112 SARCINA VENTEICULI. 



thoughts ran in the direction that had yielded such 

 large promise to Lavoisier, Laplace, and Bichat. For 

 Lavoisier not only created chemistry, but explained 

 the nature of the chemical phenomena in organisms ; 

 and he and Laplace were the first to show that the 

 physico-chemical actions taking place in living bodies 

 rested for their manifestation on the ordinary laws of 

 physics and chemistry ; whilst Bichat crowned the edi- 

 fice of the new physiology by his Anatomie Generale, 

 in which he sought to establish for each special tissue 

 a physiological property of its own. Dr. Wilson was 

 very sanguine as to the results of a co-operation with 

 Goodsir, whom he styled " a noble fellow, a most ex- 

 cellent and original inquirer, and one of the most 

 amiable and lovable of men." The anatomist, how- 

 ever, did not find time to carry out his wishes ; it is 

 doubtful if he ever made a beginning. 



His contributions to the different societies in Edin- 

 burgh (1841-1844) show how earnestly he laboured 

 for a front place in the ranks, hoping by all laudable 

 methods to put himself in a favourable position for 

 any more lucrative or substantial appointment which 

 might cast up. One of these contributions relating to 

 the Sarcina ventriculi in cases of pyrosis or " water- 

 brash " — a pretty discovery of itself for any man to 

 make — helped to disclose much that had been obscure 

 and enigmatical in digestion. The perversity of the 

 stomachic functions, caused by the presence of organ- 

 isms which no gastric juice could control, was viewed 

 as strangely curious. The Sarcina attracted most 



