Frank Evers Beddard

“ The body consists of a number of exactly similar or closely similar segments, which are never fused and metamorphosed, as in the Arthropoda, to form specialized regions of the body. It is, however, always possible to recognize a head, which consists at least of the peristomial segment with a forward projection of the same, the prostomium. A thorax also is sometimes to be distinguished from an abdomen. Where locomotive appendages (the parapodia of the Polychaeta) exist, they are never jointed, as always in the Arthropoda ”

“ The 'Index Collection' as it has been termed is an effective text-book of comparative anatomy, beautifully illustrated by the actual objects, and elucidated by sufficient explanatory labels. The remains of extinct forms are often placed in juxtaposition to their living relatives, and the unnatural divorce of recent and fossil animals, which is commonly inevitable in museums, is here avoided.
Flower was not in a literal sense a teacher of zoology. ”

“ More usually, and indeed in nearly every other case among the Oligochaeta and Hirudinea, the coelomic aperture of the nephridium consists of several cells, ciliated like the nephridium itself for a greater or less extent, forming a funnel. The funnel varies greatly in size and number of its component cells. There are so many differences of detail that no line can be drawn between the one-celled funnel of Aeolosoma and the extraordinarily large and folded funnel of the posterior nephridia in the Oligochaete Thamnodrilus. ”

“ A memoir in the ‘Transactions of the Zoological Society’ (1872, p. 683) upon the hedgehog-like animal hylomys is another of his more important contributions to zoology. A variety of notes upon apes, reptiles, and birds, largely contributed to the Zoological Society of London, offer a considerable mass of new facts of importance; they not only add to our knowledge of structure, but also throw new light on problems of the geographical distribution of animals. The ethnological work of Anderson is mainly his account of the Selungs already referred to. ”

“ Linnaeus recognized only one species of earthworm and named it Lumbricus terrestris. There are now one thousand well-characterized species known from different parts of the world, and the number increases almost daily. The earthworms of England belong entirely to the three genera Lumbricus, Allolobophora and Allurus, which are further subdivided by some systematists ”

“ Among the Oligochaeta the sexually mature worm is distinguished from the immature worm by the clitellum and by the development of genital setae. Among the Polychaeta the sexual worm is often more marked from the asexual form, so much so that these latter have been placed in different species or even genera. The alteration in form does not only affect structures used in generation; but the form of the parapodia, &c., alter. There are even dimorphic forms among the Syllids where the sexes are, as in many Polychaets, separate. ”

“ The Oligochaeta contrast with the Polychaeta in the general presence of outgrowths of the septa in the genital segments, which are either close to, or actually involve, the gonads, and into which may also open the funnels of the gonad ducts. These sacs contain the developing sperm cells or eggs, and are with very few exceptions universal in the group. The testes are more commonly thus involved than are the ovaries. It is indeed only among the Eudrilidae that the enclosure of the ovaries in septal sacs is at all general. ”

“ The collection of animals for the scientific worker was developed, and students of the rich material contained In the national collection were encouraged. Flower very properly felt, however, that the duty of a curator of a great national institution was also to teach the non-scientific public; he accordingly formed a large collection, which was displayed in the central hall of the museum with a view to illustrating the main facts of zoology and botany. This admirable selection of specimens remains to attest his unusual competence as a museum director. ”

“ Inasmuch as in every case the Lumbricidae from non-European countries are identical with European species, since it has been shown that these animals are very readily introduced accidentally with plants, &c., and in view of the fact that they are impatient of sea water, it seems clear that the presence of these Lumbricidae in other continents is due to accidental transportation. Most earthworms live in the soil, which they devour as they burrow through it. ”

“ Several forms of cells float freely in the fluid of the coelom. In another sense also the coelom is not a closed cavity, for it communicates in several ways with the external medium. Thus, among the Oligochaeta there are often a series of dorsal pores, or a single head pore, present also among the Polychaeta (in Ammochares) . In these and other Chaetopods the coelom is also put into indirect relations with the outside world by the nephridia and by the gonad ducts. ”

“ The actual investigations undertaken by Flower relate almost exclusively to the mammalia, including man; and the new facts he discovered about their anatomy were very numerous and of the highest value. The two most salient memoirs which we owe to his researches concern the marsupials and the monotremata. Flower was the first to demonstrate that the marsupials (kangaroos, wombats, &c.) departed from the arrangement found in other mammals in that they possess throughout life a dentition of which but a single tooth is changed. ”

“ The indigenous species of Great Britain, about twenty in number, do not grow to a greater length than some 10 in.; but in several tropical countries there are species which grow to a length of from 3 to 6 ft. ”

“ Setae always present and often very large, much varied in form and very numerous, borne by the dorsal and ventral parapodia (when present) . The prostomium and the segments generally often bear processes sensory and branchial. Eyes often present and comparatively complicated in structure. Clitellum not present as a definite organ, as in Oligochaeta. The anus is mostly terminal, and there are no anterior and posterior suckers. Nervous system often imbedded in the epidermis. Vascular system generally present forming a closed system of tubes. ”

“ In gatherings of earthworms from various extra-European countries it is always found that if the collections have been made in cultivated ground and near the coast the worms are of European species; farther inland the native forms are met with. ”

“ The capillaries sometimes (in many leeches and Oligochaeta) extend into the epidermis itself. Usually they do not extend outwards of the muscular layers of the body wall. The main trunks of the vascular system often possess valves at the origin of branches which regulate the direction of the blood flow. Among many Oligochaeta the dorsal blood-vessel is partly or entirely a double tube, which is a retention of a character shown by F. Vezhdovský to exist in the embryo of certain forms. ”

“ It is possible that we have here gonad ducts distinct from nephridia which at the time of sexual maturity do open on to the exterior.
In Polynoe the nephridia are short tubes with a slightly folded funnel whose lumen is intercellular, and this intercellular lumen is characteristic of the Polychaetes as contrasted with leeches and Oligochaetes. Among the Terebelloidea there is a remarkable differentiation of the nephridia into two series. One set lies in front of the diaphragm, which is the most anterior and complete septum, the rest having disappeared or being much less developed. ”

“ The museum at Calcutta was built by the government for the housing of the collections amassed by the Asiatic Society of Bengal, who were unable to continue to store upon their own premises the rapidly growing material. ”

“ Frequently the lumen is branched and may form a complicated anastomosing network in these cells. Externally, the nephridium opens by a straight part of the tube, which is often very wide, and here the intracellular lumen becomes intercellular. Rarely the nephridium does not communicate with the coelom; in such cases the nephridium ends in a single cell, like the “flame cell” of a Platyhelminth worm, in which there is a lumen blocked at the coelomic end by a tuft of fine cilia projecting into the lumen. ”

“ The clitellum consists of a thickening of the epidermis, and is of two forms among the Oligochaeta. In the aquatic genera the epidermis comes to consist entirely of glandular cells, which are, however, arranged in a single layer. In the earthworms, on the other hand, the epidermis becomes specialized into several layers of cells, all of which are glandular. It is therefore obviously much thicker than the clitellum in the limicolous forms. The position of the clitellum, which is universal in occurrence, varies much as does the number of component segments. ”

“ He served continuously until 1869, and after the expiration of a year was nominated a vice-president. Retiring in 1875 he was re-elected to the council (again as a vice-president) in 1876. After the death of the Marquis of Tweeddale Flower was elected president of the society on 5 Feb. 1879. This office he occupied until his death, having thus held the presidency for twenty years, a period only exceeded by one former president (the Earl of Derby) , and then by one year only. Much of Flower's leisure was devoted to the affairs of the Zoological Society ”

“ In carrying out these researches Flower visited and reported upon the collections in many museums in Europe, and neglected no chance of observing the stranded monsters as often as that could be done upon our own coasts. Of these memoirs the most important are perhaps his account of the little-known Berardius (Trans. Zool. Soc. 1878) , a ziphioid form from the shores of New Zealand. The elaborate account of the osteology of the cachalot established among other things the great probability of there being but a single species of sperm whale of world-wide range (ib. 1869) . ”