18 



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 Rome. 



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

 and was one of the last surviving pupils of Linnaeus. 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 Suecica of his master, in the Transactions of the Academy 

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

 tanical expeditions to Guinea and Sierra Leone, and a considerable 

 part of the collections which he formed in those countries passed 

 subsequently into the herbariums of Sir Joseph Banks and Sir James 

 Edward Smith. In 1797 he was made Secretary of Legation to the 

 Swedish Embassy in this country, and in the following year he was 

 elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society on the ground of 

 his great knowledge of botany and zoology. Upon his return to his 

 own country, he became Professor of Materia Medica and Diaetetics, 

 at Upsala, situations which he retained for the remainder of his life. 

 He was the author of a learned paper in the Linnean Transactions 

 for 1791 on the genus Trifolium, and also of two works entitled 

 Remedia Guinensia and Stirpium in Guinea medicinalium species : 

 he edited likewise the botanical Correspondence of Linnaeus. He 

 was a botanist of great learning and acquirements, and highly 

 esteemed by the leading founders of the Linnean Society ; but I am 

 unable to connect his name with any considerable advancement in 

 natural knowledge. 



Professor Morichini, of Rome, was elected a Foreign Member of 

 the Royal Society in 1827, and is chiefly known for his experiment 

 on the magnetizing influence of the violet rays in the solar spectrum. 

 His experiment was repeated by Configliachi at Pavia, and by 

 Berard at Montpellier, without success, and in consequence doubts 

 were expressed of the accuracy of his results, which appeared to be 

 finally removed by the successful repetition of it by our justly cele- 

 brated countrywoman Mrs. Somerville, in the summer of 1 825. I 

 am not aware however that any other philosopher has succeeded in 

 a similar attempt. 



Statement of the Council relative to Mr. Paniis^i's 

 Pamphlet. 



In the pamphlet recently published by Mr. Panizzi, entitled " A 

 Letter to His Royal Highness the President of the Royal Society, 

 on the New Catalogue of the Library of that Institution now in 

 the press," all the charges brought forward against the Council are 

 founded on the most unwarranted and erroneous assumptions. 



