and persistent as the young man had been. The entire journey of this Danish expedition was the subject of Thorkild Hansen's first book, Det lykkelige Arabien (1962, translated into English as Arabia Felix). Legacy Forsskål's companion Niebuhr, who was the only one of the participants to survive the expedition, was entrusted with the care of editing his manuscripts, and published in 1775 Descriptiones Animalium – Avium, amphiborum, insectorum, vermium quæ in itinere orientali observavit Petrus Forskål. In the same year his account of the plants of Yemen and of lower Egypt also appeared, under the title of Flora Ægyptiaco-Arabica sive descriptiones plantarum quas per Ægyptum Inferiorem et Arabiam felicem detexit, illustravit Petrus Forskål. Most of his specimens were lost in transport or deteriorated due to bad storage in Copenhagen; his herbarium was reconstructed some 150 years after his death by the botanist Carl Christensen. In his taxonomy work, Forsskål used the local Arabic name of the fish as the species name: these reflect the names used then (and now) on the coasts of the Red Sea for many species of fish. In his pamphlet, Thoughts on Civil Liberty (1759), Forsskål argues the case for civil liberties of the kind people in modern democracies take for granted. A sample (para 21): Finally, another important right in any free society is the liberty to contribute to the Public Good. But for this to happen, it must be possible to make the state of affairs in society known to one and all, and everyone must be free to express their thoughts about it. Where this is lacking, liberty is not worth its name. Shortly after its publication the pamphlet was banned, and Forsskål was forced into exile. But only seven years later, in 1766, freedom of the press was given protection in Swedish constitutional law – the first such legislation in world history. (Under the reign of Gustaf III Sweden fell back into repression. Freedom of the press was reinstated in the Constitution of 1809.) Species named in his honor The Tiger fish Hydrocynus forskahlii was named in his honor by Georges Cuvier. Forsskål originally reported this species as Salmo (=Alestes) dentex in 1775. The Siphonophore Forskalia in the monotypic family Forskaliidae was named in his honor by Kölliker. The black sea cucumber Holothuria forskali was named in his honor by Delle Chiaje. The plant genus Forsskaolea L. was named in his honor.