REVIEWS. 
The Anatomical Memoirs of John Goodsir, F.R.S., edited 
by IV. Turner, M.D. With a Biographical Memoir by 
Henry Lonsdale, M.D. Two vols. Edinburgh : Adam 
and Charles Black. 
The name of John Goodsir is not, perhaps, so familiar to 
microscopical observers as that of many others who have done 
less service to science by the aid of the microscope. The fact 
is, the late Professor in Anatomy prosecuted his researches in 
anatomy and physiology from a very exalted point of view, and 
the microscope was only used by him, as it always ought to be 
used, as a means of observation subservient to the higher 
generalizations of biological science. At the same time these 
memoirs abundantly show that the microscope was one of 
the most frequent instruments employed in his anatomical 
and physiological researches. One of the earliest memoirs in 
these volumes is that on “ The Development of the Pulps and 
Sacs of the Human Teeth ; ” and although not an exclusively 
microscopical subject, he could not have carried on his re- 
searches on this subject or have arrived at his conclusions 
without the aid of the microscope. 
It is not, however, for researches with the microscope 
upon special subjects that Goodsir’s memoirs have a claim 
upon the attention of microscopical observers ; but for his 
papers and lectures he may justly be said to be one of that 
great school of observers, with Schleiden and Schwann at 
their head, who have changed the whole face of physio- 
logical and anatomical science by their discoveries of the 
nature of the cell and its functions by the aid of the microscope. 
The position of Goodsir in relation to the great move- 
ment which took place after the publication of Schleiden’s 
paper on phytogenesis in 1838 is so well described by Dr. 
Lonsdale in his biographical sketch that we venture to in 
troduce rather a long passage for the benefit of our readers : 
