138 IN VERTEBEATA. 



to a class. Gootlsir had large resources of his own, 

 and these, strengthened by his acquaintance with the 

 researches of Owen, Hugh Falconer, and others, were of 

 infinite service to him in his practical teachings and 

 illustrations. 



In the summer of 1847 Goodsir delivered a series 

 of systematic lectures on the comparative anatomy of 

 the Invertebrata, in which he expounded the leading 

 facts and principles then known, and tested and com- 

 pared them with what he himself had observed over a 

 wide field of zoological inquiry. These lectures were 

 carefully transcribed by Mr. C H. Hallett, one of his 

 assistants, and intended for publication, but in seeking 

 for a high standard of excellence in the particular work 

 in which he was then engaged, as in every department 

 of science, and being pressed by more varied work, 

 the manuscript never reached the printer's hands. It 

 may not, perhaps, be considered out of place in this 

 memoir to give a short summary of some of his views 

 taken from the MS. copy now before the writer; it 

 will serve to indicate the general tenor of his obser- 

 vations. 



Sponges. — He described the animal matter of 

 sponges as composed of innumerable amsebse, which 

 being unable to support themselves require organs of 

 support, or, in other words, a skeleton, which may be 

 either bony, siliceous, or calcareous. 



Echinodermata. — His lectures on the Echino- 

 dermata were of a very complete character, and illus- 

 trated by numerous dissected specimens prepared 



