Among those who perished in the wreck of the _Orion_, was Dr. John
Burns, Professor of Surgery in the University of Glasgow, aged about
eighty years. Dr. Burns held a distinguished place in the medical
world, for at least half a century, as an author and a teacher. He was
a son of the Rev. Dr. John Burns, for more than sixty years minister
of the Barony parish of Glasgow, who died about fourteen years ago,
at the age of ninety. He was originally intended to be a manufacturer,
and in his time the necessary training for this business included
a practical application to the loom. A disease of the knee-joint
unfitted him for becoming a weaver, and he turned his attention to
the medical profession, winch the neighboring university afforded him
easy and ample means of studying. He early entered into business as
a general practitioner, but his ambition led him very soon to be an
instructor. In 1800, he published _Dissertations on Inflammation_,
which raised his name to a high position in the literature of his
profession. In 1807, he published a kindred volume on Hemorrhage.
In the mean time he had turned his attention to lecturing, and
he continued to give, for many years, lectures on midwifery. His
observations and experience on this subject he offered to the world
in _The Principles of Midwifery_, a work which has run through
twelve editions, and been translated into several of the continental
languages. It is very elaborate and valuable, and as each succeeding
edition presented the result of the author's increasing experience, it
became a standard in every medical library. Its chief defect is a want
of clearness in the arrangement, and sometimes in the language. In
1815, the crown instituted a Professorship of Surgery in the Glasgow
University, and the Duke of Montrose, its chancellor, appointed to
it Mr. Burns, a choice which the voice of the profession generally
approved. The value of the professorship might average 500l. yearly.
As a professor, Dr. Burns was highly popular. He had a cheerful and
attractive manner, and was fond of bringing in anecdotes more or less
applicable, but always enlivening. His language was plain and clear,
but not always correct or elegant. In personal appearance, he was
of the middle size, of an anxious and careworn, but gentlemanly
and intelligent, expression of countenance. In 1830, he published
_Principles of Surgery_, first volume, which was followed by another.
This work is confused, both in style and arrangement, and has been
very little read, but it did credit to his zeal and industry, for he
had now acquired fame and fortune, and had long had at his command
the most extensive practice in the west of Scotland. John Burns,
the younger, had written and published a work on the evidences and
principles of Christianity, which was extensively read, and went
through many editions. His name was not at first on the title-page,
but that it was the production of a medical man was obvious. He gave
a copy to his father, who shortly after said, "Ah, John, I wish _you_
could have written such a book!" Dr. Burns has many friends in the
United States, who were once his pupils. One of the most eminent of
them is Professor Pattison of the Medical Department of the New York
University, in this city.
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