John Goodsir and Local Opposition to Rudolf Virchow'S Election to Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1868

Abstract

In 1869 Rudolf Virchow, the distinguished Prussian pathologist who pioneered the modern concept of cellular pathology, was offered an honorary Fellowship of The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE). However, the Rev. Joseph T Goodsir, Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE), the brother of Professor John Goodsir FRSE, the famed Edinburgh anatomist who had died two years previously, mounted a campaign to stop the award. As part of this he published a pamphlet entitled Grounds of Objection to the Admission of Professor Virchow as an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. The disagreement centred on John Goodsir's pioneering research and writings on cell theory. These had in fact been recognised by Virchow, who dedicated the English language edition of his most famous publication Cellular Pathology to John Goodsir. Joseph Goodsir was not, however, satisfied by this and the basis of his objection was that Virchow had plagiarised from his brother. We describe the background and outcome of this dispute.