti, group, the 
 author added that " with regard to Viti Levu, all the 
 evidence we possess shows that the people who inhabit 
 the interior of the island present in their cranial con- 
 formation a remarkable purity of type, and that this 
 type conforms in the main with that of the Melanesian 
 islands generally j indeed they may be regarded as the 
 most characteristic, almost exaggerated, expressions of 
 this type, for in * hypersistenocephaly ' (extreme narrow- 
 ness of skull), they exceed the natives of Fati, in the 
 New Hebrides, to which the term was first applied. 
 
 " The intermixture of Tongans or other Polynesian 
 blood with the Fijian, appears to be confined to the 
 
1 62 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 smaller islands, and even in these not to have very 
 greatly modified the prevailing cranial characteristics." 
 
 At the meeting of the British Association for the 
 Advancement of Science, held at York in the autumn 
 of 1881, Professor Flower, as Chairman of the Depart- 
 ment, read an address to the Anthropological Depart- 
 ment on the study and progress of anthropology, more 
 especially in this country ; at the conclusion of which 
 he urged the strong claim of the Anthropological 
 Institute of Great Britain and Ireland to the support 
 of all interested in that subject. Three years later 
 (1884) he gave, as President, an address u On the Aims 
 and Prospects of the Study of Anthropology," before 
 the last-named body, at the Anniversary Meeting in 
 January. Here again the speaker directed attention to 
 the comparatively small degree of interest taken in this 
 country in this most important science, and urged that 
 not only scientific students, but wealthy men, ought 
 to do something towards aiding its progress. " Our 
 insular position, maritime supremacy, numerous depen- 
 dencies, and ramifying commerce, have given us," he 
 remarked, " unusually favourable opportunities for the 
 formation of such collections opportunities which, 
 unfortunately, in past times have not been used so 
 fully as might be desired." A change, indeed, it was 
 added, had of late years come over matters in this respect ; 
 but, while fully admitting this, it can scarcely be main- 
 tained that even at the present day we are doing all 
 that we might in this direction. 
 
 Between the years 1879 and 1885 inclusive, Flower 
 appears to have devoted much of his attention to 
 elaborating a satisfactory biological classification of 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 163 
 
 the various races of mankind. In the former he drew 
 up a preliminary scheme of this nature, which was 
 published in the British Medical Journal for 1879 and 
 1880, under the title of " Anatomical Characters of the 
 Races of Man." Impressed with the importance of 
 having some well-marked feature, other than those 
 afforded by the skull, by means of which the skeletons 
 of such races could easily be distinguished, he turned 
 his attention to the scapula, or shoulder-blade, and in 
 1880, with the assistance of Dr. J. G. Garson, pub- 
 lished in the Journal of Anatomy and Physiology a paper 
 " On the Scapular Index as a Race-Character in Man." 
 On the whole, although the number of skeletons ex- 
 amined was confessedly insufficient, the results obtained 
 were decidedly satisfactory, and agreed fairly well with 
 those of other observers. The Australians and Anda- 
 manesej for instance, accorded in this respect with the 
 Negro type. On the other hand, Bushman skeletons, as 
 had been observed in Paris, approached in this respect 
 to the Caucasian type, while the Tasmanians were 
 unexpectedly found to differ markedly from the other 
 black races in their scapular index. 
 
 In 1884, in a paper published in the Journal of the 
 Anthropological Society, Sir William recorded the 
 results of a large series of observations in regard to 
 the value of the size of the teeth as a race-character, 
 and was enabled, by means of a " dental index," to 
 divide the human species into a "Microdont," or 
 small-toothed group, a <c Mesodont " group and a 
 u Macrodont," or large-toothed group. In the first 
 group were included Europeans and other members 
 of the Caucasian stock, as well as Polynesians, and 
 
164 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 many of the non-Aryan tribes of Central and 
 Southern India. In the second group came Chinese, 
 American Indians, Malays, and African Negroes ; 
 while in the third were included Melanesians, 
 Andamanese, Australians, and Tasmanians. If it be 
 borne in mind, as explained in the original paper, that 
 the teeth in African Negroes are actually larger than 
 in Europeans, although the " index " is reduced by 
 the great length of the base of the cranium (which 
 forms a factor in the index) in the former, the results 
 accord remarkably well with the under-mentioned 
 classification of the human species, which is indeed 
 partly based on the character in question. 
 
 "The Classification of the Varieties of the Human 
 Species " is the title of Flower's Presidential Address 
 to the Anniversary Meeting of the Anthropological 
 Institute, held in January 1885. In this scheme the 
 species was divided into three main stocks, or branches, 
 namely (i) the Negroid, or black ; (2) the Mongolian, 
 or yellow ; and (3) the Caucasian, or white. In the 
 first were included the African or typical Negroes, the 
 Hottentots and Bushmen, the Oceanic Negroes or 
 Melanesians, and the Negritos of the Andaman 
 Islands and other parts of Asia ; the Australians being 
 provisionally classed near the Melanesians. The second, 
 or Mongolian, branch was taken to include the 
 Eskimo, the typical Mongols of Central and Northern 
 Asia, the brown Polynesians or " Kanakas," and the 
 so-called American Indians, from the great lakes of 
 Canada to Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. In the 
 third, or Caucasian, group were classed, of course, all 
 the remaining representatives of the human race, 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 165 
 
 including Europeans, the ancient Egyptians, and the 
 modern fellahin of the Nile delta, the natives of India, 
 the Ainu of Japan, and the Veddas of Ceylon. 
 
 In the main, this classification has been very gener- 
 ally accepted by anthropologists, although exception 
 has naturally been taken to some of the items. The 
 Australians, for instance, which differ markedly from 
 all the undoubted representatives of the Negroid 
 branch, form a case in point. Sir William was inclined 
 to think that these people do not form a distinct race 
 at all, but that they may be derived from a Melanesian 
 stock, modified by a strong infusion of some other race, 
 probably a low Caucasian type, more or less nearly 
 allied to the Veddas of Ceylon or some of the 
 Dravidian races of Southern or Central India. It is 
 added, however, that the Australians may possibly be 
 mainly sprung from a very primitive type, from which 
 the frizzly-haired Negroes branched off; frizzly hair 
 being probably a specialised feature not the common 
 attribute of the ancestral man ; confirmation of this 
 last supposition being afforded, it may be mentioned, 
 by the straight hair of the man-like apes. 
 
 Neither of the above theories is, however, alto- 
 gether satisfactory ; and it has been suggested by some 
 writers that the Australians, like the Veddas of Ceylon, 
 and the Indian Dravidians, are a very primitive 
 Caucasian type. Against this, is their scapular index, 
 their large teeth, and projecting jaws (which must 
 not be confused with protrusion of the lips alone). 
 Until, however, we know which of the three great 
 human branches was the one which traces its origin 
 back to ape-like creatures, it is almost impossible to 
 
1 66 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 arrive at any satisfactory conclusion on this puzzling 
 question. 
 
 Another point in regard to which Flower's classifica- 
 tion has met with adverse criticism is the position 
 assigned to the brown Polynesians, which some 
 authorities believe to be mainly of Caucasian origin, 
 and accordingly term Indonesians. 
 
 Taken as a whole there can, however, be no ques- 
 tion but that the classification proposed by Sir William 
 was an extremely valuable contribution to systematic 
 anthropology. 
 
 The last two really important contributions to 
 anthropology made by Sir William were both published 
 in 1888 : the one, under the title of "The Pygmy 
 Races of Man," in the Proceedings of the Royal Institu- 
 tion (forming an address) ; and the other, entitled 
 " Description of Two Skeletons of Akkas,a Pygmy Race 
 from Central Africa," in the Journal of the Anthropo- 
 logical Institute. The second of these two communica- 
 tions dealt with two imperfect skeletons : male and 
 female of the pigmy African race known as Akkas, 
 obtained by the late Dr. Emin Pasha at Monbotto 
 during his last expedition. The female specimen, 
 which is the least imperfect of the two, and is said to 
 be that of a very old individual, is now mounted in the 
 Natural History Museum. In general character, the 
 skulls were found to come very close to the Negro type - 3 
 it is true they are somewhat less elongated, but the 
 relative breadth proved to be much less than the 
 describer was led to expect from what had been pre- 
 viously written with regard to the craniology of this 
 tribe. The whole skeleton fully confirmed earlier 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 167 
 
 statements that the Akkas are the most diminutive 
 living people. They are quite distinct from the 
 African Bushmen (characterised, among other features, 
 by their tawny skins), and also from the Asiatic 
 Negritos, as represented by the Andamanese ; and they 
 accordingly seem rightly referred to a distinct branch 
 of the Negro stock, for which the name Negrillo has 
 been suggested. 
 
 In the first of the two papers cited above, Sir William 
 gave a general account of all the races of mankind 
 which can be included under the title of " pigmies," 
 such as the Bushmen, Negrillos, and Negritos. As 
 regards the second group he wrote as follows : 
 
 " The fact now seems clearly demonstrated that 
 at various spots across the great African Continent, 
 within a few degrees north and south of the Equator, 
 extending from the Atlantic coast to near the shores 
 of the Albert Nyanza (30 E. long.) and perhaps . . . 
 even further to the east, south of the Galla land, are 
 still surviving, in scattered districts, communities of 
 these small Negroes, all much resembling each other in 
 size, appearance, and habits, and dwelling mostly apart 
 from their taller neighbours, by whom they are every- 
 where surrounded. ... In many parts, especially at 
 the west, they are obviously holding their own with 
 difficulty, ff not actually disappearing, and there is much 
 about their condition of civilisation, and the situations 
 in which they are found, to induce us to look upon 
 them, as in the case of the Bushmen in the south and 
 the Negritos in the east, as the remains of a population 
 which occupied the land before the incoming of the 
 present dominant races. If the account of the 
 
1 68 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 Nasamenians, related by Herodotus, be accepted as 
 historical, the river they came to, c flowing from west 
 to east,' must have been the Niger, and the northward 
 range of the dwarfish people far more extensive twenty- 
 three centuries ago than it is at the present time." 
 
 Sir William's only remaining anthropological paper 
 of any importance appears to be one on skulls of the 
 aboriginal natives of Jamaica, published in the Journal 
 of the Anthropological Institute for 1890. 
 
 It should not, however, be forgotten that, as more 
 fully narrated in an earlier chapter, one of the last acts 
 of Sir William's scientific career was to organise 
 the arrangement of the anthropological series in the 
 Natural History Branch of the British Museum an 
 undertaking of which he was not spared to witness the 
 completion (so far as anything of this nature can be 
 said to be anywhere near " complete "). 
 
 If he had left nothing but his anthropological labours 
 to bear testimony to his zeal for science and his capacity 
 for organisation, Sir William Flower would have 
 deserved well of posterity. And it should be recorded 
 to his credit that the majority of naturalists, at all 
 events in this country, are employing, with some 
 minor modifications, not only his anthropological 
 classification, but that of mammals in general. It is 
 true that both these schemes were based on the labours 
 and ideas of his predecessors, but it was reserved for 
 him to so modify and improve them as to lead to the 
 almost universal acceptation with which they have been 
 received. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 MUSEUM AND MISCELLANEOUS WORK 
 
 MUCH of the substance of this chapter has been 
 already alluded to in the earlier portions of the present 
 volume ; but it has been found convenient to give Sir 
 William's views on the objects and arrangement of 
 museums somewhat more fully in this place, while 
 reference is also made to various items of miscellaneous 
 work which do not fall within the scope of either of the 
 three previous chapters. 
 
 Of Flower's hereditary interest in the crusade 
 against tight bearing-reins, and his official connection 
 with the Anti-Bearing-Rein Association, sufficient 
 mention has been already made in the first chapter. It 
 will likewise be unnecessary in this place to do more than 
 mention his Diagrams of the Nerves of the Human Body 
 published in 1 86 1, to his " Supplement to the Catalogue 
 of the Pathological Series in the Museum of the Royal 
 College of Surgeons," issued in 1863, and to certain 
 articles on surgical subjects contributed by him at 
 an early portion of his career. All these, coupled with 
 the practical experience he gained during his Crimean 
 service, indicate, however, that had Sir William decided 
 to devote his energies and talents to surgery as a 
 permanent occupation, there is little doubt he would 
 have risen to high eminence in that profession. 
 
 The little work entitled Fashion in Deformity , is based 
 169 
 
1 70 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 on a Friday Evening lecture at the Royal Institution, 
 delivered on yth May 1 880, and first published in the 
 Proceedings of the Institution for the same year. In its 
 separate, and more fully illustrated form, it was issued in 
 1 88 1. This is certainly one of Flower's most original 
 efforts, touching upon ground much of which has 
 received but little notice from either earlier or later 
 writers. The subjects discussed include the origin of 
 fashion ; mutilations of domesticated animals by man 
 for the sake of fashion ; fashion in hair and in finger- 
 nails ; tattooing ; fashion in noses, ears, lips, teeth, 
 and head, the latter being illustrated by the curious 
 custom prevalent among certain widely sundered races 
 of forcibly compressing the cranium in infancy by 
 means of bandages, so as to permanently modify and 
 alter its contour to a greater or less degree. Analogous 
 to this compression of the head is the crippling by 
 bandages of the feet of Chinese female infants, which 
 is described in some detail. But the author is of opinion 
 that European nations are scarcely less to blame in the 
 matter of distorting the feet for the sake of fashion ; 
 and pointed-toed and high-heeled boots and shoes come 
 in for his most severe condemnation. Neither, as 
 mentioned in the first chapter, was he less scathing 
 in his diatribes against the corset and tight-lacing. 
 That the last-mentioned article of female attire is 
 likewise charged in certain instances with being the 
 inducing cause of cancer was however probably un- 
 known to him. 
 
 That these strictures against the prevalent fashions of 
 our own days had little or no practical result (certainly 
 none in the case of the female sex), may be taken for 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 171 
 
 granted. The work has, however, a very considerable 
 amount of interest as illustrating a number of instances 
 of the manner in which uncivilised nations modify and 
 mutilate various parts of the body for the sake of what 
 they are pleased to regard as ornament, or fashion ; 
 and is therefore a valuable contribution to ethnology. 
 
 The address delivered by Flower at the meeting 
 of the Church Congress, held at Reading in 1883, 
 on the bearing of recent scientific advances on the 
 Christian faith, has likewise been alluded to in the first 
 chapter. It will therefore suffice here to quote a 
 portion of the concluding paragraph, which demonstrates 
 that nothing among modern discoveries had served to 
 shake in the very slightest degree the author's profound 
 belief in all the essential truths of the faith of his 
 forefathers. 
 
 " Science," he observes, " 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 remain 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 operations 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, supposed to regulate 
 the operations of nature, no longer satisfies us, have we 
 not substituted for them one of immeasurable greatness 
 and grandeur ? " 
 
172 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 Although he does not say so in so many words, there 
 is little doubt (reading between the lines) that Flower 
 regarded the evolution of animated Nature as part of 
 a preordained divine plan, and that he had little, if any, 
 faith in such theories as " survival of the fittest," as the 
 true explanation of Nature's riddle. 
 
 This address, like most of the other addresses and 
 papers discussed in this chapter, is reprinted in Essays 
 on Museums. 
 
 We pass now to the concluding portion of our 
 subject, namely Flower's influence and example in 
 modifying and advancing previous conceptions as to 
 the functions and objects of museums, and the mode and 
 manner in which their contents should be arranged and 
 distributed : on the one hand for the purpose of instruct- 
 ing and interesting the public, and on the other for 
 advancing the study of biological science. In many 
 respects this was perhaps the most important item 
 in Flower's life-work ; and he may be said to have 
 created the art of museum development and display. 
 
 In regard to the value and importance of his labours 
 in this respect, no better testimony can be adduced than 
 that given by such a distinguished adept in this kind of 
 work as Professor E. Ray Lankester, the present 
 Director of the Natural History Departments of the 
 British Museum. 
 
 " The arrangement and exhibition of specimens 
 designed and carried out by Flower in both instances," 
 writes Professor Lankester, after alluding to his pre- 
 decessor's labours first at the Royal College of Sur- 
 geons, and afterwards at the British Museum, " was 
 so definite an improvement on previous methods, that 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 173 
 
 he deserves to be considered as an originator and inventor 
 in museum work. His methods have not only met 
 with general approval, and their application with 
 admiration, but they have been largely adapted and 
 copied by other Curators and Directors of public 
 museums both at home and abroad." 
 
 Much has been said with regard to Flower's views on 
 museum arrangement in the chapter devoted to his 
 official connection with the British Museum. It may, 
 however, be permissible to repeat that in his epoch- 
 making address on museum organisation, delivered 
 before the British Association in 1889, he insisted, 
 in the case of large central public museums, on the 
 absolute necessity of separating the study from the 
 exhibition series ; and likewise on the limited number 
 and careful selection of the specimens which should 
 be shown to the public in the latter, and the prime 
 importance of carefully-written and simply-worded 
 descriptive labels for each group of specimens, if not, 
 indeed, for each individual specimen. His idea was, in 
 fact, that the specimens should illustrate the labels 
 rather than the labels the specimens. A limited 
 number, rather than an extensive series, of exhibited 
 specimens, and ample room for each, were also features 
 in his progress of reform. Not less emphatic was 
 Sir William on the importance of combining the 
 extinct with the living forms in our museums ; but 
 this, as stated elsewhere, he was unable to carry out in 
 the national collection. 
 
 It was, however, by no means only in our great 
 national museums that Flower took so much interest, 
 and advocated (and to a great extent succeeded in 
 
i 7 4 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 carrying out) such sweeping and beneficial changes. 
 He was equally convinced of the supreme importance 
 and value, as educating media, of school and county 
 museums, if organised and kept up on proper and 
 rational lines j and he did all that lay in his power to 
 promote the establishment, extension, or development 
 of institutions of this nature. 
 
 At the request of the Head-Master, in 1889, Flower 
 furnished some written advice as to the best method of 
 arranging a museum at Eton College, and these were 
 published as an article in Nature for that year, under 
 the title of " School Museums." The writer observed 
 that the subjects best adapted for such a museum are 
 zoology, botany, mineralogy, and geology ; adding 
 that u everything in the museum should have some 
 distinct object, coming under one or other of the 
 above subjects, and under one or other of the series 
 defined below, and everything else should be rigorously 
 excluded The Curator's business will be quite as much 
 to keep useless specimens out of the museum as to 
 acquire those that are useful." It was further urged that 
 the " Index Museum," in the Natural History Museum, 
 furnished the best guide to the lines on which a school 
 museum should be furnished and arranged, but that the 
 exhibits should be restricted to a simpler and less 
 detailed series. 
 
 Under the title of " Natural History as a Vocation," 
 Sir William published in Chamber? Journal for April 
 1897 an article dealing with biology as a profession, and 
 also discussing the best means of encouraging and 
 directing the "collecting instinct," which is so marked 
 a feature in some boys. This article is reprinted 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 175 
 
 in Essays on Museums, under the title of " Boys' 
 Museums." It serves to show that Flower considered 
 the aforesaid " collecting instinct " worthy, under cer- 
 tain restrictions, of every encouragement. 
 
 Since the appearance of Flower's article pointing out 
 their value and importance, natural history museums 
 have been established at many, if not most, of our public 
 schools besides Eton. Those at Marlborough, Rugby, 
 and Haileybury may be specially noticed as being, to a 
 great extent, arranged on the lines advocated by Sir 
 William. 
 
 As regards county and other local museums, Flower 
 in the article under the latter title, published in Essays 
 on Museums, advocated that these, in addition to 
 natural history specimens, should likewise illustrate the 
 archaeology, and indeed the general history of the 
 district ; obsolete implements, such as flint-and-steel and 
 candle-snuffers, if of local origin, legitimately finding a 
 place within its walls. The natural history of the 
 locality, needless to say, should be well illustrated, and so 
 arranged and named that any visitor can easily identify 
 every creature and plant he may have met with during 
 his rambles in the district. 
 
 The subject of administration is next discussed, when 
 after fully admitting the value of volunteer assistance, 
 the writer lays it down as imperative that a com- 
 petent paid Curator must be engaged if the museum 
 is to be really useful and to properly fulfil its 
 purpose. 
 
 Now that so many institutions of this nature are 
 under the control of the County Councils, and their 
 expenses defrayed out of the rates, the following passage 
 
1 76 LIFE OF FLOWER 
 
 has a most important bearing on the management of 
 local museums : 
 
 "The scope of the museum," observes Sir William, 
 " should be strictly defined and limited ; there must be 
 nothing like the general miscellaneous collection of 
 4 curiosities/ thrown indiscriminately together, which 
 constituted the old-fashioned country museum. I think 
 we are all agreed as to the local character predominating. 
 One section should contain antiquities and illustrations 
 of local manners and customs ; another section, local 
 natural history, zoology, botany, and geology. The 
 boundaries of the county will afford a good limit 
 for both. Everything not occurring in a state of nature 
 within that boundary should be rigorously excluded. 
 In addition to this, it may be desirable to have a small 
 general collection designed and arranged specially for 
 elementary instruction in science." 
 
 These words of warning deserve, in the present 
 writer's opinion, more attention than they have yet 
 received at the hands of those responsible for the ad- 
 ministration of not a few local museums. 
 
 It may be added that Flower was of opinion that 
 ordinary local museums should not undertake original 
 research work, which should be reserved for the larger 
 establishments in our chief cities and the metropolis. 
 With the means at their disposal often insufficient 
 even for the proper functions local museums should 
 have quite enough to do in illustrating local products. 
 
 Not that Sir William Flower was of opinion that, in 
 our larger cities, museums of a totally different nature 
 from the local museum on the one hand and from the 
 general museum on the other, may not have a justifi- 
 
LIFE OF FLOWER 177 
 
 able locus standi. This is amply demonstrated by his 
 remarks (republished in Essays on Museums] on the 
 occasion of the opening of the Booth Museum at 
 Brighton, in November 1890, which contains one of 
 the finest and best mounted collection of British birds 
 in the kingdom. 
 
 
 M 
 
APPENDIX A 
 
 SOME BIOGRAPHICAL AND OBITUARY NOTICES 
 OF SIR WILLIAM FLOWER. 
 
 The Biograph and Review, vol. vi. No. 31 ( 1 88 1 ) . 
 Medical News, i6th December 1881. 
 Contemporary Medical Men. London, 1887. 
 The Times, 3rd July 1899. 
 The Spectator, July 1899. 
 
 Nature, I3th July 1889. Professor E. R. Lankester. 
 Natural Science, August 1899. R. Lydekker. 
 Geological Magazine, August 1899. Dr. H. Woodward. 
 Scottish Review, April 1900. Professor M'Intosh. 
 "Year-book" of the Royal Society, 1901. W. C. M. 
 " Sir William Henry Flower, K.C.B. ; A Personal 
 Memoir." By C. J. Cornish. London, 1904. 
 
 APPENDIX B 
 
 LIST OF THE MORE IMPORTANT SCIENTIFIC 
 PUBLICATIONS OF SIR WILLIAM FLOWER. 
 
 A. BOOKS AND SEPARATE PAMPHLETS. 
 
 1 . " Diagrams of the Nerves of the Human Body, Exhibit- 
 ing their Origin, Divisions, and Connections/' London, 
 1861. 
 
 2. " A Supplement to the Catalogue of the Pathological 
 Series in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons." 
 London, 1863. 
 
 3. "Introductory Lectures to the Course of Comparative 
 Anatomy, delivered at the Royal College of Surgeons of 
 England, 1870." London, 1870. 
 
 179 
 
i8o APPENDIX 
 
 4. " 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. 
 London, 1870. Second edition, 1876. Third edition 
 (revised with the assistance of Hans Gadow), 1885. 
 
 5. " Catalogue of the Specimens illustrating the Osteology 
 and Dentition of Vertebrated Animals, Recent and Extinct, 
 contained in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons 
 of England." London. Part I. Man (1879); Part II. 
 Mammalia (1884), written in conjunction with Dr. J. G. 
 Garson. 
 
 6. " Fashion in Deformity, as Illustrated in the Customs 
 of Barbarous and Civilised Races." (Nature series). 
 London, 1881. Also published in the Proceedings of the 
 Royal Institution for 1880. 
 
 7. " Recent Advances in Natural Science, in their Re- 
 lation to the Christian Faith." A paper read before the 
 Church Congress, 1885. London, 1885. 
 
 8. " Recent Memoirs on the Cetacea," by Eschricht, 
 Reinhardt, and Liljeborg. A Translation. London (Ray 
 Society), 1866. 
 
 9. " List of the Specimens of Cetacea in the Zoological 
 Department of the British Museum." London, 1885. 
 
 10. "An Introduction to the Study of Mammals Living 
 and Extinct " (written in collaboration with R. Lydekker). 
 London, 1891. 
 
 ii. u The Horse : a Study in Natural History." London, 
 1891. 
 
 12. " Essays on Museums and Other Subjects connected 
 with Natural History." London, 1898. 
 
 B. ZOOLOGICAL AND ANATOMICAL MEMOIRS, ARTICLES, AND 
 NOTES PUBLISHED IN SCIENTIFIC SERIALS, ETC. 
 
 a. In the " Philosophical Transactions" of the Royal 
 Society of London. 
 
 13. "Observations on the Posterior Lobes of the Cere- 
 brum of the Quadrumana, with the Description of the 
 
APPENDIX 181 
 
 Brain of a Galago," vol. clii. pp. 185-201 (1862). Ab- 
 stract in Proc. Roy. Soc., vol. xi. pp. 376-381 (1860). 
 
 14. "On the Commissures of the Cerebral Hemispheres 
 of the Marsupialia and Monotremata, as compared with 
 those of the Placental Mammals," vol. civ. pp. 633-651 
 (1865). Abstract in Proc. Roy. Soc., vol. xiv. pp. 71-74 
 (1865.) 
 
 15.** On the Development and Succession of the Teeth in 
 the Marsupialia/' vol. clvii. pp. 631-642 (1867). Abstract 
 in Proc. Roy. Soc., vol. xv. pp. 464-468 (1867), and in 
 Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. xx. pp. 129-133 (1867.) 
 
 1 6. " On a Newly-discovered Extinct Mammal from Pata- 
 gonia (Homalodontotherium cunninghami) ," vol. clxiv. pp. 173- 
 182 (1874). Abstract in Proc. Roy. Soc.. vol. xxi. p. 383 
 
 (1873). 
 
 17. " Seals and Cetaceans from Kerguelen Island (Transit 
 of Venus Expeditions, 1874 and 1875)," vo ^ clxviii. 
 pp. 95-100(1876). 
 
 b. In the " Proceedings " of the Royal Society of London. 
 
 1 8. Reply to Professor Owen's paper : " On Zoological 
 Names of Characteristic Parts and Homological Interpreta- 
 tions and Beginnings, especially in reference to Connecting 
 Fibres of the Brain," vol. xiv. pp. 134-139 (1865). 
 
 c. In the " Transactions " of the Zoological Society of London. 
 
 19. " On the Brain of the Jtvan Loris (Stenops javanicus, 
 Illig.)," vol. v. pp. 103-111 (1866). 
 
 20. " Description of the Skeleton of Inia geoffroyensis, and 
 of the Skull of Pontoporia blainvillei" vol. vi. pp. 87-116 
 (1869). 
 
 21. " On the Osteology of the Sperm-Whale or Cachalot 
 (Physeter macrocephalus}" vol. vi. pp. 309-372 (1869). 
 
 22. "Description of the Skeleton of the Chinese White 
 Dolphin (Delphinus sinewis)" vol. vii. pp. 151-160 (1872). 
 
 23. "On Risso's Dolphin (Grampus griseus)," vol. viii. 
 pp. 1-2 1 (1873). 
 
 24. " On the Recent Ziphioid Whales, with a Description 
 
1 82 APPENDIX 
 
 of the Skeleton of Berardius arnuxi" vol. viii. pp. 203-234 
 
 25. "A Further Contribution to the Knowledge of the 
 Existing Ziphioid Whales ; Genus Mesoplodon" vol. x. pp. 
 415-437 (1878). 
 
 d. In the " Proceedings " of the Zoological Society of London. 
 
 26. ** Notes on the Dissection of a Species of Galago," 
 1852, pp. 73-75. 
 
 27. "On the Structure of the Gizzard of the Nicobar 
 Pigeon and Granivorous Birds," 1860, pp. 330-334. 
 
 28. "Notes on the Anatomy of Pithecia monachus, Geoffr.," 
 1862, pp. 326-333. 
 
 29. "On the Optic Lobes of the Brain of the Echidna" 
 1864, pp. 18-20. 
 
 30. " On a Lesser Fin-Whale (Balcenoptera rostrata, Fabr.) 
 recently stranded on the Norfolk Coast," 1864, pp. 
 252-258. 
 
 31. " On the Brain of the Red Howling Monkey 
 (Mycetes seniculus, Linn.)," 1864, pp. 335-338. 
 
 32. "Notes on the Skeletons of Whales in the Principal 
 Museums of Holland and Belgium, with Descriptions of 
 Two Species, apparently new to Science (Sibbaldius schlegeli 
 and Physalus latirostris)" 1864, pp. 384-420. 
 
 33. " On a New Species of Grampus (Orca meridionalii), 
 from Tasmania," 1864, pp. 420-426. 
 
 34. "Note on Pseudorca meridionalis" 1865, pp. 470-471. 
 
 35. "On Physalus sibbaldii, Gray," 1865, pp. 472-474. 
 
 36. " Observations upon a Fin-Whale (Physalus anti- 
 quorum, Gray) recently stranded in Pevensey Bay/' 1865, 
 pp. 699-705. 
 
 37. "On the Gular Pouch of the Great Bustard (Otis 
 tarda, Linn.)," 1865, pp. 747-748. 
 
 38. " Note on the Visceral Anatomy of Hyomoschus aquati- 
 cus" 1867, pp. 954-960. 
 
 39. " On the Probable Identity of the Fin-Whales de- 
 scribed as Balanoptera Carolina, Malm., and Physalus sibbaldii, 
 Gray," 1868, pp. 187-189. 
 
APPENDIX 183 
 
 40. " On the Development and Succession of the Teeth 
 in the Armadillos," 1868, pp. 378-380. 
 
 41. "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 Dis- 
 puted Forms," 1869, pp. 4-37. 
 
 42. "Note on a Substance Ejected from the Stomach of 
 a Horn-bill/' 1869, p. 150. 
 
 43. " On the Anatomy of the Proteles cristatus, Sparmann," 
 
 1869, pp. 474-496. 
 
 44. " Additional Note on a Specimen of the Common Fin- 
 Whale (Physalus antiquorum, Gray, Balanoptera musculus, 
 Auct.) Stranded in Langston Harbour, November 1869," 
 l8 7> PP. 330 and 331. 
 
 45. " On the Anatomy of JElurus fulgens, Fr. Cuv.," 
 
 1870, pp. 752-769. 
 
 46. "On the Skeleton of the Australian Cassowary," 
 
 1871, pp. 32-35. 
 
 47. "On the Occurrence of the Ringed or Marbled Seal 
 (Phoca hispida) on the Coast of Norfolk, with Remarks on 
 the Synonymy of the Species," 1861, pp. 506-512. 
 
 48. " Remarks on a Rare Australian Whale of the Genus 
 Ziphius" 1871, p. 631. 
 
 49. " Note on the Anatomy of the Two-Spotted Para- 
 doxure (Nandinia blnotata)" 1872, pp. 683 and 684. 
 
 50. " On the Structure and Affinities of the Musk-deer, 
 (Moschus moschiferus, Linn.)/' 1875, pp. 159-190. 
 
 51. "Description of the Skull of a Species of Xiphodon, 
 Cuvier," 1876, pp. 3-7. 
 
 52. "On some Cranial and Dental Characters of the 
 Existing Species of Rhinoceros," 1876, pp. 443-457. 
 
 53. ** Remarks upon Ziphius novce-zealandta and Mesopl- 
 odon floweri" 1876, pp. 477 and 478. 
 
 54. " On the Skull of a Rhinoceros (R. lasiotis, Scl.) from 
 India," 1878, pp. 634-636. 
 
 55. " On the Common Dolphin (Delphinus delphis, Linn.) " 
 1879, pp. 382-384. 
 
 56. " Remarks upon a Drawing of Delphinus tursio" 
 1879, p. 386. 
 
i8 4 APPENDIX 
 
 57. " Remarks upon the Skull of a Female Otaria (Otaria 
 gillespii)," 1879, p. 551. 
 
 58. " Remarks upon the Skull of a Beluga, or White Whale 
 (Delphinapterus leucas)" 1879, pp. 667-669. 
 
 59. " On the Cascum of the Red Wolf (Cants jubatus, 
 Desm.)," 1879, PP' 766 and 767. 
 
 60. "On the Bush-Dog (Icticyon venaticus, Lund)," 1880, 
 pp. 70-76. 
 
 61. '< On the Elephant-Seal (Macrorhinus /eoninus, Linn.)," 
 1881, pp. 145-162. 
 
 62. "Notes on the Habits of the Manatee," 1881, 
 
 PP- 45S-45 6 - 
 
 63. "On the Mutual Affinities of the Animals composing 
 the Order Edentata," 1882, pp. 358-367. 
 
 64. " On the Cranium of a New Species of Hyperoodon, 
 from the Australian Seas," 1882, pp. 392-396. 
 
 65. "On the Skull of a Young Chimpanzee," 1882, 
 PP- 634-636. 
 
 66. "On the Whales of the Genus Hyperoodon* 1882, 
 pp. 722-734. 
 
 67. " On the Arrangement of the Orders and Families ot 
 existing Mammalia," 1883, pp. 178-186. 
 
 68. "On the Characters and Divisions of the Family 
 Dflpbinida" 1883, pp. 466-513. 
 
 69. " On a Specimen of Rudolphi's Rorqual (BaUnoptera 
 borealis, Lesson) lately taken on the Essex Coast," 1883, 
 
 PP- S^-S 1 ?- 
 
 70. " Remarks on the Burmese Elephant lately deposited 
 in the Society's Gardens," 1884, P- 44- 
 
 71. "Remarks upon Four Skulls of the Common Bottle- 
 nose Whale (Hyperoodon restrains), showing the Develop- 
 ment, with Age, of the Maxillary Crests," 1884, p. 206. 
 
 72. "Exhibition of a Mass of pure Spermaceti, obtained 
 from the 'head-matter' of Hyperoodon" 1884, p. 206. 
 
 73. " Note on theiDentition of a young Capybara (Hydro- 
 chorus capybara)" 1884, pp. 252 and 253. 
 
 74. " Note on the Names of Two Genera of Delphimdce" 
 1884, p. 417. 
 
 75. " Remarks upon a Specimen of Rudolphi's Rorqual 
 
APPENDIX 185 
 
 (Balanoptera borealis) taken in the Thames, 1887," p. 
 
 5 6 4- 
 
 76. "On the Pygmy Hippopotamus of Liberia (Hippo- 
 potamus liberiensis, Morton), and its Claims to Distinct Generic 
 
 Rank," 1887, pp. 612-614. 
 
 77. " Remarks upon a Specimen of a Japanese Cock, with 
 Elongated Upper Tail-coverts," 1888, p. 248. 
 
 78. " Remarks upon the Skin of the Face of a Male 
 African Rhinoceros with a Third Horn," 1889, p. 448. 
 
 79. " Remarks upon a Photograph of the Nest of a Horn- 
 bill (Tocus melanoleucus), in which the Female was shown 
 * walled in,' " 1890, p. 401. 
 
 80. " Remarks on the Rules of Zoological Nomenclature," 
 1896, pp. 319-320. 
 
 e. In the "Natural History Review" 
 
 8 1. " On the Brain of the Siamang (Hylobates syndactylus, 
 Raffles)," 1863, pp. 279-287. 
 
 82. "Note on the Number of Cervical Vertebrae in the 
 Sirenia," 1864, pp. 259-264. 
 
 f. In the " Journal of Anatomy and Physiology." 
 
 83. "On the Homologies and Notation of the Teeth of 
 the Mammalia," vol. iii. pp. 262-278 (1869) ; Abstract in 
 Rep. Brit. Assoc., vol. xxxviii. (Trans, of Sections), pp. 262- 
 288 (1868). 
 
 84. " On the Composition of the Carpus of the Dog," 
 series 2, vol. vi. pp. 62-64 ( I ^ > 7 Q )- 
 
 85. "On the Correspondence between the Parts Compos- 
 ing the Shoulder and the Pelvic Girdle of the Mammalia," 
 vol. vi. pp. 239-249 (1870). 
 
 86. " Note on the Carpus of the Sloths," vol. vii. pp. 
 255 and 256 (1873). 
 
 g. In the " Quarterly Journal" of the Geological Society oj 
 London. 
 
 87. "On the Affinities and Probable Habits of the 
 Extinct Australian Marsupial, Thylacoleo carnifex, Owen," 
 vol. xxiv. pp. 307-319 (1868). 
 
1 86 APPENDIX 
 
 88. " Description of the Skull of a Species of Halitherium 
 (H. canhami) from the Red Crag of Suffolk," vol. xxx. pp. 
 
 1-7 (1874). 
 
 89. " Note on the Occurrence of Remains of Hycenarctos 
 in the Red Crag of Suffolk," vol. xxxiii. pp. 534-536 
 (1877). 
 
 h. In the " Proceedings " of the Royal Institution. 
 
 90. " On Palseontological Evidence of Gradual Modifica- 
 tion of Animal Forms," vol. vii. pp. 94-104 (1873). 
 
 91. "The Extinct Animals of North America," vol. viii. 
 pp. 103-105 (1876), and Popular Science Review, vol. xv. 
 pp. 267-298 (1876). 
 
 92. " On Whales, Past and Present, and their Probable 
 Origin," vol. x. pp. 360-376 (1883). 
 
 i. In the "Report" of the British Association for the 
 Advancement of Science. 
 
 93. " On the Connexion of the Hyoid Arch with the 
 Cranium," vol. xl. (Trans, of Sections), pp. 136 and 137 
 (1870). 
 
 94. "A Century's Progress in Zoological Knowledge," 
 vol. xlviii., pp. 549-558 (1878), and Nature, vol. xviii. pp. 
 419-423 (1878). 
 
 j. In the Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 
 
 95. "On a Sub- Fossil Whale (Eschrichtius robustus) Dis- 
 covered in Cornwall," ser. 4, vol. ix. pp. 440-442 (1872). 
 
 96. "Extinct Lemurina," ser. 4, vol. xvii. pp. 323-328 
 (1876). 
 
 k. In the "Journal" of the Royal Colonial Institute. 
 
 97. "Whales and Whale Fisheries " : a Lecture delivered 
 at the Royal Colonial Institute on 8th January 1885 (1885). 
 
 /. In Nature. 
 
 98. " On the Arrangement and Nomenclature of the 
 Lobes of the Liver in Mammalia," vol. vi. pp. 346-365 
 
APPENDIX 187 
 
 (1872) ; and also Rep. Brit. Assoc., vol. xlii. (Trans, of 
 Sections), pp. 150 and 151 (1872). 
 
 99. "On the Ziphioid Whales," vol. v. pp. 103-106 
 (1872). 
 
 100. "Museum Specimens for Teaching Purposes," vol. 
 xv. pp. 144-146, 184-186, and 204-206 (1876). 
 
 m. In the " Transactions " of the Geological Society of 
 Cornwall. 
 
 10 1. "On the Bones of a Whale found at Petuan," 
 1872,8 pp. 
 
 n. In the " Bulletin " of the Brussels Academy. 
 
 102. <{ Sur le basin et le fe'mur d'une Balenoptere," vol. 
 xxi. pp. 131 and 132 (1866). 
 
 o. In the " Medical Times " and " Gazette" 
 
 103. " Comparative Anatomy," a Lecture, 1870. 
 
 104. " Lectures on the Comparative Anatomy of the 
 Organs of Digestion of the Mammalia," delivered at the 
 Royal College of Surgeons of England, in February and 
 March 1872. 
 
 p. In the " Transactions " of the Odontological Society of 
 London. 
 
 105. " On the First or Milk Dentition of the Mammalia," 
 vol. iii. pp. 211-232 (1871). 
 
 1 06. "Note on the Specimens of Abnormal Dentition in 
 the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons," vol. xii. 
 pp. 32-47 (1880). 
 
 q. In the " British Medical Journal:' 
 
 107. " Dentition of the Mammalia," 1871. 
 
 1 08. " History of Extinct Mammals, and their Relation 
 to Existing Forms," 1874. 
 
1 88 APPENDIX 
 
 109. "The Anatomy of the Cetacea and Edentata," 1881 
 and 1882. 
 
 r. In the " Encyclopedia Britannic a" qth Ed. 
 
 no. "The Horse," vol. xii. pp. 172-181 (1881). 
 in. "Mammalia" (Insect'ivora, Chiroptera and Rodentia, 
 by G. E. Dobson), vol. xv. pp. 347-446 (1883). 
 
 112. "Whale," vol. xxiv. pp. 523-529 (1888). 
 And other articles. 
 
 s. In the " Report 1 ' of the Council of the Zoological Society. 
 
 113. "On the Progress of Zoology" : Address to the 
 General Meeting held at the Society's Gardens, i6th June 
 1887. Appendix, 1887, pp. 37-67. 
 
 /. In the <'' Trans actions" of the Middlesex Natural 
 History Society. 
 
 114. " Horns and Antlers," 1887, pp. i-io. 
 
 C. ANTHROPOLOGICAL PAPERS. 
 a. In the '''Journal" oj the Anthropological Institute. 
 
 115. "Illustrations of the Modes of Preserving the Dead 
 in Darnley Island and in South Australia," vol. viii. pp. 
 389-394 (1879). 
 
 1 1 6. " On the Osteology and Affinities of the Natives ot 
 the Andaman Islands," vol. ix. pp. 108-135 (1879). 
 
 117. " On the Cranial Characters of the Natives of the 
 Fiji Islands," vol. x. pp. 153-173 (1880). 
 
 1 18. "On a Collection of Monumental Heads and 
 Artificially deformed Crania from the Island of Mallicollo, 
 in the New Hebrides," vol. xi. pp. 75-81 (1881). 
 
 119. "On the Aims and Prospects of the Study of 
 Anthropology," vol. xiii. pp. 488-501 (1884). 
 
 1 20. "Additional Observations on the Osteology of the 
 Natives of the Andaman Islands," vol. xiv. pp. 115-120 
 (1884). 
 
APPENDIX 189 
 
 121. "On the size of the Teeth as a Character of Race," 
 vol. xiv. pp. 183-186 (1884). 
 
 122. "On the Classification of the Varieties of the 
 Human Species," vol. xiv. pp. 378-395 (1885). 
 
 I22A. "On a Nicobarese Skull," vol. xvi. pp. 147-149 
 (1886). 
 
 123. <{ Description of two Skeletons of Akkas, a Pygmy 
 Race from Central Africa," vol. xviii. pp. 3-19 (1888). 
 
 124. " On two Skulls from a Cave in Jamaica," vol. xx. 
 pp. 110-112 (1890). 
 
 b. In the Report " of the British Association. 
 
 125. " Methods and Results of Measurements of the 
 Capacity of Human Crania," 1878, pp. 581, 582 ; and 
 Nature, vol. xviii. pp. 480, 481 (1878). 
 
 1 26. '< The Study and Progress of Anthropology" (Address 
 to Anthrop. Dept. of Zoological Section), 1881, pp. 
 682-689 ; and Nature, vol. xxiv. pp. 436-439 (1881). 
 
 c. In " Nature" 
 
 127. "The Comparative Anatomy of Man" (Abstract 
 of Lectures), vol. xx. pp. 222-225, 244-246 (1879), and 
 267-269 ; vol. xxii. pp. 59-61, 78-80, 97-100 (1880). 
 
 d. In the "British Medical Journal" 
 
 1 28. " The Anatomical Characters of the Races of Man," 
 1879 an d 1880. 
 
 e. In the *' Journal of Anatomy and Physiology" 
 
 129. "On the Scapular Index as a Race-Character in 
 Man," vol. xiv., pp. 13-17 (1880), written in co-operation 
 with Dr. J. G. Garson. 
 
 f. In the Manchester Science Lectures for the People. 
 
 130. "The Aborigines of Tasmania, an Extinct Race." 
 A Lecture delivered in Hulme Town Hall, Manchester, 
 3Oth November 1878, ser. x. pp. 41-53. 
 
 g. In " Report" of Glasgow Science lectures Association. 
 
 131. " The Races of Man," 53 pp. Glasgow (1878). 
 
1 90 APPENDIX 
 
 h. In the " Proceedings " of the Royal Institution. 
 
 132. "The Native Races of the Pacific Ocean," vol. viii. 
 pp. 602-652 (1878). 
 
 133. "The Pygmy Races of Men," vol. xii. pp. 266- 
 283 (1888). 
 
 D. ON MUSEUMS AND MUSEUM ARRANGEMENTS. 
 
 134. "The Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of 
 England." Presidential Address to the Anatomical Section 
 of the International Medical Congress, held in London, 
 4th August 1 88 1. [Reprinted in Essays on Museums, as are 
 the other papers and addresses quoted under this heading/] 
 
 135. " Museum Organisation." Presidential Address to 
 the British Association for the Advancement of Science, at 
 the Newcastle-on-Tyne Meeting, nth September 1889. 
 Rep. Brit. Assoc., 1889. 
 
 136. "School Museums : Suggestions for the Formation 
 and Arrangement of Natural History in connection with a 
 Public School." Nature, 26th December 1889. 
 
 137. "The Booth Museum." Address at the Opening 
 of the Booth Museum, Brighton, 3rd November 1890. 
 Zoologist, December 1890. 
 
 138. " Local Museums." From a letter in support of the 
 establishment of a County Museum for Buckinghamshire 
 (24th November 1891), and an Address at the Opening of 
 the Perth Museum (29th November 1895). 
 
 139. "Modern Museums." Presidential Address to the 
 Museums' Association, at the Meeting held in London, 3rd 
 July 1893. Museums' Association Journal, 1893. 
 
 140. "Natural History as a Vocation (Boys' Museums)." 
 Chambers' s Edinburgh Journal, April 1897. 
 
 E. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES BY SIR WILLIAM FLOWER 
 Mostly Republished in " Essays on Museums.'' 
 
 141. " Biographical Notice of Professor Rolleston." Proc. 
 Roy. Soc., 1882. 
 
APPENDIX 191 
 
 142. Obituary Notice of George Busk. Journ. Anthrop. 
 Inst., vol. xvi., p. 403 (1886). 
 
 143. " Biographical Notice of Sir Richard Owen." Proc. 
 Roy. Soc., 1894. 
 
 144. " Reminiscences of Professor Huxley." The North 
 American Review, September 1895. 
 
 145. " Eulogium on Charles Darwin." Centenary Meet- 
 ing of the Linnean Society, 24th May 1888. 
 
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