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GERMINAL MEMBRANE. 115 



structure, fully confirmed the idea that cells are the 

 structures which perform the process of secretion, and 

 that the functions of nutrition and secretion are essen- 

 tially alike in their nature. His own estimate of the 

 paper read to the Royal Society of Edinburgh was 

 conveyed to his father thus : — " I have proved in it 

 that secretion is exactly the same function as nutrition, 

 and therefore regulated by the same laws." Goodsir's 

 views on the nucleated cell as the great agent in 

 absorption, nutrition, and secretion, have been gener- 

 ally accepted, and now constitute established data in 

 the science of physiology/'" 



To one form of "nutritive centres" as arranged 

 both in healthy and morbid parts, he gave the name 

 of " a germinal membrane," of fine transparent 

 character, and consisting of cells with their cavities 

 flattened, so that their walls form the membrane by 

 cohering at their edges, and their nuclei remain in its 

 substance as the germinal centres. This was a new 

 reading to Mr. Bowman's " basement membrane " 

 (" On the Structure and Use of the Malpighian Bodies 

 of the Kidney, &c." — Phil. Trans. 18-42). Concerning 

 I his "germinal" of Goodsir, and "basement membrane" 

 of Bowman much variety of opinion now exists, and its 

 existence as a distinct isolable membrane is denied. 



* See the article "Secretion," by Dr. Carpenter, in the Cyclopaedia 

 Anatomy and Physiology, and Dr. Sharpey'a most excellent history of general 

 anatomy, constituting the introductory chapter of Quoin's Anatomy, jointly 

 edited by himself and Drs. Thorn on and Cleland by far the I" t work on 

 human anatomy that has ever app< ared in an English dre s, and mosl creditable 

 to it. di itingni hi 'I rathors. 



