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OBITUAEY.

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he was to earn his highest distinction. The Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, generally known as the Hunterian Museum, had been allowed to fall behind similar institutions on the continent ; and Mr. Flower, on his appointment to the Guratorship, at once set himself to place the London Museum on a level with its rivals in its anatomical collection. On his appointment, for instance, there were not a score of skeletons, and less than 250 skulls for the guidance of students of comparative anatomy. Before Mr. Flowers left his post there were at least 100 skeletons, not always com- plete, and nearly 1,500 crania. His work was not only collecting, but included systematic arrangement, and he thus left to his successor one of the most valuable museums for scien- tific study to be found in Europe. In 1869 his claims to recognition were ac- knowledged by his appointment to the Hunterian Professorship of Compara- tive Anatomy and Physiology, which he held with his Curatorship until 1884, during which time he read various abstruse papers before the Royal Society, of which he was made a Fellow in 1864. In 1879 he became President of the Zoological Society, and his energy in collecting and talent for classification were promptly shown in the extension and rearrangement of

the society's gardens and menageries. In 1684 the post of Director of the Natural History Museum, attached to the British Museum, but recently removed to South Kensington, be- came vacant by the death of Sir Richard Owen, and Mr. Flower was by general consent regarded as his rightful successor. His methods of classification and arrangement were explained in his Presidential address to the British Association in 1889. They were adopted as sound by both scientific and amateur students, and during the fifteen years of his tenure of the post they were sedulously applied to the specimens at South Kensington, which under his direction grew to be both a means of popular instruction and of scientific study. He was abundantly honoured at home and abroad, where his services to the study of natural history were cordially recog- nised, and his books, including " Intro- duction to the Osteology of the Mam malic," " Fashion in Deformity,'* "The Horse," etc., were fuUy appre- ciated. He married in 1858 Georgians, Rosetta, daughter of Admiral W. H. Smyth, F.R.S., a distinguished hydro- grapher and astronomer, and died in Stanhope Gardens, South Kensington, on July 1, after a long illness, resulting from an attack of influenza, to whioh he had fallen a victim on the Riviera.

On the 1st, at Combs, near Melun, aged 70, Victor Gherbuliex, a distinguished author, son of Professor E. Cherbuliez, of Geneva. Educated at Paris, Bonn and Berlin; first attracted notice by his novel "Comte Kortia" (1863); naturalised as a French citizen, 1874 ; elected Member of the French Academy, 1881 ; was defeated by M. Brunetiere in his candidature for the editorship of the Revue des Deux Mondes on the death of M. Buloz. On the 4th, at Sutton Bonnington, Loughborough, aged 81, Sir Alexander Armstrong, K.O.B., F.R.S., son of A. Arm- strong, of Crohan, Co. Fermanagh. Educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and Edinburgh University ; entered the Naval Medical Service, 1842 ; under Captain M'Clure solved the existence of the North- West Passage, 1850-4 ; served in the Baltic, 1854-5, and at the bombardment of Sveaborg ; Director-General of Navy Medical Department, 1866-80. Married, 1894, Charlotte, daughter of S. C. Simpson, of Brockton, Staffordshire, and widow of Admiral Sir W. King-Hall,. K.C.B. On the 5th, at Hampstead, aged 65, Banister Fletcher, F.R.S., V.D., Professor of Architecture and Building Construction at King's College, London. Educated privately ; was for some years Surveyor to the Board of Trade and held various public and municipal appointments ; joint author of a history of archi- tecture, and an ardent Volunteer; sat as a Liberal for North Wilts, 1885-6; Professor of Architecture, King's College, London, 1882. Married, 1868, May, daughter of Charles Phillips. On the 5th, at Hampstead, aged 80, Richard Oongr e ve, M.A., M.R.G.F., Director of the Church of Humanity in England, son of Thomas Congreve. Educated at Rugby under Dr. Arnold and at Wadham College, Oxford ; B.A., 1840 (First Class Lit. Hum.) ; Fellow of Wadham, 1841-72 ; Tutor of Wadham College, 1841-5 ; Assistant Master at Rugby, 1845-54 ; devoted himself to the study of Auguste Comte, whose views he embraced, and became the leader of the Positivists in England; entered as a student at King's College Hospital, London, and admitted to the College of Physicians, 1866, but devoted himself wholly to the work of a teacher of Positivism ; editor of the " Politics of Aristotle " ; author of a history of the Roman Empire and translator of several of Comte's works. Married, 1856, Mary, daughter of J. Berry, of Warwick. On the 8th, at Paris, aged 67, Oonstantftn Rensmtnn. Born at Trieste ; educated at the