BURNEY-- BURNS. 



329 



putation of an accomplished botanist and lecturer, 

 he, on the opening of king's college, London, be- 

 came a candidate for the chair of botanical professor 

 to that new university, to which he was duly 

 elected ; and he commenced the duties of his new 

 office by the delivery of its opening lecture, with 

 great eclat, in the academic year of that foundation, 

 1831-2. Professor Burnett had now attained the 

 height of his laudable ambition, the point from 

 which he could render botany most useful to so- 

 ciety, his own advancement in the science, and his 

 private emolument. Accordingly, his reputation 

 as a lecturer on the science brought with his new 

 appointment a numerous class of pupils, of whom 

 he may be truly said to have had not only the ad- 

 miration and respect due to an eminent teacher, 

 but the genuine attachment due to his amiable 

 manners. During the recesses from his college 

 duties, and partly in the midst of them, professor 

 Burnett found time for an extended social inter- 

 course, a select but not extensive medical practice, 

 the editing of the " London Medical and Surgical 

 Journal," and other literary labours. It was during 

 this season that he edited a new and beautiful edition 

 of Dr Stephenson and Churchill's medical botany, 

 in 3 vols. 8vo ; and composed his two large volumes 

 of Outlines of Botany. Not long before his death, 

 and in a state of health rapidly declining, professor 

 Burnett became a candidate, with other eminent 

 botanists, for the vacant situation of professor of 

 botany to the honourable company of apothecaries, 

 and demonstrator of botany at Chelsea botanic 

 garden ; which appointments he obtained, with the 

 unanimous approbation of the members of the so- 

 ciety; and he delivered his first course of thirty 

 lectures at their botanic garden during the summer 

 of 1834. His death took place on the 27th July, 

 1835. 



Professor Burnet was of a delicate and slender 

 formation ; rather small in person. His counte- 

 nance was handsome and intellectual, and his eyes 

 dark, sparkling, and expressive. He was alto- 

 gether vivacious and intelligent, and infused thos 

 qualities into his lectures and literary composi- 

 tions. 



BURNEY, WILLIAM, LL.D. an eminent teach- 

 er ; died Feb. 20, 1832, at the royal academy, Cold 

 Harbour, Gosport, in his seventieth year. In early 

 life Dr Burney established the royal academy at 

 Goport, which has flourished more than forty years, 

 and many of our most distinguished naval and mili- 

 tary officers have been educated under this accom- 

 plished scholar and worthy man, whose urbanity and 

 kindness secured the esteem and regard of his 

 numerous pupils. Dr Burney was the author of an 

 extensive Marine Dictionary, and other valuable 

 works ; and was accustomed to record a series 

 of excellent Meteorological Observations. 



BURNS, OR INJURIES BY FIRE, are now 

 very generally treated by the application of cotton- 

 wool. It is said that cotton was first used as a 

 remedy for burns in America, and that the discovery 

 of its sanative properties was owing to accident. 

 The child of a woman who was engaged in the 

 preparation of cotton, happened, in some way or 

 other, to get itself extensively burned with boiling 

 water. The mother, in her agony, having no per- 

 son with her at the time, laid the child down in 

 some cotton on the floor, which promised to be the 

 safest and softest position, and hastened away to 

 procure medical assistance. The medical man of 

 the village, however, was from home. The poor 



woman, on her return, found that the child had 

 rolled about in the cotton and had become covered 

 in the Durned parts with a thick coating of it. 

 The cotton appeared to have produced great relief 

 of pain ; the child had now ceased to cry and was 

 actually cheerful. Some hours elapsed before the 

 medical attendant arrived, but as the child con- 

 tinued cheerful and the cotton had become pretty 

 firmly adherent to the sores, the mother would not 

 allow of its being removed. Within the period of 

 ten or twelve days the cotton began to drop off 

 spontaneously ; and in a fortnight from the receipt 

 of the injury, the whole of it was detached, leav- 

 ing a perfect cure, the skin being without mark 

 or contraction, and, in short, .quite natural. 



The cotton treatment has since had a pretty ex- 

 tensive trial in different parts of England and Scot- 

 land. As might have been expected, scientific ob- 

 servation has enabled medical men to point out the 

 way in which the cotton may be most advanta- 

 geously applied, and it has also enabled them to 

 define the limits of its utility. The cotton should 

 be applied to the burned parts as soon after the 

 injury as is possible; and, if blisters have formed, 

 they should not be opened. Where it can be done 

 without incurring considerable delay, the cotton 

 should be carded before its application into thin 

 flakes. These flakes should be laid on the injured 

 part, and piled one on the other until they form a 

 soft covering, which, under high pressure, should 

 be about an inch in thickness. A bandage should 

 then be passed around the patient to prevent the 

 cotton from falling off, but care must be taken not 

 to draw the bandage tight or allow it to press the 

 body. Its object is simply to retain the cotton in 

 its place. After this, the first step, is taken, no- 

 thing remains to be done while the cotton is ob- 

 served to stick to the surface of the injured part 

 and to remain dry. Should any portion of the 

 cotton, however, become wet, either through the 

 discharge of water from the blisters, or the forma- 

 tion of purulent matter, and continue wet for a 

 day or two, the attendant should, at the end of that 

 time, pick the wetted cotton gently away, and sup- 

 ply its place with dry cotton. The general rule, 

 consequently, is very plain. While the patient is 

 free from pain, and the cotton dry and adherent to 

 the surface of the burn, no change should be made ; 

 but should the cotton become wet at any part, and 

 continue so for a day or two, the wetted portion 

 is to be removed, and its place supplied with dry 

 cotton. The treatment is to be conducted thus 

 until the cure is completed. 



The manner in which cotton acts in the cure of 

 burns may be accounted for thus. It excludes the 

 air and forms a warm and soft covering for the 

 injured parts. Under this protection, the res- 

 torative powers of nature quickly repair the in- 

 jury. But it is possible that cotton wool may 

 have a sanative virtue beyond its mere softness 

 arid heat. 



BURNS, ALLAN; a distinguished anatomist and 

 surgical writer, was born at Glasgow, on the 18th 

 Sept., 1781. His father was the Rev. Dr John 

 Burns, minister of the Barony parish in that city, 

 who held the situation for the long space of sixty- 

 nine years, and died so recently as 1839, aged ninety- 

 six. At the early age of fourteen, Allan entered the 

 medical classes, and by his diligence and applica- 

 tion, he was enabled two years afterwards to take 

 upon himself the sole direction of the dissecting- 

 rooms of his brother, Mr John Burns, who at that 



