John Goodsir’s paper on “Centres of nutrition” anticipates to a certain extent the cell doctrine afterwards developed by Virchow (see No. 2299). Virchow dedicated the first edition of his Cellularpathologie to Goodsir. Goodsir’s paper on the bone-forming properties of certain corpuscles found within osseous tissue represent the foundation of the study of osteogenesis, as distinct from descriptive osteology.

Harry Goodsir, brother of John Goodsir, "served as surgeon and naturalist on the ill-fated Franklin expedition. His body was never found, but forensic studies in 2009 on skeletal remains earlier recovered from King William Island in Canada suggest that they may be those of Harry Goodsir" (Wikipedia article on Harry Goodsir).