Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/194

NAME BURNET 172 BURNET clerk, to draw out, measure and sell to Mrs. for her dear but sick husband, one half pint of your best gin to cure him of his pres- ent terribel malady. I do." He used to carry about with him whenever he came to Portland, some ten miles from Yarmouthville, an old fashioned lady's hand- bag, and on entering the office of a physician whose opinion he desired, he would put the bag carefully on the floor between his feet, and begin, "Well, Brother, I had to come and talk medicine with you. What do you know about this bad state of affairs?" From there onward he would give you a very lucid account of the patient for whom he was inquiring the best thing to be done. Among the numerous and highly original papers contributed by Dr. Burbank to the Cumberland County and Maine Medical As- sociations mention should be made of one "On the Induction of Labor" and of the Annual Oration in 1892, a charming address "On the Mutual Relations of Medical Men," replete with quaint humor and depth of thought com- bined. He was indeed a character in medicine, and should have been known to every medical man that ever lived as a most delightful specimen of geniality combined with excellent judgment and exquisite skill. He died after a short illness, June 27, 1895, and Maine had lost a very remarkable man and physician. James A. Spalding. Trans. Me. Med. Asso. Family papers. Burnet, William (1730-1791) William Burnet, Revolutionary surgeon, judge, founder of the New Jersey Medical So- ciety, was the son of Dr. Ichabod Burnet, of Elizabethtown, New Jersey, where he was born December 13, 1730. Ichabod's grandfather was Thomas, who had migrated from Lynn, Massachusetts, about 1640, and settled in Southampton, Long Island. William graduat- ed from Princeton in 1749, studied medicine with Dr. Staats, of New York, and settled in Newark as a physician. He had acquired reputation and popularity in his profession when the Revolutionary War broke out, and he had helped found the state medical society in 1766. At once relinquish- ing a lucrative practice he assumed and main- tained a conspicuous part as one of the lead- ers of the popular cause in Newark and in Es- sex County during the war, as chairman of the Committee of Safety. On one occasion in 1776, he organized and dispatched to New York a force of three hundred men. He served also as deputy chairman of the Newark Committee, and in connection with Capt. Jo- seph Hedden and Samuel Hays really gov- erned the town for several years. He was first judge of the county courts. As illustrating how much his private prop- erty suffered by the depredations of the enemy it is related that his large and valuable library was headed up in casks and carried off by the British or their allies, the refugees, and that fifty head of cattle were driven off from his farm. In July, 1776, Dr. Burnet was appointed one of three commissioners for issuing State bills of credit, and for making purchases of arms and ammunition for the public service. He was commissioned surgeon second regiment Essex, February 17, 1776. Dr. Burnet was elected a member of the Continental Congress in the winter of 1776, Early in this session Congress divided the thirteen states into three military districts, and it was by this same congress that he was com- missioned a hospital surgeon to the army, and finally, October 11, 1777, physician and surgeon general of the hospital department of the Eastern District. He resigned his seat in Con- gress and assumed the arduous duties of this responsible post, which he continued to dis- charge till the close of the war. It is related that he dined with General Arnold on the evening that Major Andre was arrested. Dr. Burnet married Mary, daughter of Na- thaniel Camp of Newark, by whom he had a large family of children, several of them be- ing eminent in war, the judiciary and in "the public service. Jacob (1770-18S3) was a judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio and a promi- nent citizen of Cincinnati. By his second mar- riage to Gertrude Gouverneur, widow of Col- onel Philip Van Courtland, Dr. Burnet had three sons, the youngest being David G. Bur- net (1789-1870), the first provincial president of Texas, in 1836. At the close of the war the doctor returned to his family and devoted himself to agricul- tural pursuits. His homestead was in what is now the lower part of Newark, on the north- east corner of Lincoln Park. Soon after his return he was appointed presiding judge of the Court of Common Pleas. We find his name signed to the "Instruments of Associa- tion and Constitutions of the New Jersey Medical Society," July 23, 1766. In November of the following year he was elected president of this first state medical society to be organ- ized in any state of the Union, and when he