146 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [George Smn
could be done.? On leaving the church, the
protestors proceeded to Tanfield Hall, Canonmills,
where they formed themselves into ?The General
Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland,? and
chose Thomas Chalmers, D.D., as their moderator;
so ?? the bush burned, but was not consumed.?
It was a remarkable instance of the emphatic
assertion of religious principle in an age of
material things of which St. Andrew?s church was
the scene on the 18th of May. It was no sacrifice
of blood or life or limb that was exacted,
or rendered, as in the days of ?a broken covenant
;? but it was one well calculated to excite
the keenest emotions of the people-for all these
clergymen, with their families, cast their bread upon
the waters, and those who witnessed the dark procession
that descended the long steep street towards
Tanfield Hall never forgot it.
Opposite this church there was built the old
Physicians? Hall-the successor of the still more
ancient one near the Cowgate Port. The members
of that college feued from the city a large area,
extending between the south side of George Street
and Rose Street, on which they erected a very
handsome hall, with rooms and offices, from a
design by Mr. Craig, the architect of the new city
itself.
The foundation stone was laid by Professor
Cullen, long a distinguished ornament of the
Edinburgh University, on the 27th November, I 775,
after a long discussion concerning two other sites
offered by the city, one in George Square, the
other where now the Scott monument stands. In
the stone was placed a parchment containing the
names of the then fellows, several coins of 1771,
md a large silver medal. There was also another
silver medal, with the arms of the city, and an
inscription bearing that it had been presented by
the city to Mr. Craig, in compliment to his professional
talents in 1767, as follows :-
JACOBO CRAIG,
AHCHITECTO,
PROPTER OPT1 IM U M,
EDINBURGI NOVI
ICHNOGRAPHIUM,
D.D.
SENATUS,
EDINBURGENSIS,
MDCCLXVII.
This building, now numbered among the things
that were, had a frontage of eighty-four feet, and
had a portico of four very fine Corinthian columns,
standing six feet from the wall upon a flight of
steps seven feet above the pavement. The sunk
floor, which was all vaulted, contained rooms for the
librarian and other officials ; the entrance floor
consisted of four great apartments opening frcm a
noble vestibule, with a centre of thirty-five feet :
one was for the ordinary meetings of the college,
and another was an ante-chamber; but the principal
apartment was the library-a room upwards of
fifty feet long by thirty broad, lighted by two rows
of windows, five in each row, facing Rose Street,
and having a gilded gallery on three sides. On this
edifice A4,800 was spent.
In 1781, the library, which had been stored up
in the Royal Infirmary, was removed to the hall,
when the collection, which now greatly exceeds
6,000 volumes, was still comparatively in its
infancy. Dr. Archibald Stevenson was the first
librarian, and was appointed in 1683 ; in 1696 a
law was enacted that every entrant should contribute
at least one book to the library, which was
increased in 1705 ? by the purchase of the books
of the deceased Laird of Livingstone for about
300 merks Scots;? and the records show how year
by year the collection has gone on increasing in
extent, and in literary and scientific value.
The two oldest names on the list of Fellows
admitted are Peter Kello, date December IIth,
1682, and John Abernethy, whose diploma is
dated June gth, 1683, granted at Orange, and
admitted December qth, 1684, and a wonderful
roll follows of names renowned in tke annals of
medicine. The attempt to incorporate the practitioners
of medicine in Scotland, for the purpose
of raising alike the standard of their character and
acquirements, originated in 1617, when James VI.
issued an order in Parliament for the establishnient
of a College of Physicians in Edinburgh-an order
which recites the evils suffered by the community
from the intrusion of uhqualified practitioners. He
further suggested that three members of the proposed
college should yearly visit the apothecaries?
shops, and destroy all bad or insufficient drugs
found therein ; but the year 1630 came, and found
only a renewal of the proposal for a college,
referred to the Privy Council by Charles I. But
the civil war followed, and nothing more was done
till 1656, when Cromwell issued a patent, still extant,
initiating a college of physicians in Scotland,
with the powers proposed by James VI.
Years passed on, and by the opposition principally
of the College of Surgeons, the universities,
the municipality, and even the clergy, the charter
of incorporation was not obtained until 1681, when
the great seal of Scotland was appended to it on
St, Andrew?s day. Among other clauses therein
was one to enforce penalties on the unqualified
who practised medicine; another for the punishment
of all licentiates who might violate the laws
Gmrge Street.] THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS. I47
of the college, which had entire control over ?the
drugs of apothecaries and chemists. It further
protected Fellows from sitting on juries.
Under this charter the college continued to
discharge its functions for many years, although
it eventually abandoned in practice the exclusive
rights conferred on it, and ceased to exercise any
inspection over the shops of apothecaries as the
changes of social position and necessity caused
many of the provisions to fall into abeyance.
Having become sensible of the advantages that
would accrue to it from a new charter, to the end
that it might be free from the obligation of admitting
to its license all Scottish University graduates
without examination, to get rid of the clause prohibiting,
its connection with a medical school,
and further, that it might have the power of expelling
unworthy members, a new charter was prepared
in 1843, but, after a great many delays
and readjustments, was not obtained until the 16th
of August, 1861.
The first president of the institution was Dr.
Archibald Stevenson, who was elected on the 8th
of December, 1681, and held the chair till 1684;
his successor was Sir Robert Sibbald (of the house
of Balgonie), an eminent physician, naturalist, and
antiquary, who graduated in medicine at Leyden
in 1661 ; but from the time of his election there is
a hiatus in the records till the 30th of November,
1693, when we again find in the chair Dr.
Archibald Stevenson, with the then considerable
honour of knighthood.
It was when Sir Thomas Burnet, author oi
U Thesaurus Mediam Pructice,? London, I 673,
was president, in 1696-8, that we find it recorded
that certain ruinous buildings bordering on the
Cowgate were converted by the college ?? into a
pavilion-shaped cold bath, which was open to the
inhabitants generally, at a charge for each ablution
of twelve shillings Scots, and one penny to the
servant; but those who subscribed one guinea
annually might resort to. it as often as they
pleased.?
Under the presidency of Dr. John Drumrnond,
in 1722, a new hall was erected in the gardens at
Fountain Close ; but proving insufficient, the college
was compelled to relinquish certain plans for
an edifice, offered by Adam the architect, and to
find a temporary asylum in the Royal Infirmary.
In 1770 the premises at Fountain Close were sold
for A800 ; more money was raised by mortgage
and other means, and the hall we have described
was erected in George Street, only to be relinquished
in time, after about seventy years? occupancy.
?The same poverty,? says the ?Historical Sketch,?
?
which had prevented the college from availing
itself of the plans of Adam, and which had caused
it to desire to part with its new hall in George
Street, even before its occupation, still pressed
heavily upon it. Having at that time no funded
capital, it was entirely dependent on the entrancefees
paid by Fellows, a fluctuating and inadequate
source of income. Besides, beautiful as the
George Street hall was in its outward proportions,
its internal arrangements were not so convenient as
might have been desired, and it is therefore not to
be wondered at that when the college found their
site was coveted by a wealthy banking corporation
their poverty and not their will consented ; and in
1843 the George Street hall was sold to the Commercial
Bank for Azo,ooo-a sum which it was
hoped would suffice to build a more comfortable
if less imposing, hall, and leave a surplus to secure
a certain, though possibly a small, annual income.
Although the transaction was obviously an advantageous
one for the college, it was not without
some difficulty that many of the Fellows made up
their minds to part with a building of which they
were justly proud.?
The beautiful hall was accordingly demolished
to the foundation stone, in which were found the
silver medals and other relics now in possession of
the college, which rented for its use No. 121,
George Street till the completion of its new hall,
whither we shall shortly follow k.
On its site was built, in 1847, the Commercial
Bank, an imposing structure of mingled Greek and
Roman character, designed by David Rhind, an
architect of high reputation. The magnificent
portico is hexastyle. There are ninety-five feet in
length of fapde, the columns are thirty-five feet in
height, with an entablature of nine feet ; the pediment
is fifteen feet six inches in height, and holds
in its tympanum a beautiful group of emblematic
sculpture from the chisel of A. Handyside Ritchie,
which figures on the notes of the bank. It has
a spacious and elegant telling-room, surrounded
by tall Corinthian pillars, with a vaulted roof,
measuring ninety feet by fifty. The Commercial
Bank of Scotland and the National Bank of Scotland
have been incorporated by royal charter ; but
as there is no Qubt about their being unlimited,
they are considered, with the Scottish joint stock
banks, of recent creation.
The deed of partnership of the Commercial
Bank is dated gist October, 1810, but subsequent
alterations have taken place, none of which, however,
in any way affect the principle named and
confirmed in the charter. The capital of the bank
was declared at ~3,000,000 j but only, a thud of
