There is perhaps no more frightful accident than a severe burn of large area. The intense suffering of the patient, and, in case of recovery, the hideous deformity left, render these accidents peculiarly distressing. In spite of all our pastes and powders, salves and solutions, the mortaltiy in burns involving more than one-third of the body surface is nearly 100 per cent., and in many cases the agony of redressing these wounds is so great as to lead physician and patient alike to pray for a merciful termination by death. Dupuytren's classification of burns into six degrees was cumbersome, and modern writers have adopted Boyer's and speak only of three degrees. In the following description, hyperemia of the skin will be considered a burn of the first degree, destruction of the epidermis shown by vesication, second degree, destruction of the derma, third degree, and of the deeper tissues, fourth degree.