sional men especially, what is the most important illustrative series in the world.

In 1869 Mr. Flower succeeded to the Hunterian Professorship of Comparative Anatomy and Physiology; and during his term of office the traditions of a post associated with the illustrious names of such immediate predecessors as Owen and Huxley, have suffered no injury, but have, rather, received additional renown through the invaluable lectures delivered by the present professor. Indeed, the annual series of discourses delivered by Professor Flower, in accordance with the terms of his endowment, are among the most useful and instructive of our aids to knowledge on subjects of comparative anatomy. "The Osteology of the Mammalia,' for instance, is a book that no biologist, and but few medical students, have not made themselves acquainted with and been deeply indebted to; and the more recent lectures on Anthropology, as illustrated by the Barnard Davies collection, together with those delivered this year on the 'Cetacea,' are likely to become equally accepted as classical contributions to scientific literature.

Scientific distinctions have been heaped on the subject of this article with a profusion no less deserved than rich. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1864, he was called in 1879 to follow the late Marquis of Tweeddale, as President of the Zoological Society, of which he had for long been vice-president and councillor. At the British Association meetings he has at various times held office in the section of Biology, over which he presided at the Dublin meeting; and at York last August he presided over the department of Anthropology in a manner that received the universal approval of the members. At the memorable International Congress held in London this year, Professor Flower was president of the section for Anatomy, and in that capacity delivered an address on the subject of the museum under his care, which will ever remain an invaluable epitome of its history and extent. The most recent addition to this list of honourable distinctions is the appointment as Trustee of Sir John Soane's Museum, Professor Flower having been elected to fill the vacancy created by the death of Mr. F. Ouvry.

As an examiner the Hunterian Professor has officiated at Cambridge, having been several times elected as one of the board appointed to test candidates for natural

science honours at the light-blue 'Varsity;" and it is pleasant to know that the kindly, genial, and courteous bearing so familiar to students in the College of Surgeons' Museum is no less appreciated on the banks of the Cam than in London itself. Indeed, Professor Flower's is one of those irresistible natures that ensure a grateful remembrance by all whom they influence in any way, and to this must be ascribed his popularity with the many who speak always in affectionate terms of him.

The literary labours of Prof. Flower have added to our store of text books at least two works unsurpassed for the special purposes intended to be served by them. These are, of course, the catalogues that form a guide to the series of pathological preparations and of human osteology in the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, and the 'Osteology of the Mammalia,' published by Messrs. Macmillan, which is one of the books indispensable to every University candidate for honours in biology, as well as being a by no means unusual component of medical students' libraries. Fashion in Deformity' is the title of a small work included in the Nature' series which, published during the present year, illustrates the multiplied evils produced on the human body by the distortions the figure is submitted to in deference to the laws of fashion. To the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society' Professor Flower has been a considerable contributor; we need, however, only note especially the papers on 'The Posterior Lobes of the Cerebrum in Quadrumana,' 1862, and another in 1865 on the Connections of the Cerebral Hemispheres of the Marsupialia compared with those of Placental Mammals.' The Cetacea' have always been a favourite study with Prof. Flower, and have formed the subject of extensive contributions from him to the Transactions of the Zoological Society; while the Proceed ings of the same Society are enriched by a number of varied and valuable articles on points of interest in Comparative Anatomy.

as

The Anatomy of the Digestive Organs of the Mammalia' formed the subject of a series of lectures, delivered in 1873, which are well known to many of our readers.

The portrait of Professor Flower presented with this number has been drawn by our own artist, Mr. R. E. Holding, from an excellent photograph recently taken by Messrs. Barraud and Jerrard.

MEDICAL NEWS & COLLEGIATE HERALD.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1881.

LAST week we printed a letter from 'A Subscriber," in which attention was drawn to a series of religious services being held in Edinburgh, to which University students are particularly invited. At the same time we commented on the subject of the letter in terms that have called forth numerous protests, several of which appear in our present issue. Frankly speaking, we have no hesitation in withdrawing the expressions contained in the leaderette complained of; and had we been correctly informed as to the real state of affairs, it would certainly not have been written. The communication of our correspondent, 'A Subscriber,' was, we doubt not, penned under the conviction that he was truthfully describing actual facts; that both he and we have been too easily deceived, we trust the letters published to-day sufficiently prove.

Ar the time when 'A Subscriber' made his appeal there was nothing to assist a judgment but the appeal itself; and we retain such a vivid recollection of the general disgust not long ago excited in a provincial town by the very improper efforts of a religious sect to address special services to medical students, that it is by no means to be wondered we looked on the movement on foot in Scotland as a similar

attempt to create invidious comparisons between our and every other class of students. In all that affects the interests or dignity of medical students we shall persist in having a word to say, no matter whom or what we may offend by so doing; but whenever, as in the present case, it is made clear to us that our defence of them has been causelessly excited at the expense of injury to others, who do not at all deserve reproach, we will, as we do now, declare the mistake committed, and withdraw the counter charges uttered.

In this place we may be permitted to add that the medical students of to-day are at least as worthy of courteous treatment at the hands of all whose interest is excited on behalf of incipient practitioners of the various professions, as those who constitute the pupillary class of any other branch. Any movement that aims at general well-doing

towards students will always be approved ; but as surely also will the creation of invidious distinctions inimical to medical interests be unsparingly condemned. The age is past in which the public was wont to associate little that was good with the conduct of hospital pupils; and as the morale of the student class has improved, so should our endeavours to raise it further still continue unabating.

THE last week has been one of unusual significance to medical morality. It might very well be taken by advanced pessimists as an example to illustrate the extent of indignity possible to be showered on the profession within so brief a space, and none could deny the aptness of the circumstances to this purpose. Thus, a practitioner of Sunderland, a well-known medical man in the county of Durham, Dr. Abrath, has been committed for trial at the ensuing assizes on a charge of conspiring to defraud a railway company. Another member of the profession, a licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians, stands arraigned on the terrible charge of murdering a paralysed schoolboy, his relative. In a third case the medical superintendent of a workhouse infirmary is accused of uttering malicious libels of and concerning the matron of the establishment.

We do not, of course, offer any opinion on either of these cases, but only instance them, as occurring within a single week, to bring the profession prominently before the public, and in a way that cannot fail, notwithstanding what the issue may be in any or all the three inquiries, to react injuriously on the estimation in which medical men are held as a class. We have an interest in noting this, because we feel that by placing it in a proper light before the students of to-day they will be led to unite in a determination to remove, by their own endeavours, whatever stigma may attach to the career they have elected to follow. The dignity of medicine is supported less by the action and bearing of its senior followers than by the proceedings of its younger branches. The latter can do it infinite damage: can lend it infinite strength; and we are certain that students will recognise and achieve the duty before them of ennobling the profession of medicine in their lives.