Burns described endocarditis and reported three cases of mitral stenosis. He recognized the thrill present in the latter condition and seems to have understood the mechanism of a cardiac murmur. He also described unilateral paralysis of the diaphragm resulting from pressure on the phrenic nerve by a thoracic aneurysm. Burns was also among the first to suggest (see p. 136) that angina pectoris is an expression of coronary obstruction. Biography by J. B. Herrick, 1935.