GEOMETRY APPLIED TO ANATOMY. 151 



For however preferable decisive intelligence may be to 

 never-ending suspense, I well know that the relief must 

 be dearly bought when obtained by means that unmis- 

 takably connect long-continued sufferings with the 

 last days of a brother ! M. Barry." 



If Goodsir's fondness for mechanics was a leading 

 feature in his youth, and aided him in the practice of 

 surgery, his general knowledge of physics served him 

 a good purpose in elucidating the operations and 

 functions of the structures which enter into the forma- 

 tion of joints. Next in import to his labours in the 

 field of cellular physiology and pathology, and of 

 morphology, was his study of geometry applied to 

 anatomy or natural organisms. His papers on the 

 mechanism of the joints, one of which was read to the 

 Royal Society of Edinburgh, got him great eclat, as 

 they were viewed as highly successful efforts, even ad- 

 mitting their basis as resting on the antecedent labours 

 of the AVcbers and Meyer. Goodsir maintained that 

 the articular surface at the end of a bone, although a 

 continuous surface, is yet subdivided into distinct areas 

 and facets, and that each facet performs its proper 

 part in the movements of the joint ; thus, in the 

 movement of extension, corresponding facets on oppo- 

 site articular surfaces are in apposition, whilst in the 

 movement of flexion these surfaces may be widely 

 separate, and other facets are brought into play or 

 contacl with each other. No better notion of this 

 could be given than in his description of the patella. 

 Be also pointed oul thai the folds of the synovial 



