William Henry Flower
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Sir William Henry Flower (November 30, 1831 - July 1, 1899) was an English zoologist and physician.
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[edit] Early life
Flower was born at his father's home "The Hill", Stratford-on-Avon. His father was Edward Fordham Flower, who was a Justice of the Peace for his county. Edward Flower, 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, Warwickshire. Edward Fordham Flower was noted for his philanthropy, and his efforts to abolish the bearing-rein, a device that he considered as an instrument of torture used on carriage horses.
William's innate interest in natural history appears to have been further fostered in early life by interactions with Rev. P. B. Brodie, an enthusiastic zoologist and geologist. William wrote later in life in his book, Essays on Museums, that he was pleased to create a museum as a boy with a miscellaneous collection of natural history objects, kept at first in a cardboard box, but subsequently housed in a cupboard.
William matriculated at London University in 1849, attaining honours in Zoology; and joined the Medical Classes at University College, London. He showed special aptitude for physiology and comparative anatomy and took his MB. degree in 1851. He also received 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 subject was taken by his fellow-student, Joseph Lister.
[edit] Crimea
His first zoological paper, On the Dissection of a Species of Galago, was contributed to the Zoological Society of London in 1852. He was elected Curator in 1854. 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. He then joined the Army Medical Service, and went out to the Crimea. He was gazetted as Assistant- Surgeon to the 63rd (now the First Battalion of the Manchester) Regiment; and in July 1854 embarked with his regiment at Cork for Constantinople. In recognition of his services, he received from the hands of Queen Victoria, the Crimean medal, with clasps for the Alma, Inkerman, Balaclava, and Sebastopol; he also received the Turkish war-medal.
[edit] London
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 staff of 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 Curatorship of the museum and was also appointed Lecturer on Comparative Anatomy.
He married Georgina Rosetta, the youngest daughter of Admiral W. H. Smyth, a well-known astronomer, and sometime Hydrographer to the Admiralty and likewise Foreign Secretary to the Royal Society. The wedding took place in 1858 at the church of Stone, in Buckinghamshire.
In 1861 succeeded John Thomas Quekett as curator of the Hunterian Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of England on the recommendation of Huxley and others. In 1870 he also became Hunterian professor, and in 1884, on the death of Sir Richard Owen, was appointed to the directorship of the Natural History Museum at South Kensington. He took over from Albert C. L. G. Günther as Keeper of Zoology in 1895, remaining so until 1898. 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. In 1887 he received the Jubilee Medal. He also received the Royal Prussian order, "Pour la Merite"
He died in London at his 26 Stanhope Gardens residence.
[edit] Contributions
Flower made valuable contributions to structural anthropology, publishing, for example, complete and accurate measurements of no less than 1,300 human skulls, and as a comparative anatomist he ranked high, devoting himself especially to the study of the mammalia. His foremost studies were on marsupials, whales and primates, and he was the first person to show that lemurs are primates.
He also worked on the deformities produced in the human foot by badly-designed boots and other coverings among both civilised and barbarous nations. His fashion in deformity was a favourite theme in which he criticised the use of corsets with illustrations of distorted female skeletons.
Flower was also a leading authority on the arrangement of museums. He insisted on the importance of distinguishing between collections intended for the use of specialists and those designed for the instruction of the general public, pointing out that it was as futile to present to the former a number of merely typical forms as to provide the latter with a long series of specimens differing only in the most minute details. His ideas, which were largely and successfully applied to the museums of which he had charge, gained wide approval, and their influence entitles him to be looked upon as a reformer who did much to improve the methods of museum arrangement and management.
[edit] Works
- An Introduction to the Osteology of the Mammalia (1870)
- Fashion in Deformity (1885)
- The Horse: a Study in Natural History (1890)
- Introduction to the Study of Mammals, Living and Extinct (1891)
- Essays on Museums and other Subjects (1898).
[edit] References
- Lydekker, R. (1906) Sir William Flower. online
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
