Page:A cyclopedia of American medical biography vol. 2.djvu/118

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LIXSLEY


100


LITTELL


a position he hokl for four yt^ar^ until his health compelled him to abandon it. During this time he became en- thusiastically interested in bacteriology and spent some time in Berlin in 1S90 under Prof. Koch.

Soon after his return from Berlin. Koch's famous discovery of tuberculin was announced and Linsley was sent back to Berlin by the Post-graduate Medical School to secure what informa- tion he could in regard to the new serum and he brought back the first bottle of tuberculin used here. Soon after, he translated Fraenkel's stand- ard work on bacteriology, but health. never rugged, broke down at this time and he was compelled to abandon work.

He held relations with the medical department of the University of Ver- mont during his stay in New York and was later made professor of his- tology, pathology and bacteriology, which position he held until 1899. In 1891 he returned to Burlington to live, but on account of his health was able to do only a limited amount of teaching and private laboratory work.

In 1897 Linsley proposed to the Vermont State Board of Health to give the people of the state, especially the physicians, an object lesson in the use of the laboratory in preventing disease. An arrangement was made with this Board by Avhich Linsley agreed to examine specimens, from practitioners of the state, of suspected cases of diphtheria and typhoid fever without remuneration for his services. The Board, however, agreed to reim- burse him as far as possible for the necessary equipment. The success of the experiment undertaken at his suggestion by the State Board was instantaneous. With characteristic en- ergy, Linsley undertook to interest the Legislature of the state in the use- fulness of a State Hygienic Laboratory and, equipped with his microscope and other technical apparatus, pro- ceeded, after the gathering of the next


(leneral Assembly in 1898, to Mont- pclier. The result was the present State Laboratory of Hygiene, one of the best of its kind in this country, and from the day of its foundation, through Dr. Linslcy's efforts, to the present time, one of the most completely equip- ])ed in the country, and is his best and most enduring monument, and in it, as director, he did his last and most valuable work, besides writing many papers for state and other societies.

He was married in July, 1880, to Nettie, daughter of Harmon A. Ray of Burlington, and had one son and a (laughter, Daniel Ray and Patty Hatch Linsle}'.

He died of meningitis at his home in Burlington, February 17, 1901.

c. s. c.

Am. Pub. Health Ass. Rep., 1899, Columbus,

1900, vol. X.XV (port.).

•J. .\m. M. .\., Chicago, 1897, vol. xxLx.

South. Prac, Nashville, 189S, vol. xx.

Tr. .M. .Soc, Tennessee, Nashville, 1898.

Littell, Squier (1803-1886).

The Littells were among the earliest emigrants to America, the line be- ginning with George Littell who with his brother Benjamin came from London to Newbury, Essex County, Massachusetts, about 1630. Squier was the third child of Stephen and Susan Gardiner Littell and was born in Bur- lington, New Jersey, December 3, 1803. But both parents died early and the boy was adopted by his uncle Dr. Squier Littell of Butler County, Ohio, and had an education at such schools as the country then possessed, after- wards studying medicine with his un- cle dividing time between the farm and his studies.

In 1821 he began to work under Dr. Joseph Parrish of Philadelphia, and three years later graduated at the LTniversity of Pennsylvania with a thesis on "Inflammation." Before set- tling in Philadelphia, he visited Buenos Ayres hoping to get a post there, but failed in this, yet was made a licentiate by examination of the Academy of