viii 



in discussing all manner of questions relating to his profession in 

 senates, councils, and committees. 



Sir George Burrows was not a frequent writer on medical 

 subjects. The only book he wrote was ' On the Disorders of the 

 Cerebral Circulation,' 8vo., 1846. The substance of it had been given 

 in the Lumleian Lectures at the College of Physicians in 1843 and 

 1844, and its chief value was in the evidence which it gave of the 

 error of the belief, then generally held, that the cranium being a 

 complete case of bone, completely filled by the brain and its 

 membranes, and excluding from them all atmospheric pressure, the 

 quantity of blood circulating in the brain cannot be materially 

 increased or diminished by posture, bleeding, changes in the heart or 

 breathing, or by any such means. The belief thus held was not only 

 general, but was influential in the treatment of disease, leading some 

 to hold that, so long as the skull was entire, no abstraction of blood, 

 by any manner of bleeding, could have any effect on the blood-vessels 

 of the brain, so as to lessen the absolute quantity of blood contained 

 within them. 



In opposition to this, Sir George Burrows showed, in careful expe- 

 riments, testing those of Dr. Kellie on which chiefly the belief had 

 rested, that the quantity of blood in the brain is materially altered 

 by bleeding largely, and by posture and by suffocation; and that, 

 admitting that the contents of the cranium must be always nearly 

 the same, the variations in the blood may be balanced by those of the 

 cerebro- spinal fluid. 



As one reads this book one cannot but regret that he did not give 

 himself more frequently to original research, for it is clear, critical, 

 and definite, and it greatly helped to the correction of serious 

 errors. But he was not fond of research ; he preferred the daily 

 business of practical life, and in it the use of the best knowledge 

 he could gain from others' and his own attentive observation. 

 The only other essays that he published were two papers in the 

 ' Medico-Chirurgical Transactions,' one " A Case of Extensive Carci- 

 noma in the Lungs," in vol. 27, the other on " Tubercular Pericar- 

 ditis," in vol. 30, and the articles on measles, scarlet fever, and 

 haemorrhage in Tweedie's ' Library of Medicine. ' Besides these he 

 published some clinical lectures in the ' Medical Gazette ; ' and his 

 first lecture on Forensic Medicine, which was also separately printed, 

 is in the ' London Medical and Surgical Journal ' for February 4th, 

 1832. 



From all this I think it may justly be said that that which most 

 marked Sir George Burrows's mental character, and contributed most 

 to his professional success and to his influence and utility, was that, 

 having a strong will and a strong, clear intellect, he applied them 

 steadfastly to the plain daily duties of his life. 



J. P. 



