escape. Some surgeons leave them at this stage, but others prefer to remove the raised epithelium. When thoroughly cleansed, the wound is irrigated with sterilized saline solution and a dressing subsequently applied. For the more superficial lesions by far the best results are obtained from the application of gauze soaked in picric acid solution and lightly wrung out, being covered with a large antiseptic wool pad and kept in position by a bandage. Picric acid 112 drams, absolute alcohol 3 oz., and distilled water 40 oz., make a good lotion. All being well, this need only be changed about twice a week. The various kinds of oil once so greatly advocated in treating burns are now largely abandoned since they have no antiseptic properties. The deeper burns can only be attended to by a surgeon, whose aim will be first to bring septic absorption to a minimum, and later to hasten the healing process. Skin grafting has great value after extensive burns, not because it hastens healing, which it probably does not do, but because it has a marked influence in lessening cicatricial contraction. When a limb is hopelessly charred, amputation is the only course.
BURNSIDE, AMBROSE EVERETT (1824–1881), American soldier, was born at Liberty, Indiana, on the 23rd of May 1824, of Scottish pedigree, his American ancestors settling first in South Carolina, and next in the north-west wilderness, where his parents lived in a rude log cabin. He was appointed to the United States military academy through casual favour, and graduated in 1847, when war with Mexico was nearly over. In 1853 he resigned his commission, and from 1853 to 1858 was engaged in the manufacture of firearms at Bristol, R.I. In 1856 he invented a breech-loading rifle. He was employed by the Illinois Central railroad until the Civil War broke out. Then he took command of a Rhode Island regiment of three months militia, on the summons of Governor Sprague, took part in the relief of the national capital, and commanded a brigade in the first battle of Bull Run. On the 6th of August 1861 he was commissioned brigadier-general of volunteers, and placed in charge of the expeditionary force which sailed in January 1862 under sealed orders for the North Carolina coast. The victories of Roanoke Island, Newbern and Fort Macon (February—April) were the chief incidents of a campaign which was favourably contrasted by the people with the work of the main army on the Atlantic coast. He was promoted major-general U.S.V. soon afterwards, and early in July, with his North Carolina troops (IX. army corps), he was transferred to the Virginian theatre of war. Part of his forces fought in the last battles of Pope’s campaign in Virginia, and Burnside himself was engaged in the battles of South Mountain and Antietam. At the latter he was in command of McClellan’s left wing, but the want of vigour in his attack was unfavourably criticized. His patriotic spirit, modesty and amiable manners, made him highly popular, and upon McClellan’s final removal (Nov. 7) from the Army of the Potomac, President Lincoln chose him as successor. The choice was unfortunate. Much as he was liked, no one had ever looked upon him as the equal of McClellan, and it was only with the greatest reluctance that he himself accepted the responsibility, which he had on two previous occasions declined. He sustained a crushing defeat at the battle of Fredericksburg (13 Dec. 1862), and (Jan. 27) gave way to Gen. Hooker, after a tenure of less than three months. Transferred to Cincinnati in March 1863, he caused the arrest and court-martial of Clement L. Vallandigham, lately an opposition member of Congress, for an alleged disloyal speech, and later in the year his measures for the suppression of press criticism aroused much opposition; he helped to crush Morgan’s Ohio raid in July; then, moving to relieve the loyalists in East Tennessee, in September entered Knoxville, to which the Confederate general James Longstreet unsuccessfully laid siege. In 1864 Burnside led his old IX. corps under Grant in the Wilderness and Petersburg campaigns. After bearing his part well in the many bloody battles of that time, he was overtaken once more by disaster. The failure of the “Burnside mine” at Petersburg brought about his resignation. A year later he left the service, and in 1866 he became governor of Rhode Island, serving for three terms (1866–1869). From 1875 till his death he was a Republican member of the United States Congress. He was present with the German headquarters at the siege of Paris in 1870–71. He died at Bristol, Rhode Island, on the 13th of September 1881.
See B. P. Poore, Life and Public Services of Ambrose E. Burnside (Providence, 1882); A. Woodbury, Major-General Burnside and the Ninth Army Corps (Providence, 1867).
BURNTISLAND, a royal, municipal and police burgh of Fife, Scotland, on the shore of the Firth of Forth, 534 m. S.W. of Kirkcaldy by the North British railway. Pop. (1891) 4993; (1901) 4846. It is protected from the north wind by the Binn (632 ft.), and in consequence of its excellent situation, its links and sandy beach, it enjoys considerable repute as a summer resort. The chief industries are distilling, fisheries, shipbuilding and shipping, especially the export of coal and iron. Until the opening of the Forth bridge, its commodious harbour was the northern station of the ferry across the firth from Granton, 5 m. south. The parish church, dating from 1594, is a plain structure, with a squat tower rising in two tiers from the centre of the roof. The public buildings include two hospitals, a town-hall, music hall, library and reading room and science institute. On the rocks forming the western end of the harbour stands Rossend Castle, where the amorous French poet Chastelard repeated the insult to Queen Mary which led to his execution. In 1667 it was ineffectually bombarded by the Dutch. The burgh was originally called Parva Kinghorn and later Wester Kinghorn. The origin and meaning of the present name of the town have always been a matter of conjecture. There seems reason to believe that it refers to the time when the site, or a portion of it, formed an island, as sea-sand is the subsoil even of the oldest quarters. Another derivation is from Gaelic words meaning “the island beyond the bend.” With Dysart, Kinghorn and Kirkcaldy, it unites in returning one member to parliament.
BURR, AARON (1756–1836), American political leader, was born at Newark, New Jersey, on the 6th of February 1756. His father, the Rev. Aaron Burr (1715–1757), was the second president (1748–1757) of the College of New Jersey, now Princeton University; his mother was the daughter of Jonathan Edwards, the well-known Calvinist theologian. The son graduated from the College of New Jersey in 1772, and two years later began the study of law in the celebrated law school conducted by his brother-in-law, Tappan Reeve, at Litchfield, Connecticut. Soon after the outbreak of the War of Independence, in 1775, he joined Washington’s army in Cambridge, Mass. He accompanied Arnold’s expedition into Canada in 1775, and on arriving before Quebec he disguised himself as a Catholic priest and made a dangerous journey of 120 m. through the British lines to notify Montgomery, at Montreal, of Arnold’s arrival. He served for a time on the staffs of Washington and Putnam in 1776–77, and by his vigilance in the retreat from Long Island he saved an entire brigade from capture. On becoming lieutenant-colonel in July 1777, he assumed the command of a regiment, and during the winter at Valley Forge guarded the “Gulf,” a pass commanding the approach to the camp, and necessarily the first point that would be attacked. In the engagement at Monmouth, on the 28th of June 1778, he commanded one of the brigades in Lord Stirling’s division. In January 1779 Burr was assigned to the command of the “lines” of Westchester county, a region between the British post at Kingsbridge and that of the Americans about 15 m. to the north. In this district there was much turbulence and plundering by the lawless elements of both Whigs and Tories and by bands of ill-disciplined soldiers from both armies. Burr established a thorough patrol system, rigorously enforced martial law, and quickly restored order.
He resigned from the army in March 1779, on account of ill-health, renewed the study of law, was admitted to the bar at Albany in 1782, and began to practise in New York city after its evacuation by the British in the following year. In 1782 he married Theodosia Prevost (d. 1794), the widow of a British army officer who had died in the West Indies during the War of Independence. They had one child, a daughter, Theodosia, born in 1783, who became widely known for her beauty and accomplishments, married Joseph Alston of South Carolina
