burn Damage caused to the body by contact with flames, hot substances, some chemicals, radiation (including sunlight), or electricity. Bums are classified by depth of skin damage and by percentage of skin damaged. First-degree burns injure only the epidermis (top layer), with redness, pain, and minimal edema. In a second-degree burn, damage extends into the dermis (inner layer), with redness and blisters. Third-degree burns destroy the entire thickness of the skin. There is no pain, because the skin’s pain receptors are destroyed. Burns deeper than the skin can release toxic materials into the bloodstream and may require amputation. Sec¬ ondary shock follows severe bums, caused by loss of fluid both in the destroyed tissue and in leaks from the damaged area. Treatment depends on severity; first-degree bums need only first aid; third-degree burns require long-term hospitalization. Depending on the type, extent, and site of the burn, it may be left exposed, covered with a bandage, or excised to remove dead tissue in preparation for skin grafts. Complications of bums include respiratory problems, infection, ulcers in the stomach or duodenum, and, especially in brown skin, thick scarring. Seizures and hypertension after bums occur almost entirely in children. Survivors usu¬ ally require plastic surgery, long-term physical therapy, and psycho¬ therapy.
Burnaby District municipality (pop., 2001: 193,954), southwestern British Columbia, Canada. The settlement developed along with Vancou¬ ver in the late 19th century and is now an eastern suburb of that city. It is one of the province’s chief commercial and industrial centres, with impor¬ tant trucking, warehousing, and petroleum-distribution facilities.
Burne-Jones Vbom-'jonzV Sir Edward (Coley) (b. Aug. 28, 1833, Birmingham, Eng.—d. June 17, 1898, London) British painter, illustra¬ tor, and designer. At Oxford he met his future collaborator, William Mor¬ ris. In 1856 he became apprenticed to Dante Gabriel Rossetti. His paintings portray the romantic medieval imagery favoured by the Pre-Raphaelites, and he drew inspiration from the elongated, melancholy figures of Fra Filippo Lippi and Sandro Botticelli. He first achieved great success in 1877
Burlingame, detail of an engraving by Perine & Giles, late 19th century.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, WASHINGTON, D.C.
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Burnet ► Burr I 299
with an exhibition of paintings including The Beguiling of Merlin (1873— 77). He was a founding member of Morris & Co. (1861), notably as a designer of stained glass and tapestries, and he executed 87 designs for the Kelmscott Press edition of Geoffrey Chaucer (1896), considered one the world’s finest printed books. His work had great influence on the French Symbolist movement, and his revival of the ideal of the artist- craftsman influenced the development of 20th-century industrial design.
Burnet \bor-'net\, Sir (Frank) Macfarlane (b. Sept. 3, 1899, Tra- ralgon, Vic., Austl.—d. Aug. 31, 1985, Melbourne, Vic.) Australian phy¬ sician and virologist. Burnet received his medical degree from the University of Melbourne. He later discovered a method for identifying bacteria by the viruses (bacteriophages) that attack them, and he shared a 1960 Nobel Prize with Peter Medawar for the discovery of acquired immu¬ nological tolerance to tissue transplants. He was knighted in 1951.
Burnett, Carol (b. April 26, 1933, San Antonio, Texas, U.S.) U.S. comedian and actress. She made her Broadway debut in Once upon a Mattress (1959), then appeared regularly on television in The Garry Moore Show (1959-62). Her gift for parody and her knock-kneed comic grace gained her a wide following. The weekly Carol Burnett Show (1966-77) became one of television’s most popular programs and won her five Emmy Awards. She acted in several films, including Pete ‘n ’ Tillie (1972) and Annie (1982), and returned to Broadway in Moon over Buf¬ falo (1995).
Burnett, Frances (Eliza) Hodgson (b. Nov. 24, 1849, Manchester, Eng.—d. Oct. 29, 1924, Plandome, N.Y., U.S.) British-U.S. playwright and author. She is best remembered for the popular children’s novel Little Lord Fauntleroy (1886), about an American boy who inherits an English earldom. The Secret Garden (1911), considered her best work, is a clas¬ sic of children’s literature. Other works include the novel Through One Administration (1883), about corruption in Washington, D.C., and the play A Lady of Quality (1896).
Burney, Charles (b. April 7, 1726, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, Eng.—d. April 12, 1814, Chelsea, Middlesex) British music historian. After being apprenticed to Thomas Arne, he taught music and played the organ. In 1770 he set off on European travels, undertaken to research his seminal Gen¬ eral History of Music, 4 vol. (1776-89). His accounts of the many famous musicians and others he met, including Christoph Willibald Gluck and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, provide an entertaining and invaluable account of 18th-century European musical life and of intellectual life in general. The novelist Fanny Burney was his daughter.
Burney (d'Arblay), Fanny orig. Frances Burney (b. June 13, 1752, King’s Lynn, Norfolk,
Eng.—d. Jan. 6, 1840, London)
English novelist. The self-educated daughter of Charles Burney, she wrote lively accounts of his social musical evenings. Her habit of recording observations of society led to Evelina (1778), an epistolary novel about an unsure young girl’s social development; a landmark in the evo¬ lution of the novel of manners, it pointed the way to Jane Austen’s novels. Her later novels include Cecilia (1782) and the potboiler Camilla (1796).
Burnham, Daniel H(udson)
(b. Sept. 4, 1846, Henderson, N.Y.,
U.S.—d. June 1, 1912, Heidelberg,
Ger.) U.S. architect and city planner.
He pioneered the development of Chicago commercial architecture with his partner, John Wellborn Root (1850-91). Three of the firm’s Chi¬ cago buildings were designated landmarks in 1962: the Rookery (1886), the Reliance Building (1890), and the Monadnock Building (1891), the last and tallest (16-story) U.S. masonry skyscraper. As chief consulting architect for Chicago’s World’s Columbian Exposition (1893), Burnham chose firms working in academic eclecticism, the antithesis of the Chi¬ cago School. The exposition’s resulting “White City,” with its boulevards, gardens, and Classical facades, influenced subsequent planning in the U.S.
Burnham’s plan for Chicago (1907-09), which the city used for many years, is a classic example of U.S. city planning.
Burns, George orig. Nathan Birnbaum (b. Jan. 20, 1896, New York, N.Y., U.S.—d. March 9, 1996, Beverly Hills, Calif.) U.S. comedian best known for his collaboration with Grade Allen (1902-64). Bums and Allen formed a comedy team in 1925 and were married in 1926. They performed on radio in The George Burns and Grade Allen Show (1932— 50), with Bums playing the straight man to Allen’s malaprop-prone chat¬ terbox, before their show moved to television (1950-58). They made 13 films together, including The Big Broadcast films of 1932, 1936, and 1937. Burns returned to the screen in films such as The Sunshine Boys (1975, Academy Award) and Oh, God! (1977) and its sequels. Famous for his wry humour and his cigars, he continued performing into his late 90s.
Bums, Ken(neth Lauren) (b. July 27, 1953, Brooklyn, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. documentary filmmaker. He founded his own production company in 1975 and made such documentary films as Brooklyn Bridge (1981), The Shakers (1984), The Statue of Liberty (1985), and The Congress (1988). His acclaimed series The Civil War (1990), televised on PBS, won numerous filmmaking and history awards. His later television documen¬ taries include Baseball (1994), Lewis and Clark (1997), Frank Lloyd Wright (1998), and Jazz (2001).
Burns, Robert (b. Jan. 25, 1759, Alloway, Ayrshire, Scot.—d. July 21, 1796, Dumfries, Dumfriesshire)