54 SYMPATHETIC NERVE. 



and other British authorities. Above all, he showed a 

 painstaking research and originality of purpose. Sir 

 D. Brewster used to speak of him as a man of superior 

 culture, and one of the most rising men in science. 



With the growing feeling that manifested itself at 

 this period in various parts of the country in favour 

 of popular lectures, the "Men of Fife" joined very 

 heartily. Forbes gave a short course on natural 

 history. Page and Adamson treated their special sub- 

 jects, and Goodsir lent a helping hand, though it can- 

 not be said that popular lecturing was much in his line. 

 He lectured at Cupar on " The Conditions of Health ;" 

 and it is believed that he gave addresses on more 

 strictly physiological subjects at St. Andrews, but the 

 titles of his lectures cannot be correctly ascertained. 



As evidence of his mind not being exclusively 

 devoted to natural history proper, Goodsir read, on 

 3d February 1840, a paper to the St. Andrews 

 Literary and Philosophical Society " On the Cephalic 

 Termination of the Sympathetic Nerve," a title of 

 itself to show that he was prepared to battle 

 against Cruveilhier's opinions. Goodsir viewed the 

 ganglia forming the linear series along the verte- 

 bral column as centric ; those scattered through 

 the system or viscera, the excentric ganglia of the 

 sympathetic. He had no difficulty in showing the 

 relation of the sympathetic with the cyclo-vertebral 

 elements of the spinal column and the intestinal tube ; 

 but in proving a similar relation of the nerve to the 

 cyclo-vertebral elements of the cranium and the 



