SUCCESS IN PRACTICE. 35 



the third " Doctor John," and considered the highest 

 taught of the surgical family. Cases like Lady 



, where consulting physicians foiled and he 



succeeded, rang through Fife, and to his great benefit. 

 He had a thoroughly practical mind — a great desidera- 

 tum in medicine ; but it need hardly be said that 

 Anstruthcr offered no field for a man of his capacity. 

 There were bread-and-butter earnings, and home 

 amenities — a scanty pabulum, however, to a man of 

 craving scientific appetite. His inquiries into the 

 teeth, and his general and microscopic examination of 

 the Invertebrata, kept him mentally alive ; indeed, his 

 scientific habit had become known, as Sir J. G. Dalyell, 

 in 1838, addressed him as a fellow-naturalist, and 

 asked him about the Holothuriie, and the mode of 

 dredging practised on the Fife coast. In the same 

 year he completed his investigations into the develop- 

 ment of the teeth, and was pressed — for it was no 

 easy matter to persuade him — to communicate the 

 results of his inquiry " On the Origin and Develop- 

 ment of the Pulps and Sacs of the Human Teeth," 

 to the British Association for the Advancement of 

 Science. 



Attending the British Association in 1838 was a 

 great effort for Goodsir to make ; but when there, he 

 had his reward in enjoying high rank among the 

 original contributors, and in being appreciated by his 

 seniors in science and the savans of Europe. In 

 writing his father on the hearty reception he had met 



with, he said - " [ need not te]l you (lie kind of 



