1. In December 1826, at the age of 12, Goodsir entered the University of St Andrews, where his classes included classics and mathematics.
17 Facts About John Goodsir
1. 2.
John Goodsir finished his apprenticeship with Nasmyth in 1833, and qualified as Licentiate of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1835.
3.
John Goodsir then moved back to Anstruther to work in his father's medical practice, which allowed him to resume his boyhood hobby of searching the local coastline along the Firth of Forth for all forms of wildlife.
4.
John Goodsir joined the Wernerian Natural History Society which had been founded by Jameson.
5.
John Goodsir promoted the museum collections by giving public lectures featuring its specimens, and by giving lectures to medical students.
6.
John Goodsir gave the first description of the stomach bacterium Sarcina ventriculi which demonstrated his status as a shrewd observer and innovative thinker.
7.
Two years later, he was appointed curator of the University of Edinburgh natural history collection and he was succeeded as RCSEd Museum Conservator by his brother, Harry John Goodsir, who continued in this post until 1845.
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Theodor Schwann 8.
In May 1844, John Goodsir was appointed Anatomy Demonstrator under Alexander Monro.
9.
John Goodsir's lectures attracted large numbers of students and did much to restore the University of Edinburgh's reputation for anatomical teaching which had suffered under Monro.
10.
John Goodsir improved the quality of the instruction in the anatomy department by extending and improving the dissecting rooms, recruiting additional staff, and giving microscopic demonstrations.
11.
John Goodsir's microscopists were among the first to use the achromatic microscope.
12.
John Goodsir concluded that all living organisms are formed of microscopic units, cells.
13.
John Goodsir was not alone in postulating such a concept and the theory that cells form the basic structure of tissues in all plants and animals has been attributed to Matthias Jakob Schleiden and to Theodor Schwann.
14.
John Goodsir was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1846.
15.
John Goodsir moved into Edward Forbes's South Cottage at Wardie in north Edinburgh where he spent the last ten years of his life.
16.
From 1850, John Goodsir became unwell, showing the features of the chronic wasting illness which would eventually prove fatal.
17.
John Goodsir is buried alongside one of the central paths in Dean Cemetery, Edinburgh, next to his friend Forbes.