Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1885-04-10
DEATH OF DIR. LITTLE.


Another Professor in the Medical College
Gone.
The sudden death of DR.. James l.. Little.
of New York, who was Professor of surg
cry in the Medical Department of the
University of Vermont, was announced
Sunday morning by telegram from
DR.. Little's son, to DR.. Grinnell. a later
despatch gave the following particulars,
which are all that is known
"Tbe doctor died of peritonitis from
perforation, yesterday afternoon. Funeral
Monday at tive.'
The unexpected nature of this calamity
may be Judged from the fact that DR..
Grinnell had but just received some mail
matter from DR.. Little addressed III Dr.
Titles own handwriting, and until the
receipt of Sundays kilograms supposed
that the Doctor was in his usual health
This death falls heavily upon the Medical
Department of the University, coming as
it does so soon after the death of that
other eminent member of the faculty, DR..
William Darling DR.. Little ha Il many
warm friends and sincere admirers in
Burlington, who will mourn his untimely
deceaSe.
The following facts of his life are given
by the Encyclopedia of Contemporary
Biography James Lawrence Little was
born in Brooklyn, n. Y, February 10,
1886. His father George w. Little, was a
prosperous lumber merchant in New York
city DR.. Little received Il careful train
ing in his youth, and early showed Il
marked interest in medicine and kindred
sciences. In 1851 he entered the office of
the distinguished New York surgeon, vii
lard Parker, as a private student. He
also entered the New York College of Ply
sicians and Surgeons, from which he
graduated with honor in 1860. In the au-
tumn of 1859 he was appointed junior as
sistant in Bellevue hospital, which posi-
ton he exchanged six months later, for
that of junior assistant surgeon at the
New York hospital. He soon rose to be
house surgeon of the hospital and while
holding this Office he wrote Il series of
papers on cases occurring in the hospital,
which were published IN the 4 hn mGr
ing out of the civil war DR.. Little was
appointed surgeon-in-chief of the Park
Barracks hospital, for sick and wounded
Union soldiers. After the second battle
of Bull Run Dr. Little went to Washing
ton and was assigned to the charge of the
temporary hospital for wounded men,
established in the National Capitol. Suisse
quently he served as United states surgeon
at the White House on the Pamunkey
river. After the war he was prominent in
sanitary reform in New York city. Dr.
Lttle's fame as Il surgeon dates back to a
paper from his pen on the treatment of
fractures by the plaster of paris splint,
published in the american Mcdicdl
Times in December, 1901. \ prominent
Dublin medical journal reprinted the ar
tcle, and it was freely quoted from. From
1862 to 1865 DR.. Little served for various
periods as attending surgeon of the North
eastern and Northwestern Dispensaries,
and in 1868 was appointed consulting sur
geon to the latter Dispensary, an Office
which he held at his death. In 1868 he
was appointed attending surgeon to st.
Luke's hospital in New York and after
serving the full time of ten years was
appointed consulting surgeon. DR.. Little
began his career as teacherin 1868, when
he was appointed clinical assistant to
Prof. Willard Parker in the College of
Physicians and Surgeons of New York. In
1868 he was appointed lecturer on opera
tive surgery in that institution. In 1876
he accepted the professorship OF surgery
in the Medical Department of the Uni
versity of Vermont, which position
he has held until his death. Dr.
Little's services, not only as n lee
turer, but as an active worker in building
up the medical department OF the lnlver
sity,c can not be overestimated. In 1876 Dr.
Little was appointed attending surgeon
to st. Nincent's hospital in New York
city. In January, 1879, he was appointed
surgeon to the Mary Fletcher hospital in
this city, and performed the first surgical
operation in that institution. At the time
of his death he was consulting surgeon to
the hospital. Iii 1879 he accepted the pro
fessorship of clinical surgery in the
medical department of the University OF
the city of New York. He resigned this
position in 1882, and took an active part in
founding the New York postgraduate
medical school, in which he was appoint
ed professor of clinical and operative surg
cry.
Besides the honor of introducing the
plaster of paris treatment in fractures
DR. Little was the first American surgeon
to puncture the bladder with the aspirator
Probably his most brilliant surgical oper
alton was the simultaneous legation
of the sub-clavlan and carotid arteries OF
the right side, an account of was pub
lished in the New York Hospital gazette
of October Is, 1878. DR.. Little has pub
lished large number of papers'on surg
cal topics. He was a permanent member
of the American Medical Association, and
the New York State Medical Society, hon
orary member of the Vermont State Med
ical Society, Fellow of the New York
Academy of Medicine and a member o
the Pathological Society the Medico1ega
Society, and New York Surgical Societ,
and was at one time president of the
Northwestern Medical and Surgical SO
ciety. For several years he has been
member of the Union League club, New
York. He was a man of genial and rar
qualities, both in professional and private
life and was widely loved and respected
A STRATEGIC MOVEMENT.