LITTON
103
LIVINGSTON
He spent three and one-half years
abroad, and on May 15, 1843, was
appointed professor of chemistry and
pharmacy in the Medical Department
of the St. Louis University. This
college was later known as the St.
Louis Medical College, or Pope's, and
now is recognized as the Medical De-
partment of Washington University.
His slender salary was $300, later in-
creased to $600, and finally placed at
$1000. He added to this income by
his labors in connection with the Geolog-
ical Surveys of Iowa and Missouri,
and by his employment as chemist in
the Belcher Sugar Refinery.
The first effort of the Washington University towards advanced educa- tion was in starting a scientific school. They sought a professor of chemistry, and endeavored to find him in the East. Judge Treat, a director of the university, conferred with Prof. Hors- ford, of Harvard, concerning the best available man. He replied, " Why not Litton, of St. Louis?" This aroused their interest in a man eminently qualified for the place, who had labor- ed in their midst for more than ten years as a teacher and as a scientist. Later the Rev. W. G. Eliot asked Dr. Litton to take the professorship, telling him that they wanted to establish a scientific school of high grade in the city, but that they lacked money. Dr. Litton responded to this appeal and offered his services. This was in 1857.
For full forty-nine years, he held his place in the St. Louis Medical College. He resigned in 1892, much to the regret of the faculty, and against their earnest protest. He died Sep- tember 22, 1901.
Every student must remember the expression of hopeless despair mani- fested not only in his mobile face, but in his whole body, as some particularly dull boy disappointed his oft-repeated efforts to force comprehension of the facts he so clearly presented. His laboratory was a store house of living
truths to him. I remember well the
rush he would make down its long
stairway, every angle of his bony frame
bristling with exclamation points, if
sounds of disaster in some beloved
experiment reached him.
Though immersed in the fumes of his laboratory and enveloped in the mysteries of the phenomena of the material world, his love of humanity ever kept him in touch with those who came to him for help and advice.
Remarks made in behalf of the Alumni Asso- ciation of the St. Louis Medical LSchool, by Henry H. Mudd, on the "Life and Charac- ter of Dr. Abram Litton and Dr. John T. Hodgen."
There is a portrait in Wash. Univer., Mis- souri.
Livingston, Robert Ramsey (1827-1888).
Robert Ramsey Livingston, of Platts- mouth, was undoubtedly the most promi- nent of Nebraska's early physicians. A Canadian by birth, of Scotch-Irish descent, he was born August 10, 1827, in Montreal. His early education was received in the Royal Grammar School in the same city.
Having received the degree of M. D. at McGill University he later attended lectures at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City and for a time after graduation acted as superintendent of the Lake Forest Mining Company near Houghton, Mich- igan. In 1857 he abandoned this work and came to Plattsmouth.
In 1861, while acting as temporary editor of the "Platte Valley Herald," he received the news that the flag had been fired upon at Fort Sumter. He immediately stopped the press as an edition of the paper was being issued and printed a circular calling for vol- unteers to serve the Union. As a result of this, Company A of the First Nebraska was organized at Platts- mouth with Livingston as captain (July 12, 18G1). In July of the same year he was promoted to the rank of major; in June, 1862, lieutenant-colonel of the First Nebraska Regiment.
