CHAPTER VII. 



Contest for the Anatomical Chair — Calvinism alarmed — Potato-Blight 

 — His system of Teaching and its Eesults — Loved by his Class — 

 The Success of his Pupils — Surgical Practice — Veterinary Bela- 

 tions and Agriculture. 



'O* 



From 1842 onwards, Mr. Goodsir had an eye to 

 Monro's Chair of Anatomy. His College of Surgeons 

 lectures, his contributions to different societies, and 

 these published in extenso, or in an abstracted form in 

 the medical and other journals, constituted the sign d la 

 mode. To be aye doing something in literas publicas 

 referre guided " Young Edinburgh " in its professional 

 look-out. Each observation made a line in a testi- 

 monial, and lengthy testimonials weighed with a Town- 

 Council looking for pennyworths of labour, as offerings 

 for their big-pennyworth of University patronage. 

 His list of publications showed a fine array of armoury 

 for the professorial contest. As anatomical demon- 

 strator and curator of the museum, Goodsir possessed 

 a footing in the University which could not fail to ad- 

 vance his interests on the retirement of Dr. Monro 

 early in the spring of 1846. He was first in the field 

 for the vacancy ; his credentials of work done presented 

 no less than twenty -seven essays, singly or jointly, on 

 human, comparative, and morbid anatomy ; and his 



