165 
on * Absorption and Ulceration, and the structures engaged in these 
Processes,’ and On the Process of Ulceration in Articular Cartilages ;’ 
to the memoir on 1 Secreting Structures,’ and the short essays on the 
‘ Structure and Economy of Bone,’ and on the * Mode of Reproduction 
after the Death of the Shaft of a Long Bone.’ Corroborative evidence 
may also be met with in his memoir ‘ On Diseased Conditions of the 
Intestinal Glands,’ and the paper on the ‘ Structure and Pathology of the 
Kidney and Liver.’ In these various essays the presence of the products 
of secretion within cells ; the increase which takes place in the size of the 
cells, and the multiplication of their nuclei when influenced by morbid 
changes ; the rupture of these enlarged proliferating cel!s, and the dis- 
charge of their nucleated contents ; the destruction, scooping out, and 
solution of textures by the action of the forces residing in these new 
formed structures ; the presence of soft nucleated masses in the lacuna; 
and Haversian canals of bone, and the part which- they play in the absorp- 
tion of bone ; and the changes which take place in nucleated cells in con- 
nection with cyst-formation — all testify to the largeness of his observation 
of cell-life, both physiologically and pathologically. 
“ In the first of these memoirs not only does he advocate the importance 
of the cell as a centre of nutrition, but argues that the organism is subdi- 
vided into a number of departments, ‘each containing a certain number 
of simple or developed cells, all of which hold certain relations to one 
central or capital cell around which they are grouped.’ This idea has 
since been freely made use of by Professor Virchow, though, it must be 
admitted, without a due acknowledgment of the quarter in.- which it 
was originally stated, and it has obviously influenced many of his physio- 
logical and pathological speculations. This reticence is the more strange, 
as Virchow dedicated his work on Cellular Pathologie to the Edinburgh 
professor in the following complimentary terms : — ‘ To John Goodsir, 
F.R.S., &c., as one of the earliest and most acute observers of cell-life, 
both physiological and pathological, this work on Cellular Pathology is 
dedicated, as a slight testimony of his deep respect and sincere admira- 
tion, by the author.’ As Professor Virchow has travelled over much of 
the ground that had been previously cultivated by Goodsir, it is no less 
remarkable than disappointing to find in Virchow’s volume of 433 pages 
but one reference to Goodsir, and that in connection with an observation 
the merit of which might be more fairly ascribed to Dr. Martin Barry. 
This is scanty civility to a scientific confrere whom he has called ‘one of 
the most acute observers of cell-life ’ — one whose labours he has availed 
himself of, and whose opinions and words he has occasionally adopted. 
“ In his paper on the ‘ Morbid Changes affecting the Glandulae Aggre- 
gate of the Ileum in Fever,’ Goodsir (vol. ii, p. 377) describes these changes 
to be of the following nature — viz., ‘the development of cells within the 
constituent vesicles of the patches to such an extent as at last to burst 
them, or cause their solution; the continued increase in the number of 
the cells proceeding from as many centres as there are vesicles in the 
path ; the conglomeration of the whole into one mass above the sub- 
mucous and under the mucous membrane, the distension of the latter, 
and the necessary ulceration and sloughing of the mass arising from this 
circumstance.’ This is clearly Virchow’s ‘ proliferation of cells.’ Then, 
in p. 390 of the same volume, Goodsir, speaking of simple or developed 
cells holding certain relations to one central or capital cell, says — ‘ It 
would appear that from this central cell all the other cells of its depart- 
ment derive their origin. It is the mother of all within its own territory.' 
If the reader will be at the pains to compare the whole paragraph from 
which this passage has been quoted with a paragraph at p. 14 of Mr. 
