SIR WILLIAM FLOWER.
Sir William Flower. By R. Lydekker. (J. M. Dent and Co. 2s. 6d. net.)—This is a volume of the "English Men of Science" Series. Naturally it is chiefly devoted to the scientifie achieve- ments of the man. Mr. Lydekker describes in successive chapters Sir William's work at the College of Surgeons and the Natural History Museum and as President of the Zoological Society. He then sketches his "General Zoological Work," following this chapter with special accounts of his " Work on the Cetacea" and in the province of anthropology. Much as Sir William Flower achieved in provinces of research, it was in this last that he made his most interesting contributions to knowledge. We have learnt to expand the significance of the maxim, "The proper study of mankind is man." The study of vanished or vanishing races is one which has special claims on the more durable portions of mankind. The first chapter gives a sketch of Flower's life. It was one of uninterrupted success, and the only thing wanting to it was a somewhat longer span. He died in his sixty-eighth year, before he had reached old age, as that term is now commonly understood. He seems to have been a believer in the theory that change of work is recreation. Some doubtless there are with whom this theory works out well in practice ; for most men it is a perilous heresy.
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