121 



TENTH ORDINARY MEETING, 



Held at the Royal Institdtion, on the 9th of March, 1857, 



THOMAS INMAN, Esq., M.D., President, iu the Chair. 



The following gentlemen were elected Ordinary Memhers : — 

 John Bridge Aspinall, 

 Robert A. Macfie, 

 Walter Saunders, 

 Christopher Bell. 

 Dr. Thomson read the following letter from Dr. Livingstone, the 

 African explorer, in reply to the address from the Society (p. 76), and 

 his letter accompanying it : — 



London, 57, Shane-street, 26th February, 1857. 



My Dear Sie, — I had tlie honour to receive a very giatifying address from 

 the members of your Society, touching my late discoveries in Africa, at an early 

 period of the present month, and it was accompanied with a very polite request 

 to deliver a lecture to the Society during my passage through Liverpool. 



I regret that my engagements have been of such a nature as to prevent my 

 returning proper acknowledgements for your very kind and flattering expressions 

 of approbation. I really feel very grateful for the good opinion of such a body 

 of men. Our feelings, however, are somewhat different. They kindly look to 

 the past — I look to the future, and see so much hard work in store before I 

 can think myself entitled to the words "well done," I never become elated. I 

 can thank you, however, for your sympathj'^, and do so most sincerely. 



My time is so very limited (and I am no public speaker either) that the only 

 effort I could feel myself ever justified in attempting, would be to address the 

 constituents of the London Missionary Society, many of whom live in your 

 town. — Believe me, sir, most sincerely yours, 



DAVID LIVINGSTONE. 



Letters were also read upon the suhject of the Austrian Expedition 

 round the World, from Dr. Karl Scherzer to James Yates, Esq., 

 Corresponding Memher. 



Mr. T. C. Archer e.\hibited a very beautiful case of anatomised seed 

 vessels and leaves, prepared by Mr. Hawse, of Loudon, whose beautiful 

 manipulation of these delicate objects is most remarkable. The seed 

 vessels were chiefly those of the campanula, poppy, &c., and the leaves 

 those of the magnolia grandijlora, ivy, and others. They were most 

 tastefully arranged, and interspersed with bleached preparations of 

 Aira ccespitosa, Lagurus ovatus, Briza maxima, ferns, lycopodiums, &c., 

 and were presented to the Museum of tlie Royal Institution. 



Mr. Archer also e.xhibited a cut llower of the curious aroideous 

 plant, called in North America the skunk flower, Symplocarpus f(etidu$, 

 which, from its resemblance to one of the common large dark-coloured 

 cowrie shells, excited some interest. 



