THE CITY OF EDINBURGH
Scotland’s historic and cosmopolitan capital,Edinburghis one of the world’s foremost tourist experiences. The tall narrow buildings and closes of the mediaeval OldTown, and the serene classical architecture of the Georgian New Town, are set within a dramatic topography of green hills and parks. To the north, the regenerated Leith Docks provides a waterfront ambience centred on the Royal Yacht Britannia.
The Symposium and the Instructional Course take place during the Edinburgh International Arts Festival and Fringe, the world’s largest arts event, when the city is vibrant with drama, music, cabaret, and night life. The world-famous Military Tattoo is a very popular event which is usually sold out by the summer – buy your tickets on-line as early as possible.
There is no shortage of other attractions and places of interest – the Castle, Holyrood Palace, galleries and exhibitions. The city has a wealth of historic associations including those with many pioneers of medicine. Eating out is no problem, with a wide range of restaurants and bistros to cater for all tastes, and more than 700 bars.
Edinburgh is easily reached by air, road and rail, and is an ideal base to explore other parts of Scotland.
MEDICAL EDINBURGH
The Symposium and Instructional Course follow Edinburgh’s long and distinguished tradition of medical education, with many advances pioneered in the city, and many of the world’s medical schools were founded by its graduates.
Notable surgeons have included John Hunter, anatomist and founder of “scientific surgery” in the late 18th century; Robert Liston, who performed the first operation under anaesthesia (ether) in 1846; and Sir James Simpson, who discovered chloroform the following year, testing it on his dinner guests until they slid unconscious under the table!
Other ”firsts” include Joseph Black, physician who developed the analytical balance and discovered carbon dioxide; William Withering, discoverer of digoxin in 1785; Charles Bell, who identified the nerve functions in 1811 and founded the science of neurology; James Syme, pioneer of plastic surgery; Alexander Wood, the first hypodermic syringe in 1853; gynaecologist Robert Tait, who replaced Lister’s antiseptic approach with aseptic methods; and Thomas Brunton, discoverer of amyl nitrite for angina. There were many other advances, including the fields of ophthalmology, forensics and psychology.
Pioneering anatomy students had difficulty obtaining sufficient subjects for dissection, so the need was filled by grave robbers, or ”resurrectionists” as the city’s wits called them. In 1829 Messrs Burke and Hare streamlined the process by murdering and then selling their victims directly to the University’s unquestioning surgical department. Burke was duly hanged, and a pocket-book made of his skin can still be seen at the Royal College museum.
Some Edinburgh medics gained fame in other fields. Joseph Bell, University lecturer and President of the Royal College of Surgeons, was the inspiration for Sherlock Holmes in the writings of his one-time student and unsuccessful GP, Arthur Conan Doyle. Thomas Allinson, pioneer of exercise and healthy diet and inventor of the bread loaf that bears his name, was struck off the General Medical Council in 1894 for having the temerity to suggest that smoking might be bad for one’s health.
Even Edinburgh’s medical “drop-outs” eventually made good; Charles Darwin gave up medical studies in 1825 after finding that an inability to stand the sight of blood was not an asset for a successful surgeon, and became the founding father of evolution. Edward Johnston abandoned medicine atEdinburghthrough ill-health, and is now best known as the graphic artist who designed London Transport’s world-famous bar-and-circle logo.
Early doctors were exclusively male, but some strong-minded Victorian women were determined to break the barriers. These included Elsie Inglis, active in women’s rights and in establishing troop care in the Great War; and Sophia Jex-Blake, whose agitation moved parliament to force universities to grant degrees to women students. However, the world’s first qualified woman doctor had trained at Edinburghalmost a century earlier, simply by dressing as a man. ”James” Miranda Barry kept her secret through a distinguished career as a naval surgeon until her death in 1865.
The trail of innovation continues through Alexander Fleming, discoverer of penicillin (1928) and anti-typhoid vaccines; the UK’s first successful kidney transplant (Michael Woodruff, 1960); the cloning of the famous Dolly the Sheep (Ian Wilmut, 1996); to current pioneering stem-cell research. More medical research per capita is undertaken inScotlandthan anywhere else in Europe, and a new BioQuarter research park is under construction in the city to facilitate this. Today, Edinburgh is still a centre of excellence and her medical graduates are found in all parts of the world.
SURGEONS’ HALL MUSEUM
Surgeon’s Hall dates from 1804, and has one of the largest pathology and surgical history collections in the UK
Opening hours:
1200 to 16.00 weekdays
website: www.museum.rcsed.acuk