OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. (BURKBANK.) 



567 



Meanwhile he had lectured acceptably on natural 

 history, chemistry, and physics, and later on physi- 

 ology, being at the time of the receipt of his degree a 

 recognized investigator of the spinal cord and the 

 nervous system. Soon after he came to the United 

 States and for a time filled the chair of Physiology in 

 the New York Medical College. In 1858 he founded, 

 in Paris, the "Journal de la Physiologic de 1'liomme 

 et des Animaux," which he continued to edit until 

 1863. Also during 1858 he delivered a series of lec- 

 tures on the nervous system before the Koyal College 

 of Physicians and Surgeons in London. For a time 

 he then made London his home, and in 1860 he or- 

 ganized there the 

 Hospital for the Par- 

 alyzed and Epilep- 

 tic. He came to the 

 United States in 

 1864, and for sonic 

 years held the chair 

 of Physiology and 

 Pathology of the 

 Nervous System in 

 the medical depart- 

 ment of Harvard 

 University. Five 

 years later he re- 

 turned to Paris, and 

 became Professor of 

 Experimental and 

 Comparative _ Pa- 

 thology in the Ecole 

 de Medecine, and at 

 this time he found- 

 ed with Charcot and 

 Vulpian the "Archives de Physiologic Normale et 

 Pathologique, of which later he became sole editor. 

 In 1873 he was again in the United States and fol- 

 lowed his profession in New r York, also founding in 

 that year the " Archives of Scientific and Practical 

 Medicine," in the management of which Dr. Edward 

 C. Seguin was his associate. He again returned to 

 Paris in 1878, and there succeeded Claude Bernard in 

 the chair of Experimental Medicine in the College de 

 France. Thereafter he remained in Paris until his 

 death, where later he succeeded to the chair of Vul- 

 pian in the Academic des Sciences. Throughout 

 his long life he was an indefatigable student and 

 a brilliant experimenter. His investigations were 

 many and of a striking nature. He was the found- 

 er of the vivisectionist school, and performed many 

 experiments in the transfusion of blood. One of his 

 notable triumphs was the reviving of a dog which 

 had apparently died of peritonitis. He injected fresh 

 blood from a living dog into the carotid artery of 

 the dead animal, and thereby recalled the dog to 

 life, so that it stood on its feet, wagged its tail, and 

 gave other conclusive evidences of life. Twelve 

 hours later it died. By the transfusion of defibrinated 

 blood he produced results tending to show that the 

 fibrin in the blood has no value in nutrition, but is an 

 excrementitious product. He discovered that de- 

 fibrinated and oxygenated blood will restore the irri- 

 tability of the muscles after a corpse has become rigid ; 

 that the blood returns through the veins as venous 

 blood, containing fibrin ; and that by injecting it re- 

 peatedly into the arteries, after defibrinatmg and 

 oxygenating it each time, the irritability of the 

 muscles can be maintained for hours. His experi- 

 ments led him to the conclusion that arterial blood 

 alone is subservient to nutrition, but that venous 

 blood is necessary to produce contractions of the 

 muscles. He conducted a series of experiments on 

 animal heat, by which he fixed the temperature of 

 the human body at 103 F. several degrees higher 

 than previous investigators. In the case of poisons 

 that cause a diminution of temperature, be found 

 that the toxic action can be counteracted to a con- 

 siderable extent by artificially maintaining the heat 

 of the body. His experiments on the spinal cord 

 led him to the conclusion that the fibers of the 



posterior or sensory columns of the cord do not con- 

 nect directly with the brain, but convey impressions 

 to the gray matter of the cord, which transmits them 

 to the brain, and that the fibers intersect within the 

 gray matter, near the point where they enter, and not 

 in the cerebrum or medulla oblongata. The decussa- 

 tion of the motor fibers, those of the anterior column 

 of the spinal column he found, on the other hand, is 

 in the medulla oblongata. He experimented likewise 

 on the muscles, on the sympathetic system of nerves 

 and ganglions, and on the effect of the removal of the 

 suprarenal capsules. These brilliant investigations 

 culminated in his announcement before the Socie'te' 

 de Biologic of Paris (of which he was president) on 

 June 1, 1889, of the effects produced on man by sub- 

 cutaneous injections of a liquid obtained from the 

 testicles of animals (see "Annual Cyclopaedia" for 

 1889, page 287). This discovery was not well re- 

 ceived in Paris, but obtained notoriety in the United 

 States through the press. Perfect cures failed, and 

 in consequence the subject soon became a matter of 

 ridicule. Later and extended experimentation in 

 France has shown its value in such diseases as lo- 

 comotor ataxia, cancer, palsy, hysteria, chorea, ma- 

 larial fevers, and neurasthenia. This fact was shown 

 in 1893 by Dr. Brown-Se"quard, who then said : "Its 

 modifying power over the nutrition of the muscu- 

 lar tissues and the nervous system is undeniable. 

 The orchitic juice does not cure, in the strict sense of 

 that term, any malady ; its use is to stimulate and sup- 

 ply immediately available nutritive matter. The re- 

 sults it produces depend upon its influence on the 

 nerves and upon its supplying the elements necessary 

 for the formation of new cells." Five prizes were 

 awarded him by the French Academy of Sciences, 

 not including the Lacage premium, which he received 

 in 1882, and the biannual premium in 1885, and 

 twice he received the Queen's grants for the encour- 

 agement of science from the Koyal Society of London, 

 of which organization he was a fellow. In 1881 he re- 

 ceived the "Baly medal from the Royal College of 

 Physicians, of which he was also a fellow, and in 1868 

 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 

 this country. He held high rank in the Legion of 

 Honor, and had received an honorary degree from 

 the University of Cambridge. Besides many spe- 

 cial memoirs and pamphlets, he published in the 

 United States " Lectures on the Physiology and Pa- 

 thology of the Nervous System " (Philadelphia, 1860) ; 

 " Lectures on Paralysis of the Lower Extremities " 

 (1860) ; and " Lectures on Nervous Affections " (1873). 

 Whether in Paris, London, or New York he had a 

 large practice, and was especially sought after as a 

 consulting physician in diseases of the nervous system, 

 but his preference was for investigation. Science was 

 his god. Personally he was extremely magnetic, and 

 had the flaming bla'ck eyes of his Malabar ancestors. 

 They were magnificent, and as eloquent as his tongue. 

 He made the hearts of those he addressed burn within 

 them. The clear apprehension and power of expres- 

 sion with his taste for clear-cut expression he inherited 

 from his French ancestry, while the warm impulse of 

 his nature was derived from his Irish progenitors. He 

 survived three wives, the first of whom was Miss 

 Ellen Fletcher, a niece of Daniel Webster's first wife. 

 Burkbank, Alfred Post, elocutionist, born near Chi- 

 cago, 111, July 10, 1846; died in New York city, June 

 22,1894. He was a son of W. M. Burbank, M. D., 

 and was named for Alfred Post, M. D., his father's 

 preceptor. Immediately after being graduated at the 

 University of Chicago he entered the National army, 

 and served with credit in Tennessee. After the war 

 he was for several years principal respectively of 

 Dearborn College and of Douglas College, both at 

 Chicago, and subsequently he became a professional 

 reader and an actor. In 1887 he played the title 

 part in Mark Twain's " Claimant " at the Lyceum 

 Theater, New York city. He also played the part ot 

 Dick Phenyl in Pinero's " Sweet Lavender," produced 

 by Daniel Frohman's company throughout the coun- 

 try, and made two tours in partnership with "Bill 



