Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 1.djvu/242

 BURNETT

BURNETT

System of Diseases of the Ear, Nose, and Throat," edited by him in 1S93; and the chapters on otology in the "American Text-book of Surgery," 1896: in the " Encyclopoedia of Diseases of Children," edited by Keating, and in the "American Year-book of Medicine and Surgery." For many years Dr. Burnett edited the department of progress of otology in the "American Journal of the Medical Sciences," and the author can bear personal testimony to the diligence and assiduity with which he labored.

Of the many positions which he held the following may be regarded as the most important.

In 1882 he was elected professor of dis- eases of the ear in the Philadelphia Poly- clinic Hospital and College for Graduates in Medicine, and later emeritus professor of the institution. At various times he was clinical professor of otology in the Woman's Medical College; aural surgeon to the Presbyterian Hospital; consulting aurist to the Pennsylvania Institution for Deaf and Dumb; to St. Timothy's Hos- pital; to the West Philadelphia Hospital for Women; to the Philadelphia Hopsital for Epileptics.

Among his contemporaries in the pro- fession, Dr. Burnett enjoyed a wide circle of friends; his kindly disposition and warm heart held by his side many who, in the daily rush and hurry of their labors, were unable to hold as much intercourse with him as they wished.

But a few months before his death, Dr. Burnett published, in collaboration with Drs. E. Fletcher Ingalls, of Chicago, and James E. Newcomb, of New York, a " Text-book of Diseases of the Ear, Nose, and Throat," which may be regarded as the most advanced work of its character in the English language. The last liter- ary work of Dr. Burnett, aside from this book, was an article on "Scarlatinous Empyema of the Superior Squamomas- toid Cells," which appeared in the "American Journal of the Medical Sci- ences' ' for March, 1902, after its author had passed away. He attended the meeting of the section of otology and

larnyngology of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia on the evening of Wed- nesday, January 15, and took an active part in the discussion of the papers read upon that occasion. A few days later he developed pneumonia and died, after a brief illness, on January 30, at his home in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. His widow, who was Miss Anna Lawrence Davis, of Buffalo, New York, and four children survived him.

Dr. Burnett was a fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia; president of the American Otological Society and member of the Pennsylvania State Med- ical and kindred societies.

I have given a full list of his writings in the "Transactions of the College of Phy- cians of Philadelphia," 3d. series, vol. xxv, 1903. F. R. P.

Tr. of the Coll. of Phys., Phila.. 1903. (F. R. Packard.)

Burnett, Swan Moses (1847-1906).

Swan Moses Burnett, ophthalmologist, was born in New Market, Tennessee, March 16, 1847, and graduated in Medicine from Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York City, now the medical department of New York University, in 1S70, and first settled in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he practised for five years, in 1S73 marrying Miss Frances Hodgson. 1875 saw him in the District of Columbia, attaining prominence as a specialist in oph- thalmology and otology, and well-known in literary and art circles, and also as the author of a "Treatise on Astigma- tism," a "Treatise on Refraction of the Human Eye" and over sixty-four distinct articles on diseases of the eye and ear, and chapters in text books. He was as- sociated with Dr. John S. Billings in the production of the " National Medical Dic- tionary," and with Drs. Norris and Oliver in that of the "System of Ophthalmol- ogy," writing as well many magazine articles and public addresses.

In 187S he was appointed lecturer on ophthalmology and otology in the school of medicine, Georgetown University, continuing in this capacity until 1883,