CHAPTER V. 



Wernerian, Royal Medical, and other Societies — Curator and Lecturer 

 at the Royal College of Surgeons — Museum Work — Brief Sketch 

 of the Cell-question — Goodsir's Claims — Virchow at Fault — Latest 

 Doctrines. 



In the full expectation of making a position in Edin- 

 burgh, and no doubt encouraged by Professor Jame- 

 son, who, along with Dr. Neill, proposed him, he 

 became a member of the " Wernerian Society " on the 

 29th March 1840. His first contribution to the society 

 (12th December 1840) was "On certain Peculiarities 

 in the Structure of the Short Sunfish {Ortliragoriscus 

 mola), as observed in a large specimen captured in the 

 Firth of Forth, near Alloa." He also gave an account 

 of a species of parasite, which he termed Gymnor- 

 hynchus liorridus, which affects it. The " Wernerian " 

 being presided over by Professor Jameson, and ranking 

 among its members every Scottish and many foreign 

 naturalists, offered the best advantages to the young 

 aspirant for honours in natural history. From time 

 to time, and extending over a period of at least six 

 years, Goodsir contributed a large number of papers 

 (fifteen in all) either individually or along with his 

 brother Harry and Edward Forbes. Thus in 1841 he 

 read a paper on the Natural History of the Echinus 

 and Thalassemia, two genera of Ecliinodermata ; and 



