Edinburgh Physic Garden

 History of Medicine, History of Science  No Responses »
Mar 082016
 

Site of Edinburgh physic gardenPlatform 11, Waverley Station, Edinburgh EH1 1BB

From 1675 to 1763 the Edinburgh Physic Garden was near what is now platform 11 of Waverley Station. At the time it was close to the shores of a small lake, the Nor’ Loch. The site is now marked with a blue plaque. The garden had originally been established at Holyrood in 1670 by Sir Robert Sibbald and Sir Andrew Balfour, founder members of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. They were inspired to found it by similar gardens they had seen in France. It existed to provide medicinal plants and to teach botany to medical students.

 

Physic Garden commemorative plaque, Waverley Station

Plaque commemorating the site of Edinburgh’s physic garden, opposite platform 11, Waverley Station.

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Joseph Black’s house

 History of Medicine, History of Science, Psychology  2 Responses »
Mar 082016
 

13 Sylvan Place, Edinburgh EH9 1LH

Joseph Black's house

Up an alleyway here you will find the house where the great chemist Joseph Black lived in around 1740. To get to the university from here Black only had to walk across the Meadows, where he often took a stroll with his friends the economist and political philosopher Adam Smith and the geologist James Hutton. Among his important contributions to chemistry were the discovery of carbon dioxide and latent heat. He discovered the latter principle when he observed that applying heat to boiling water produces more steam, but does not raise its temperature above its boiling point.

No public access.

 

Portrait of Joseph Black (1728–99).

Commemorative plaque on Joseph Black’s house.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Robert Knox’s anatomy school

 History of Medicine, History of Science  No Responses »
Mar 042016
 

10 Surgeon’s Square, Edinburgh EH1 1LZ

surgeon's square

At number 10 Surgeon’s Square Robert Knox ran his extra-mural anatomy school from the death of its original proprietor, John Barclay, in 1826 until 1844. Knox bought the bodies of many of the victims of Burke and Hare. He was a flamboyant character, whose controversial views made him popular with his students. Although he was found innocent of any involvement in the murders, the scandal ruined his career. Robert Grant, who taught invertebrate zoology in the same school, was an early evolutionary thinker and friend of Charles Darwin while a student in Edinburgh in 1825-27.

No public access.

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