*'Lauriston.l THE NEW ROYAL INFIRMARY. 359
aunt Elizabeth, ordered that on application for
taking children into his hospital, those of the name
of Davidsonshoulc! have a preference, as well as
those of Watson. In June, 1741, twelve boys were
admitted into it; in three years the number
amounted to thirty; and in 1779 that number was
doubled.
, Watson's Merchant Academy, as it was named
in 1870, underwent a great change in that year.
The governors of the four hospitals connected with
the Merchant Company, taking advantage of the
Endowed Institutions (Scotland) Act, applied for
and obtained provisional orders empowering them
to convert the foundation into day-schools, and
it was opened as one. The edifice was sold to
the Corporation of the Royal Infirmary, and the
building formerly occupied as the Merchant Maiden
Hospital was acquired for, and is now being used
as, George Watson's College School for boys.
The building was long conspicuous from several
points by its small spire, surmounted by a ship, the
emblem of commerce. Here, then, we now find
the new Royal Infirmary, one of the most extensive
edifices in the city, which was formally opened on
Wednesday, the 29th of October, 1879, the foundation
stone having been laid in October, 1870, by
H.R.H. the Prince of Wales.
The situation of the infirmary is alike excellent
and desirable, from its vicinity to the open pasture
of the Meadows and Links, the free breezes
from the hills, and to the new seat of university
medical teaching. The additions and improvements
at the old Royal Infirmary, and the conversion
of the old High School into a Surgical
Hospital, were still found unfitted for the increasing
wants of the Corporation as the city grew in extent
and population, as the demands of medical science
increased, and the conditions'. of hospital management
became more amplified and exacting ; and the
necessity for some reform in the old edifit'e in Infirmary
Street led to the proposal of the mmagers for
rebuilding the entire Nedical House. When those
contributors met to whom this bold scheme was submitted,
complaints were urged as to the wants of
the Surgical Hospital, and it was also referred to
the committee appointed to consider the whole
question,
The subscription list eventually showed a total of
&75,ooo, and a proposed extension of the old
buildings, by the removal of certain houses at the
South Bridge, was abandoned, when a new impetus
was given to the movement by the late Professor
James Syme, who had won a high reputation as a
lecturer and anatomist.
. His strictures on the 'state of the Surgical Hospital
led to a discussion on the wiser policy of rebuilding
the whole infirmary, coupled with a proposal,
which was first suggested in the columns of
the Scotsnran, that a site should be fbund for it, not
near the South Bridge, but in the open neighbourhood
of the Meadows. The Governors of Watsods
Hospital, acting as we have stated, readily parted
with the property there, and plans for the building
were prepared by the late David Bryce, R.S.A.,
and to his nephew and partner, Mr. John Bryce,
was entrusted the superintendence of their completion.
In carrying out his plans Mr. Bryce was guided
by the resilts of medical experience on what is
known now as the cottage or pavilion system, by
which a certain amount of isolation is procured, and
air is freely circulated among the various blocks or
portions of the whole edifice. '' When it is mentioned
that of an area of eleven and a half acresthe
original purchase of Watson's ground having
been supplemented by the acquisition of Wharton
Place-only three and a half are actually occupied
with stone and lime, and that well distributed in
long narrow ranges over the general surface, it will
be understood that this important advantage has
been fully turned to account. ' While the primary
purpose of the institution has been steadily kept in
view, due regard has been ha2 to its future usefulness
as a means of medical and surgical education."
Most picturesque is this npw grand and striking
edifice from every point of view, by the great number
and wonderful repetition of its circular towers,
modelled after those of the Palaces of Falkland and
Holyrood, while the style of the whole is the old
Scottish baronial of the days of James V., the most
characteristic details and features of which are
completely reproduced in the main frontage, which
faces the north, or street of Lauriston.
The fagade here presents a central elevation IOO
feet in length, three storeys in height, with a sunk
basement. A prominent feature here is a tower,
buttressed at its angles, and corbelled from the
general line of the block, having its base opened by
the main entrance, with a window on either side to
light the hall.
The tower rises clear of the wall-head in a square
form, with round corbelled Scottish turrets at the
corners, one of them containing a stair, and over all
there is an octagonal slated spire, terminating in a
vane, at the height of 134 feet from the ground.
On the east and west rise stacks of ornamental
chimneys. The elevations on each side of this
tower are uniform, with turrets at each corner, and
three rows of windows, the upper gableted above
the line of the eaving-slates.
