Career
He was licensed to practise in Illinois, Arizona, and California. He was a graduate of Rush Medical College in Chicago, Illinois, where he later taught. He was also on the surgical staff of Cook County Hospital.
Finding himself ill with tuberculosis of the lungs, Burton became unable to work.
He moved to what he hoped was a more favorable climate in Arizona, where he recovered enough to work as assistant surgeon of the United States Marine Hospital Service. His physical condition continuing to deteriorate, he then moved to California In an attempt to mask the pain, Burton became addicted to morphine, then to cocaine, as he then sought to counteract the drowsiness caused by the morphine.
Eventually Burton was unable to eat, suffered a breakdown and fell unconscious for over 48 hours. Some physicians who knew him, in consultation, pronounced him incurable and said he had three weeks to live.
He instead found himself healed, which he wrote in 1908, made him
"determined to find out what it was, although I had no thought at that time that it could take me out of my profession.
Burton was married to Alberta Neiswanger Hall, a composer who wrote songs for children, including settings for L. Frank Baum"s The Songs of Father Goose.
