362 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [lauriston.
As a precaution against the germs of disease, the
walls are cemented and faced with parian, while
the floors are of well-varnished Baltic pine. Galton
grates are extensively used, with a view of obtaining
the fullest benefit of all the fires.
A well-lighted cIass-room enters from the south
side of a ground-floor corridor, where 300 students
may have the advantage of clinical demonstrations;
while a similar room, with accommodation for zoo,
holds a corresponding situation on the female side.
A short passage from the entrance hall leads
southward to the great operating theatre, which is
capable of holding about 500 students, and has retiring
rooms in it, one specially for the administration
of chloroform. A wing of Watson?s Hospital has
been allocated as the nurses? kitchen and dininghall,
the housekeeper?s rooms, and those of the lady
superintendent and her assistant. In the west wing
are the dining-room, library, and private apartments
of the resident medical staff.
In the north-west corner of the grounds, and
apart from the general edifice, is a group of buildings,
with a frontage to Lauriston of 150 feet,
which though detailed in a less florid style, yet harmonise
with the general design. This is the
department for Pathology, the principal feature of
which is an ample-sized theatre for lectures, seated
for 220 students, and having microscopic and
chemistry rooms, SEC., attached. Near it is the
mortuary, the walls of which are lined with white
glazed bricks. It is in direct communication with
the Surgical and Medical Hospitals, from both of
which the bodies of the dead can be conveyed
thereto, unseen by the other patients, through an
undergound passage.
To the washing-house, in another building, the
soiled linen is conveyed through a tunnel, and
subjected to a washer worked by steam, a mechanical
wringer, and a drying chamber of hot air.
Beside it is the boiler-house, for working the heating
apparatus generally and the hydraulic machinery
of the hoists, which latter is effected by a
steam-engine of 32 horse-power.
A residence for the superintendent, commodious,
and harmonising with the general buildings, has
been erected near the Meadow Walk, in rear of the
Surgical Hospital.
In regard to its capabilities for accommodation, we
may state that of the eighteen wards in the surgical
departments there are fifteen which will accommodate
sixteen patients, including private beds. In
the medical house are twelve wards, each capable
of receiving twenty-three patients. Including the
ophthalmic, accident, and D. T. wards, together
with the reserved beds, there is a total of 600, or
140 over the daily average of patients treated in
the last year of the old infirmary. The amount of
space provided for each patient varies from 2,350
feet to 2,380, as compared to the 1,800 cubic feet
allowed in St. Thomas?s Hospital, London, and
1,226 cubic feet in Fort Warren, Massachusetts.
(Scotsman, I 8 7 9, &c.)
The Infirmary was inspected by the Queen on
the occasion of her visit to Edinburgh in connection
with the Volunteer Review of 1881.
The Edinburgh Royal Maternity and Simpson
Memorial Hospital-so called as a tribute to the
noble name and memory of the late Sir James Y.
Simpson-was erected in 1878, for the accomniodation
of this most important charity, at the corner
of Lauriston Place and Lauriston Park.
Meadow-side House, the hospital specially devoted
to sick children, is in Lauriston Lane, and in
the most sunny portion of the grounds. It is a
humane and useful charity; its directors chiefly
consist of medical men, a matron, and a committee
of ladies, with a complete medical staff of
resident, ordinary, and consulting physicians.
Immediately adjoined to where this edifice
stands, there was erected in 1816 the Merchant
Maiden?s Hospital, the successor of that establishment
which was endowed by Mrs. Mary Erskine,
incorporated by Act of Parliament in 1702, and
which we have described in a preceding chapter,
as being in the vicinity of Argyle Square. That
old building had long been found inadequate to its
objects, and its vicinity having become crowded
with houses, the governors, zealous for the comfort
of the young ladies under their care, purchased
three acres to the west of Lauriston Lane, which
is a southern continuation of the ancient Vennel
in a spot, which we are told, in 1816, ?united all
the advantages of retirement and pure air, without
an inconvenient distance from tom.?? (SrOrs
Mig., 1816).
Erected from designs by Mr. Burn, this edifice is
still a very elegant one, 180 feet long by 60 deep,
with a bow of 36 feet radius in its north front. Its
style is purely Grecian The central portico of four
fine Ionic columns faces the West Meadow, and is
detailed from a small temple on the Ilyssus, near
Athens. The windows on the lower storey are
double arched, and the superstructure has an aspect
of strength and solidity. The foundation-stone was
laid on the 2nd of August, 1816, in presence of the
governors and the preses, William Ramsay, a well
known banker, and the total expense was about
On the principal floor, as it was then laid out, was
an elegant chapel and governors? room, 30 feet in
.?9,000.
