Talk:Edinburgh Royal Infirmary

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[edit] Discussion in main article

I've recently removed an unsourced (see WP:CITE) statement from the main article. Editor NRPanikker responded by inserting a question and piece of self-reference ("(See History)") in the article. I've reverted this.

My reasoning for that revert is simply that the self-reference of referring somebody to the article history within the article is unsafe; it may (probably) not work in the Wikipedia CD edition, or many of the Wikipedia "reprints" out there. It is discouraged in various parts of the Wikipedia style guide. (See WP:STYLE)

As for the initial comment which I removed; in the edit summary he or she also asked, "Why can't we say why?". The point there was that it's subjective whether the baths were placed on the Infirmary site for the reason which I removed, namely that bathing was considered a dangerous activity requiring medical supervision. Some might say it was placed there for rather the opposite reason, i.e. because bathing was coming to be seen as advantageous to health. Either way, an encyclopædia article shouldn't include this kind of potentially controversial opinion without evidence to back it up, i.e. reference to a (secondary) source containing the information; for example a respected text about the foundation of the Infirmary. – Kieran T ^{(talk | contribs)} 14:42, 17 October 2006 (UTC)