MAN A TETRAHEDRON. 179 



arrangement was recognised. The oblique overlapping 

 of one structure over another he observed not only in 

 the animal organism, but in the folia of a leaf-bud or 

 the various parts of the flower. 



The cell, viewed in its growth, its functions, and 

 almost universality of purpose, gave weight to the 

 supposition of man being simply a big conglomerate 

 of cells, rising up, maturing, and decaying ; with a 

 better knowledge of the protozoa, Man became likened 

 to a huge composite of monads striving their best for 

 the common weal of the presidential homo : now Good- 

 sir, who had admitted both these physiological hypo- 

 theses, went still further, and saw in the growth, the 

 form and finished structure of Man — a tetrahedron. 

 This doctrine — strange, nay passing strange — was based 

 on a vast multitude of observations, culled with the 

 characteristic assiduity of an enthusiast, and, more mar- 

 vellous to say, sprang from the brain of a man who had 

 all his life been solicitous for facts. It was occasionally 

 thought that Goodsir's theories got in advance of his 

 own facts, but at no time of his history had he shown 

 such a tendency as now to imitate Goethe in his high 

 flights, when he wrote to Herder that nature herself 

 would envy him his penetrating into her mysteries. 



In Goodsir's professional career, and mingling with 

 the practical everyday aims of a great teacher, there crop 

 out from time to time peculiarities of thought, highly 

 speculative, now traceable to his German readings, but 

 as frequently of native growth or Goodsirian genesis. 

 If these psychological manifestations came with the 



