Anniversary of 1 8 3 7. Address of the President. 279 



particularly to experiments on the effects of poisons, and to the best 

 and most unerring tests for detecting their presence after death. 

 His death, which followed a serious operation, rendered necessary 

 by a long-neglected accident, was deeply lamented by a large circle 

 of friends, by whom he was equally respected and beloved for his 

 great professional talents and for his honourable character. 



Mr. John Davidson, the last known victim to the cause of African 

 discovery, was formerly a partner in the house of Messrs. Savory 

 and Moore, the well-known chemists, but was induced to quit it 

 in 1826, partly with a view to gratify his passion for foreign travel, 

 and partly from other causes. He afterwards visited North and 

 South America, India, Palestine, Turkey, Greece, Italy, Germany, 

 and France ; and the lectures which he gave at the Royal Institu- 

 tion and elsewhere, after his return, on the pyramids of Memphis 

 and Mexico, on Thebes and the temples of Egypt and Jerusalem, 

 afforded a sufficient proof both of his activity and of his accurate 

 observation. The spirit of enterprise and travels, when once ex- 

 cited, is not easily allayed, and Mr. Davidson devoted himself, 

 almost from the period of his return to this country, to a course 

 of preparation for a' journey to Timbuctoo, which had already 

 proved fatal to so many adventurers. He was accompanied on this 

 journey by Abu-Bekr, an enfranchised African slave, who had been 

 a prince in his own countrj^ when young, and was well acquainted with 

 the Arabic language. He had penetrated from Wadnoon to within 

 twenty-five days' journey of Timbuctoo, when he was murdered by 

 the El Hareb tribe, who were suspected to have been hired for that 

 purpose by Moorish merchants, who, from not being able to under- 

 stand or conceive the real motives of such an undertaking, con- 

 ceived that its success would be injurious to their interests. Mr. 

 Davidson was a man of great activity and strength, in the full vi- 

 gour of life and health, and able to endure the severest labours and 

 privations ; but personal accomplishments the most calculated to se- 

 cure success in ordinary attempts of this nature, serve only to aug- 

 ment the suspicion and to stimulate the cruelty of those savage 

 tribes, who tyrannize over these inhospitable and almost impenetrable 

 regions, and who are described by his companion, Abu-Bekr, " as 

 full of envy at a stranger's goods ; they lie in wait to plunder him 

 of every thing, as a lion lieth in wait for the cattle ; they have no 

 mercy on the stranger ; even if a stranger were to strip off his skin 

 and to give it to them, they would seize upon it." 



The only Foreign Members whom the Society has lost during the 

 last year are Dr. Adam Afzelius, of Upsala, and Professor Morichini, 

 of Home. 



Dr. Adam Afzelius was born at Larg in West Gothland in 1750, 

 and was one of the last surviving pupils of Linneeus. In 1777 he 

 was appointed Reader of Oriental Literature, and in 1785 Demonstra- 

 tor of Botany in the University of Upsala, and he made his first ap- 

 pearance as an author by the publication of a short supplement to 

 the Flora Sttecica of his master, in the Transactions of the Academy 

 of Stockholm for 1787. In the years 1792 and 1794', he made bo- 



