1.
Henry Raeburn
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Sir Henry Raeburn FRSE RA RSA was a Scottish portrait painter and Scotlands first significant portrait painter since the Union to remain based in Scotland. He served as Portrait Painter to King George IV in Scotland, Raeburn was born the son of a manufacturer in Stockbridge, on the Water of Leith, a former village now within the city of Edinburgh. He had a brother, born in 1744, called William Raeburn. His ancestors were believed to have been soldiers, and may have taken the name Raeburn from a farm in Annandale. Orphaned, he was supported by William and placed in Heriots Hospital, soon he took to the production of carefully finished portrait miniatures, meeting with success and patronage, he extended his practice to oil painting, at which he was self-taught. Raeburn was especially aided by the loan of portraits to copy, soon he had gained sufficient skill to make him decide to devote himself exclusively to painting. George Chalmers is his earliest known portrait, in his early twenties, Raeburn was asked to paint the portrait of a young lady he had noticed when he was sketching from nature in the fields. Anne was the daughter of Peter Edgar of Bridgelands, and widow of Count James Leslie of Deanhaugh, fascinated by the handsome and intellectual young artist, she became his wife within a month, bringing him an ample fortune. The acquisition of wealth did not affect his enthusiasm or his industry and it was usual for artists to visit Italy, and Raeburn set off with his wife. After two years of study in Italy he returned to Edinburgh in 1787, and began a career as a portrait painter. In that year he executed a portrait of the second Lord President Dundas. The portraits of John Clerk, Lord Eldin, and of Principal Hill of St Andrews belong to a later period, Raeburn was fortunate in the time in which he practised portraiture. Sir Walter Scott, Hugh Blair, Henry Mackenzie, Lord Woodhouselee, William Robertson, John Home, Robert Fergusson, and Dugald Stewart were resident in Edinburgh, mature works include his own portrait and that of the Rev. Apart from himself, Raeburn painted only two artists, one of whom was Sir Francis Leggatt Chantrey, the most important and famous British sculptor of the first half of the nineteenth century. Raeburn spent his life in Edinburgh, rarely visiting London, and then only for brief periods, so varied were his other interests that sitters used to say of him, You would never take him for a painter till he seizes the brush and palette. In 1812 he was elected president of the Society of Artists in Edinburgh, in 1814 associate, on 29 August 1822 he was knighted by George IV and appointed His Majestys limner for Scotland at the Earl of Hopetoun house. Raeburn had all the qualities of a popular and successful portrait painter. David Wilkie recorded that, while travelling in Spain and studying the works of Diego Velázquez, Scottish physician and writer John Brown wrote that Raeburn never fails in giving a likeness at once vivid, unmistakable and pleasing
2.
Scotland
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Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and covers the northern third of the island of Great Britain. It shares a border with England to the south, and is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east. In addition to the mainland, the country is made up of more than 790 islands, including the Northern Isles, the Kingdom of Scotland emerged as an independent sovereign state in the Early Middle Ages and continued to exist until 1707. By inheritance in 1603, James VI, King of Scots, became King of England and King of Ireland, Scotland subsequently entered into a political union with the Kingdom of England on 1 May 1707 to create the new Kingdom of Great Britain. The union also created a new Parliament of Great Britain, which succeeded both the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England. Within Scotland, the monarchy of the United Kingdom has continued to use a variety of styles, titles, the legal system within Scotland has also remained separate from those of England and Wales and Northern Ireland, Scotland constitutes a distinct jurisdiction in both public and private law. Glasgow, Scotlands largest city, was one of the worlds leading industrial cities. Other major urban areas are Aberdeen and Dundee, Scottish waters consist of a large sector of the North Atlantic and the North Sea, containing the largest oil reserves in the European Union. This has given Aberdeen, the third-largest city in Scotland, the title of Europes oil capital, following a referendum in 1997, a Scottish Parliament was re-established, in the form of a devolved unicameral legislature comprising 129 members, having authority over many areas of domestic policy. Scotland is represented in the UK Parliament by 59 MPs and in the European Parliament by 6 MEPs, Scotland is also a member nation of the British–Irish Council, and the British–Irish Parliamentary Assembly. Scotland comes from Scoti, the Latin name for the Gaels, the Late Latin word Scotia was initially used to refer to Ireland. By the 11th century at the latest, Scotia was being used to refer to Scotland north of the River Forth, alongside Albania or Albany, the use of the words Scots and Scotland to encompass all of what is now Scotland became common in the Late Middle Ages. Repeated glaciations, which covered the land mass of modern Scotland. It is believed the first post-glacial groups of hunter-gatherers arrived in Scotland around 12,800 years ago, the groups of settlers began building the first known permanent houses on Scottish soil around 9,500 years ago, and the first villages around 6,000 years ago. The well-preserved village of Skara Brae on the mainland of Orkney dates from this period and it contains the remains of an early Bronze Age ruler laid out on white quartz pebbles and birch bark. It was also discovered for the first time that early Bronze Age people placed flowers in their graves, in the winter of 1850, a severe storm hit Scotland, causing widespread damage and over 200 deaths. In the Bay of Skaill, the storm stripped the earth from a large irregular knoll, when the storm cleared, local villagers found the outline of a village, consisting of a number of small houses without roofs. William Watt of Skaill, the laird, began an amateur excavation of the site, but after uncovering four houses
3.
University of Edinburgh
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The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1582, is the sixth oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotlands ancient universities. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city of Edinburgh, the University of Edinburgh was ranked 17th and 21st in the world by the 2014–15 and 2015-16 QS rankings. It is now ranked 19th in the according to 2016-17 QS Rankings. It is ranked 16th in the world in arts and humanities by the 2015–16 Times Higher Education Ranking and it is ranked the 23rd most employable university in the world by the 2015 Global Employability University Ranking. It is ranked as the 6th best university in Europe by the U. S. News Best Global Universities Ranking and it is a member of both the Russell Group, and the League of European Research Universities, a consortium of 21 research universities in Europe. It has the third largest endowment of any university in the United Kingdom, after the universities of Cambridge and it continues to have links to the British Royal Family, having had the Duke of Edinburgh as its Chancellor from 1953 to 2010 and Princess Anne since 2011. Edinburgh receives approximately 50,000 applications every year, making it the fourth most popular university in the UK by volume of applicants, after St Andrews, it is the most difficult university to gain admission into in Scotland, and 9th overall in the UK. This was a move at the time, as most universities were established through Papal bulls. Established as the Tounis College, it opened its doors to students in October 1583, instruction began under the charge of another St Andrews graduate Robert Rollock. It was the fourth Scottish university in a period when the more populous. It was renamed King Jamess College in 1617, by the 18th century, the university was a leading centre of the Scottish Enlightenment. The universitys first custom-built building was the Old College, now Edinburgh Law School and its first forte in teaching was anatomy and the developing science of surgery, from which it expanded into many other subjects. From the basement of a nearby house ran the anatomy tunnel corridor and it went under what was then North College Street, and under the university buildings until it reached the universitys anatomy lecture theatre, delivering bodies for dissection. It was from this tunnel the body of William Burke was taken after he had been hanged, towards the end of the 19th century, Old College was becoming overcrowded and Robert Rowand Anderson was commissioned to design new Medical School premises in 1875. The medical school was more or less built to his design and was completed by the addition of the McEwan Hall in the 1880s. The building now known as New College was originally built as a Free Church college in the 1840s and has been the home of divinity at the university since the 1920s. The two oldest schools – law and divinity – are both well-esteemed, with law being based in Old College and divinity in New College on the Mound and they are also represented by the Edinburgh University Sports Union which was founded in 1866. The medical school is renowned throughout the world and it was widely considered the best medical school in the English-speaking world throughout the 18th century and first half of the 19th century
4.
Nitrogen
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Nitrogen is a chemical element with symbol N and atomic number 7. It was first discovered and isolated by Scottish physician Daniel Rutherford in 1772, although Carl Wilhelm Scheele and Henry Cavendish had independently done so at about the same time, Rutherford is generally accorded the credit because his work was published first. Nitrogen is the lightest member of group 15 of the periodic table, the name comes from the Greek πνίγειν to choke, directly referencing nitrogens asphyxiating properties. It is an element in the universe, estimated at about seventh in total abundance in the Milky Way. At standard temperature and pressure, two atoms of the element bind to form dinitrogen, a colourless and odorless diatomic gas with the formula N2, dinitrogen forms about 78% of Earths atmosphere, making it the most abundant uncombined element. Nitrogen occurs in all organisms, primarily in amino acids, in the nucleic acids, the human body contains about 3% nitrogen by mass, the fourth most abundant element in the body after oxygen, carbon, and hydrogen. The nitrogen cycle describes movement of the element from the air, into the biosphere and organic compounds, many industrially important compounds, such as ammonia, nitric acid, organic nitrates, and cyanides, contain nitrogen. The extremely strong bond in elemental nitrogen, the second strongest bond in any diatomic molecule. Synthetically produced ammonia and nitrates are key industrial fertilisers, and fertiliser nitrates are key pollutants in the eutrophication of water systems. Apart from its use in fertilisers and energy-stores, nitrogen is a constituent of organic compounds as diverse as Kevlar used in high-strength fabric, Nitrogen is a constituent of every major pharmacological drug class, including antibiotics. Many notable nitrogen-containing drugs, such as the caffeine and morphine or the synthetic amphetamines. Nitrogen compounds have a long history, ammonium chloride having been known to Herodotus. They were well known by the Middle Ages, alchemists knew nitric acid as aqua fortis, as well as other nitrogen compounds such as ammonium salts and nitrate salts. The mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids was known as aqua regia, celebrated for its ability to dissolve gold, the discovery of nitrogen is attributed to the Scottish physician Daniel Rutherford in 1772, who called it noxious air. Though he did not recognise it as a different chemical substance, he clearly distinguished it from Joseph Blacks fixed air. The fact that there was a component of air that does not support combustion was clear to Rutherford, Nitrogen was also studied at about the same time by Carl Wilhelm Scheele, Henry Cavendish, and Joseph Priestley, who referred to it as burnt air or phlogisticated air. Nitrogen gas was inert enough that Antoine Lavoisier referred to it as air or azote, from the Greek word άζωτικός. In an atmosphere of nitrogen, animals died and flames were extinguished
5.
Chemistry
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Chemistry is a branch of physical science that studies the composition, structure, properties and change of matter. Chemistry is sometimes called the science because it bridges other natural sciences, including physics. For the differences between chemistry and physics see comparison of chemistry and physics, the history of chemistry can be traced to alchemy, which had been practiced for several millennia in various parts of the world. The word chemistry comes from alchemy, which referred to a set of practices that encompassed elements of chemistry, metallurgy, philosophy, astrology, astronomy, mysticism. An alchemist was called a chemist in popular speech, and later the suffix -ry was added to this to describe the art of the chemist as chemistry, the modern word alchemy in turn is derived from the Arabic word al-kīmīā. In origin, the term is borrowed from the Greek χημία or χημεία and this may have Egyptian origins since al-kīmīā is derived from the Greek χημία, which is in turn derived from the word Chemi or Kimi, which is the ancient name of Egypt in Egyptian. Alternately, al-kīmīā may derive from χημεία, meaning cast together, in retrospect, the definition of chemistry has changed over time, as new discoveries and theories add to the functionality of the science. The term chymistry, in the view of noted scientist Robert Boyle in 1661, in 1837, Jean-Baptiste Dumas considered the word chemistry to refer to the science concerned with the laws and effects of molecular forces. More recently, in 1998, Professor Raymond Chang broadened the definition of chemistry to mean the study of matter, early civilizations, such as the Egyptians Babylonians, Indians amassed practical knowledge concerning the arts of metallurgy, pottery and dyes, but didnt develop a systematic theory. Greek atomism dates back to 440 BC, arising in works by such as Democritus and Epicurus. In 50 BC, the Roman philosopher Lucretius expanded upon the theory in his book De rerum natura, unlike modern concepts of science, Greek atomism was purely philosophical in nature, with little concern for empirical observations and no concern for chemical experiments. Work, particularly the development of distillation, continued in the early Byzantine period with the most famous practitioner being the 4th century Greek-Egyptian Zosimos of Panopolis. He formulated Boyles law, rejected the four elements and proposed a mechanistic alternative of atoms. Before his work, though, many important discoveries had been made, the Scottish chemist Joseph Black and the Dutchman J. B. English scientist John Dalton proposed the theory of atoms, that all substances are composed of indivisible atoms of matter. Davy discovered nine new elements including the alkali metals by extracting them from their oxides with electric current, british William Prout first proposed ordering all the elements by their atomic weight as all atoms had a weight that was an exact multiple of the atomic weight of hydrogen. The inert gases, later called the noble gases were discovered by William Ramsay in collaboration with Lord Rayleigh at the end of the century, thereby filling in the basic structure of the table. Organic chemistry was developed by Justus von Liebig and others, following Friedrich Wöhlers synthesis of urea which proved that organisms were, in theory
6.
Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh
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The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, or RIE, often known as the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, or ERI, was established in 1729 and is the oldest voluntary hospital in Scotland. The new buildings of 1879 were claimed to be the largest voluntary hospital in the United Kingdom, and later on, the hospital moved to a new 900 bed site in 2003 in Little France. It is the site of clinical teaching as well as a teaching hospital for the University of Edinburgh Medical School. It is currently run by NHS Lothian, in 1960, the first kidney transplant performed in the UK was performed at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh by surgeon Michael Woodruff. In 1964, the worlds first coronary care unit was established at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh by Dr. Desmond Julian and it is the only site for liver, pancreas and pancreatic islet cell transplantation and one of two sites for kidney transplantation in Scotland. It is currently the site for TAVI in Scotland. In 2012 the Emergency Department had 113,000 patient attendances, on 16 November 2014, the University announced the Royal Infirmary as the location of Scotlands first PET-MRI Scanner. John Munro, President of the Incorporation of Surgeons in 1712, set in motion a project to establish a Seminary of Medical Education in Edinburgh, of which a General Hospital was an integral part. His son, Alexander Monro primus, by then Professor of Anatomy, circulated a pamphlet in 1721 on the necessity. Other donors included many wealthy citizens, most of the physicians and several surgeons, numerous Church of Scotland parishes, the committee set up by the donors leased a house of small rent near the College from the University for 19 years. The physicians, who had seen the poor gratis twice weekly at their college, arranged for one of their number to attend the hospital, to see both inpatients and outpatients. Six Chirurgeon-Apothecaries also agreed to attend in turn, and to dispense the medicines prescribed by the physicians from their own shops, the first patient, a lady from Caithness suffering from chlorosis, was discharged recovered after three months. Thirty five patients were admitted in the first year, of whom 19 were cured,5 recovered,5 dismissed either as incurable or for irregularities and they came from all over Scotland, but mainly from Edinburgh and its environs. Diseases cured included pains, inflammations, agues, ulcers, cancers, palsies, flux, consumption, hysterick disorders, a free advice and medicine service for out-patients was very popular, receiving a 1000 patients by 1754, which presented the hospital with prohibitively high costs and demand. In 1741 the hospital moved the short distance to the not yet completed building which eventually and this was soon found to be inadequate and a new surgical hospital, designed by David Bryce, was built fronting Drummond Street, opening in 1853. The new building was linked to the High School Yards building by an extension to the north, the Infirmary Street buildings were demolished in 1884 and replaced with public swimming baths and a school. The ornamental gates and gate piers now front the former hospital on Drummond Street. This stands outside the entrance to Dreghorn Barracks on Redford Road in the south west of the city, the original surgical theatre, which was on the roof of the 1741 building, was re-erected as part of stables in the grounds of Redford House, also on Redford Road
7.
Joseph Black
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Joseph Black FRSE FRCPE FPSG was a Scottish physician and chemist, known for his discoveries of magnesium, latent heat, specific heat, and carbon dioxide. The chemistry buildings at both the University of Edinburgh and the University of Glasgow are named after Black, Black was born in Bordeaux, France, where his father, who was from Belfast, Ireland, was engaged in the wine trade. His mother was from Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and her family was also in the wine business, Joseph had twelve brothers and sisters. During his studies he wrote a thesis on the treatment of kidney stones with the salt magnesium carbonate. Like most eighteenth-century experimentalists, Blacks conceptualisation of chemistry was based on five principles of matter, Water, Salt, Earth, Fire and he added the principle of Air when his experiments definitely confirmed the presence of carbon dioxide. Blacks research programme was guided by questions relating to how the foregoing principles combined with other in various different forms. He used the term affinity to describe the force that held such combinations together, throughout his career he used a variety of diagrams and formulas to teach his Edinburgh students how to manipulate affinity through different kinds of experimentation. In about 1750, while still a student, Black developed the analytical balance based on a beam balanced on a wedge-shaped fulcrum. Each arm carried a pan on which the sample or standard weights was placed and it far exceeded the accuracy of any other balance of the time and became an important scientific instrument in most chemistry laboratories. In 1757, Black was appointed Regius Professor of the Practice of Medicine at the University of Glasgow. Additionally, Black observed that the application of heat to boiling water does not result in a rise in temperature of a water/steam mixture, from these observations, he concluded that the heat applied must have combined with the ice particles and boiling water and become latent. The theory of latent heat marks the beginning of thermodynamics, Blacks theory of latent heat was one of his more-important scientific contributions, and one on which his scientific fame chiefly rests. He also showed that different substances have different specific heats, the theory ultimately proved important not only in the development of abstract science but in the development of the steam engine. The latent heat of water is large compared with other liquids. Black and Watt became friends after meeting around 1757 while both were at Glasgow, Black provided significant financing and other support for Watts early research in steam power. Black also explored the properties of a gas produced in various reactions and he found that limestone could be heated or treated with acids to yield a gas he called fixed air. He observed that the air was denser than air and did not support either flame or animal life. Black also found that when bubbled through a solution of lime
8.
Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh
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The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh is a Medical Royal College in Scotland. It is one of three organisations that sets the specialty training standards for physicians in the United Kingdom and it was established by Royal Charter in 1681. The college claims to have 12,000 fellows and members worldwide, the RCPE was formed by a Royal Charter, granted in 1681, with Sir Robbert Sibbald recognised as playing a key part in the negotiations. Three applications preceded this and had been unsuccessful, there were 21 original Fellows, eleven of whom were graduates or students of the University of Leiden. The Universities Act 1858 resulted in several items from the College’s Charter becoming obsolete, in 1920 the College enacted changes that allowed women to be admitted on the same terms as men. The charter was amended on 7 May 2005, in 1704 the College acquired a house and grounds on Fountain Close, on the Cowgate, in the Old Town. On 27 November 1775 William Cullen laid the stone for a new hall. Architect James Craig, had ideas about expansion but the builders of neighbouring properties found favour instead, the hall was not fully completed until 1830. Unfortunately the great cost of the hall’s exterior exhausted the College’s finances leaving no money to finish the interior of a building, the Colleges debt was so much that there was talk of selling the Hall before it was even occupied. The Hall was sold to the Commercial Bank of Scotland in 1841 and was demolished, between 1843 and 1846 the College did not own a meeting place, instead renting a premises at 119 George Street. The foundation stone of a new Hall at 9 Queen Street was laid on 8 August 1844, the new Queen Street Hall was designed by Thomas Hamilton. The Queen Street Hall was completed in 1846, an adjacent building, Number 8 Queen Street was designed by Robert Adam as a house for Robert Ord and built between 1770 and 1771, one of the earliest New Town constructions. In 1868 it was purchased by the College, who leased it to other organisations until 1957. A restoration project began in 1990 and lasted seven years, numbers 11 and 12 were built around 1780. They were purchased by the college in the 20th century, the space behind 11 was used for the Conference Centre and 12 contains flexible meeting rooms and office space. In 1984 the college put Richard Dadds painting of Alexander Morison up for sale, in 1682, Robert Sibbald donated around one hundred books to the college. At the end of the 18th century the library was located at the Royal Infirmary, the college’s library in Queen Street bears Sibbald’s name in commemoration. The library also has artefacts, such as a medicine chest that belonged to Stuart Threipland, in the 1960s, the information held by the library was modern
9.
Linnean Society of London
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The Linnean Society of London is a society dedicated to the study of, and the dissemination of information concerning, natural history and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature collections and publishes academic journals and books on plant, the society also awards a number of prestigious medals and prizes for achievement. A product of the 18th century enlightenment, the society is important as the venue for the first public presentation of the Theory of Evolution. The patron of the society is Queen Elizabeth II, the Linnean Society was founded in 1788 by botanist Sir James Edward Smith. The society derives its name from the Swedish naturalist Carolus Linnaeus, the father of taxonomy and he was known as Carl von Linné after his ennoblement, hence the spelling Linnean, rather than Linnaean. The society had a number of minor name variations before it gained its Royal Charter on 26 March 1802, in 1802, as a newly incorporated society, it comprised 228 fellows. It is the oldest extant natural history society in the world, throughout its history the society has been a non-political and non-sectarian institution, existing solely for the furtherance of natural history. The society has numbered many prominent scientists amongst its fellows, one such was the botanist Robert Brown, who was president, he named the cell nucleus and discovered Brownian motion. In 1854 Charles Darwin was elected a fellow, he is undoubtedly the most illustrious scientist ever to appear on the rolls of the society. Another famous fellow was biologist Thomas Huxley, who gained the nickname Darwins bulldog for his defence of evolution. At this meeting a joint presentation of papers by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace was made, sponsored by Joseph Hooker, in 1904 the society experienced the novelty of electing women fellows, this followed a number of years of campaigning by the botanist Marian Farquharson. Whilst the societys council was reluctant to admit women, the fellows were much less so, among the first to benefit from this were, Lilian J. Veley, a microbiologist and Annie Lorrain Smith, a lichenologist and mycologist, both formally admitted on 19 January 1905. Also amongst the first women to be elected in 1904 was the paleobotanist, the societys connection with evolution remained strong into the 20th century. Sir Edward Poulton, who was president 1912-1916, was a defender of natural selection and was the first biologist to recognise the importance of frequency-dependent selection. The first female president of the society was Irene Manton, who pioneered the use of electron microscopy. Her work revealed the structure of the flagellum and cilia, which are central to systems of cellular motility. Recent years have seen an increased interest within the society in issues of biodiversity conservation and this was highlighted by the inception in 2015 of an annual award, the John Spedan Lewis Medal, specifically honouring persons making significant and innovative contributions to conservation. Fellowship requires nomination by at least one fellow, and election by a minimum of two thirds of those electors voting, fellows may employ the post-nominal letters FLS
10.
Grassmarket
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The Grassmarket is a historic market place and an event space in the Old Town of Edinburgh, Scotland. In relation to the rest of the city it lies in a hollow, the Grassmarket is located directly below Edinburgh Castle and forms part of one of the main east-west vehicle arteries through the city centre. It adjoins the Cowgate and Candlemaker Row at the east end, the West Bow in the north-east corner, Kings Stables Road to the north west and the West Port to the west. Leading off from the south-west corner is the Vennel, on the east side of which can still be some of the best surviving parts of the Flodden. The view to the north, dominated by the castle, has long been a subject of painters and photographers. Daniel Defoe, who visited Edinburgh in the 1720s, reports the place being used for two open air markets, the Grass-market and the Horse-market. In the late 18th century the fly coach to London, via Dumfries and Carlisle, in 1803 William and Dorothy Wordsworth took rooms at the White Hart Inn, where the poet Robert Burns had stayed during his last visit to Edinburgh in 1791. In her account of the visit Dorothy described it as not noisy, in his 1961 film Greyfriars Bobby Walt Disney chose a lodging in the Grassmarket as the place where the Skye terriers owner dies. The market closed in 1911 when a new municipal slaughter house at Tollcross replaced the old shambles in the half of the Grassmarket which joins Kings Stables Road. An inscribed flagstone in the pavement in front of the White Hart Inn indicates the spot where a bomb exploded during a Zeppelin raid on the city on the night of 2–3 April 1916. Eleven people were killed in the raid, though none at this particular spot, the Grassmarket was also a traditional place of public executions. A memorial near the site occupied by the gibbet was created by public subscription in 1937. It commemorates over 100 Covenanters who died on the gallows between 1661 and 1688 during the known as The Killing Time. Their names, where known, are recorded on a nearby plaque, one obdurate prisoners refusal to escape death by swearing loyalty to the Crown prompted the snide remark by the Duke of Rothes that he had chosen to glorify God in the Grassmarket. In 1736 the Grassmarket formed the backdrop to the Porteous Riots which ended in the lynching of a captain of the Town Guard, a plaque near the traditional execution site now marks the spot where an enraged mob brought Captain Porteouss life to a brutal end. A popular story in Edinburgh is that of Margaret Dickson, a fishwife from Musselburgh who was hanged in the Grassmarket in 1724 for murdering her illegitimate baby shortly after birth, after the hanging, her body was taken back to Musselburgh on a cart. However, on the way there she awoke, since, under Scots Law, her punishment had been carried out, she could not be executed for a second time for the same crime. Her resurrection was also to some extent seen as divine intervention, in later life she was referred to as half-hangit Maggie
11.
William Cullen
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Cullen was also a central figure in the Scottish Enlightenment. He was David Humes physician and friend, and on terms with Adam Smith, Lord Kames, Joseph Black, John Millar. He was President of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and First Physician to the King in Scotland. He was also, incidentally, one of the movers in obtaining a royal charter for the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh. Cullen was a teacher, and many of his students became influential figures in their own right. Special mention must be made of Cullens student-turned-opponent, John Brown, who developed the system known as Brunonianism. This was to have influence, especially in Italy and Germany, during the end of the eighteenth. Cullen was also a successful author and he published a number of medical textbooks, mostly for the use of his students, though they were popular throughout Europe and the American colonies as well. His best known work was First Lines of the Practice of Physic, Cullen was born in Hamilton, Lanarkshire. His father William was a lawyer retained by the Duke of Hamilton as factor and he studied at the Old Grammar School of Hamilton, then, in 1726, began a General Studies arts course at the University of Glasgow. He began his training as apprentice to John Paisley, a Glasgow apothecary surgeon. From 1734 to 1736 he studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, where he interested in chemistry. In 1736 he began practice in Hamilton, where he rapidly acquired a high reputation. He also continued his study of the sciences, especially of chemistry. From 1737 to 1740 William Hunter was his resident pupil, in 1740 Cullen was awarded the degree of MD from Glasgow University. In 1741, he married and started his family and he became ordinary medical attendant to James Douglas, 5th Duke of Hamilton, his family, and his livestock. In 1744, following the Dukes death, the Cullens moved to Glasgow, in Glasgow he gave extramural lectures for the University, on physiology, botany, materia medica, and chemistry. His great abilities, enthusiasm, and use of practical demonstrations for instruction, made him a successful and highly popular teacher, at the same time he also maintained a medical practice
12.
Royal Society of Edinburgh
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The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotlands national academy of science and letters. It is a charity, operating on a wholly independent and non-party-political basis. As of 2014 it has more than 1,500 Fellows, the Society covers a broader selection of fields than the Royal Society of London including literature and history. Fellowship includes people from a range of disciplines – science & technology, arts, humanities, medicine, social science, business. The Medals were instituted in 2000 by Queen Elizabeth II, whose permission is required to make a presentation, past winners include, The Lord Kelvin Medal is the Senior Prize for Physical, Engineering and Informatics Sciences. It is awarded annually to a person who has achieved distinction nationally and internationally, winners receive a silver medal and are required to deliver a public lecture in Scotland. The award is named after William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, who was a mathematical physicist and engineer. Senior Prize-winners are required to have a Scottish connection but can be based anywhere in the world, the Keith medal has been historically awarded every four years for a scientific paper published in the societys scientific journals, preference being given to a paper containing a discovery. It is awarded alternately for papers on Mathematics or Earth and Environmental Sciences, the medal was founded in 1827 as a result of a bequest by Alexander Keith of Dunottar, the first Treasurer of the Society. The prize was founded in 1855 by Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane, the cumbersome name was changed the following year to the Edinburgh Philosophical Society. Under the leadership of Prof. Thus, for the first four decades of the 19th century, by the 1850s, the society once again unified its membership under one journal. During the 19th century the society produced many scientists whose ideas laid the foundation of the modern sciences, from the 20th century onward, the society functioned not only as a focal point for Scotlands eminent scientists, but also the arts and humanities. It still exists today and continues to promote research in Scotland. In February 2014, Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell was announced as the societys first female president, taking up her position in October
"Rutherford, Daniel". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
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