Page:Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Vol 4.djvu/39

Rh I feel myself called upon to allude to the name of the venerable Earl of Egremont, whose very recent loss we have to deplore. He was a nobleman distinguished by his active yet discriminating be- nevolence, and by his princely use of a princely fortune; but it is as a judge and patron of art that his loss will be most severely felt beyond the precincts of his own family and the numerous poor who were the immediate partakers of his bounty. He was equally judicious in the selection of subjects for artists to execute, and liberal in rewarding them when done

Mr. J. D. Broughton, Surgeon of the Life Guards, had served with great distinction as a medical officer during a great part of the Peninsular war and at Waterloo. He was an eminent physiologist, and devoted a great portion of his time and attention to the study and improvement of the science of medical jurisprudence, and more 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 country 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 eruelty of those savage tribes, who tyrannize over these inhospitable and almost impenetrable regions, and who are described by his companion, Abu-Bekr, "as