Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/730

NAME LITTLE 708 LITTLE 1838, also editing some journals of the Epis- copal Church. As he neared his eightieth birthday he be- gan to suffer from an affection of the choroid; to one so fond of books this was a great trial. Early in the spring of 1886 his strength began to fail and he was found dead in bed on July 4, at Bay Head, New Jersey, where he had gone for his health. His contributions to medical literature were numerous and of value ; they include : "Diseases of the Eye," 1837; "Tumors at the Base of the Brain producing Amaurosis," 1838; "Notes on Secondary Variolous Oph- thalmia," 1855 ; "Memoir on Granular Oph- thalmia (by request) in the Transactions, Con- gres d'Ophthalmologie de Bruxelles," 1857; "Epithelial Cancer of the Colon," 1873. Trans. Coll. Phys., Phila., 1887, Memoir A. D. Hall. Little, James Lawrence (1836-1885) Of Scotch-Irish and English forbears, he was born in Brooklyn, February 19, 1836, and went to private schools until nearly twenty, when books attracted him and he entered a book-store. Reading more than selling, par- ticularly the medical works, he soon wanted very much to become a doctor. One day Willard Parker (q. v.) was asked to take in another student. He was going to refuse, but somehow the tall, earnest young man applying made an impression. Little was admitted and studied with Parker for two years and graduated at the College of Physi- cians and Surgeons in 1860, and resigning a po- sition at Bellevue Hospital became junior as- sistant at the New York Hospital. Little had enthusiasm and thoroughness. He re- ported cases for the American Medical Times; and devised a method for making and apply- ing plaster-of-Paris splints to supersede the old starch bandage. He was eminently painstaking as a lec- turer, for one of his class says: "Little did not merely tell the men to apply a flax- seed poultice but brought the flaxseed and the cloth and made the poultice before the class." His clinics were besieged by crowds of pa- tients from far and near, and everyone knew when they were being held, by the mud-stained buggies of the other practitioners standing near the door. He was the first American surgeon to puncture the bladder with the as- pirator for the relief of retention of urine. He simultaneously ligated the subclavian and carotid arteries of the right side for aneurysm of the first part of the subclavian. Tlie op- eration for stone he had done seventy-seven times with only two fatalities. He married in June, 1858, Elsie A., daugh- ter of John Charlotte, of Newbern, North Carolina. He was actively engaged in work on March 31, 1885, and on April 4 he had succumbed to diabetes. Among the writings which his scanty leis- ure gave time for are : "The Use of Plaster of Paris in Surgery," 1867; "Median Lithotomy"; "Excision of the Lower Jaw for Osteo-Sarcoma" ; Anchylosis of the Tempero-maxillary Articulation, Treat- ed by Excision of the Right Condyle." His appointments and memberships num- bered: Lecturer on operative surgery to New York Hospital ; professor of surgery. University of Vermont ; visiting surgeon, St. Luke's Hospital and afterwards to St. Vin- cent's ; member of the New York State Med- ical Society; fellow New York Academy of Medicine. Brooklyn Med. Jour., 1900, vol. xiv. Post-graduate, N. Y.., 1887-7, vol. ii. Trans. Med. Soc. N. Y., Syracuse, 1886, D. B. St. J. Roosa. Little, Timothy (1776-1849) George Little, the founder of the Newbury (Massachusetts) branch of this family, came from London, England, and was the grand- father, twice removed, of Dr. Timothy Little, now to be delineated. Timothy Little was born in Newbury, October 27, 1776, was edu- cated at Phillips Exeter Academy, studied medicine with Dr. Jewell of Berwick, Maine, and was later a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society. He settled first in New Gloucester, Maine, about 1806, and before long enjoyed a large practice. He possessed a great reputation as a medical teacher, and often had as many as fifteen students under his instruc- tion at one time. He built up an extensive anatomical museum, composed of dissections made by himself or by his pupils under his direction. The teaching value of these col- lections is indicated by a vote at an early meeting of the Directors of the Medical School of Maine, in 1821, requesting the loan of the museum to the new institution. Finding country practice too difficult to en- dure, Dr. Little removed to Portland in 1826 and practised there until his death. He married Eliza Lowell of Portland by whom he had five sons, none of whom, how- ever, practised medicine. He early imbibed the views of Swedenborg and often officiated in the local church in the absence of the reg- ular preacher.