Gone were the filthy wards crammed with patients wasting away in squalid conditions; gone were the bloodied aprons and the operating tables soiled with bodily fluids; and gone were the unwashed instruments, all of which once had the operating theater reeking of “good old hospital stink.” The Royal Infirmary was now bright, clean, and well ventilated. No longer a house of death, it was a house of healing.

