xxvi Trans. Acad. Sci. of St, Louis. 



Dr. Litton left some valuable scientific apparatus, worth probably several 

 thousand dollars. His daughter has since donated this to the Missouri State 

 University. The Faculty of the University passed appropriate resolutions 

 on the death of Dr. Litton, referring to his scientific ability and his value 

 as a teacher, and extending sympathy to his daughter in her bereavement. 



At a meeting of the Alumni of Washington University, the St. Louis Med- 

 ical School and other institutions of St. Louis, held in Memorial Hall, St. 

 Louis, at Nineteenth and Locust streets, April 19th, 1895, special reference 

 was made to Dr. Litton by Dr. Henry H. Mudd, from which I extract the 

 following appropriate passages. This was six years before the death of 

 Dr. Litton. 



Dr. Mudd says : " Dr. Abram Litton is still with us — simple-minded as a 

 child, but stern as ever in his unflinching demand for the truth. On May 

 16, 1843, he was appointed Professor of Chemistry and Pharmacy in the 

 Medical Department of the St. Louis University. This was afterwards 

 known as Pope's but now is the Medical Department of Washington Uni- 

 versity. His salary was $300, later increased to $600 and finally to $1,000. 

 Besides this and work on the Missouri Geological Survey, he was also 

 chemist to the Belchers' Sugar Eeflnery. He attended to this for a while, 

 but concluding that they were paying him too much he resigned it. He was 

 so modest that his merits were not known so well at home as abroad, and 

 when Judge Treat asked Professor Horsford of Harvard for a chemist for 

 Washington University, be said, ' Why not Litton of St. Louis? ' In 1857 

 he was appointed to the Professorship in Washington University, which he 

 held until 1892, for thirty-five years. Later, when he traveled in the East 

 in the interest of the University, he refunded the money which had been 

 advanced to him to pay the expenses incurred. Where is there another 

 who would show such unselfishness." Dr. Mudd further says: " He in- 

 fused into his teachings such a demand for accurate thinking and precise 

 work as to call forth the best efforts of thoughtful students. A student of 

 nature, he has sought nature's truths in the crucible, found the story of the 

 sun in the spectroscope and wrung from the stars the mystery of the night. 

 His whole life has been laboriously given to the accumulation of hard facts. 

 Each one was stored away for future use, and became a part of the man. 

 Fact upon fact until truth shines forth from every day in the mosaic of his 

 life. There is not a black spot in the whole pyramid of truth which was 

 thus erected from the daily labor of a long and industrious life. He was 

 loyal to his friends, loyal to his own ideals, loyal to his trusts, loyal to 

 every purpose which he consented to serve." Such are the deserved 

 tributes offered by Dr. Mudd to the noble character of Dr. A. Litton. 



Dr. Litton delivered many useful and instructive lectures, but the pub- 

 lished list is small. The following I give: — 



1. An Introductory Lecture to the course of Chemistry and Pharmacy in 

 the St. Louis University — by A. Litton, Professor of Chemistry and Phar- 

 macy, 1844. 



2. Address to the graduates of the Medical Department of St. Louis Uni- 

 versity, 18 pages, St. Louis, 1851. 



3. Belcher and Bro. Artesian Well, 7 pages and plate. Transactions of 

 St. Louis Academy of Science, 1857. 



