Born on November 23rd, 1840, in Finsbury Square, the third son of Dr W J Little, Physician to the London Hospital, a pioneer of modern methods of orthopedic surgery in this country, and the first to describe that form of spastic paraplegia now known as 'Little's disease'. His mother, Eliza, was a daughter of R W Tamplin (qv), the orthopedic surgeon. The child was named after Louis Stromeyer, of Hanover, originator of subcutaneous surgery, who had operated on Dr W J Little for talipes equinovarus due to infantile paralysis. He entered St Paul's School at the early age of 7, and when 14 years old was sent to continue his studies at Hanover and Kiel, where his excellence in Greek and Latin and his ignorance of mathematics, even of arithmetic, greatly surprised his teachers. He might, had he continued on the lines of his St Paul's School education, have become only a fine scholar, but he became a mathematician under De Morgan at University College, to which institution he was sent after his return to England. He was one of the last, if not the last, to hold the singular position of articled pupil to the Royal College of Surgeons, Thomas Blizard Curling, FRS (qv), being his master. He received his professional training at the London Hospital, where he was Lecturer in Anatomy and Curator of the Museum. In the year in which he qualified, at the age of 21, he was elected Assistant Surgeon. He also held appointments at the National Orthopaedic Hospital and at St Mary's Dispensary for Women and Children. His work soon showed that the honour was not undeserved. As an operator he was original in design, whilst he was cool, rapid, neat, and resourceful in performance. At the London Hospital he did the first subcutaneous osteotomy in this country for bony ankylosis of the knee, the case being recorded in the *Medico-Chirurgical Transactions*, 1871, liv, 247. In a preceding volume of the same *Transactions* (1870, liii, 93) he recorded a case where, with a hooked probang passed through the mouth, he successfully removed a gold plate and teeth from the oesophagus of a woman; the plate is preserved in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons. About the same time, as Surgeon to the National Orthopaedic Hospital, he performed the first osteotomy in this country for bow legs. From February to May, 1864, Little was Surgeon with the Troops in Schleswig during the Schleswig-Holstein Campaign. His duties were arduous, especially as an operator, and after the storming of Düppel he had on his hands some 2000 wounded Danes, Austrians, and Russians. He was then continuously on his feet for some forty hours, and recorded his experiences in a paper in the *London Hospital Clinical Reports* (1864, i, 274). In 1866 he worked extremely hard in the East End of London during a cholera epidemic, and was a pioneer of saline infusion into the veins as a means of treatment. He published a paper on the results of this procedure, which was then a novelty, in the *London Hospital Reports* (1866, iii, 132). In 1869 he was appointed full Surgeon at the London Hospital, but shortly afterwards accepted an important post in Shanghai, where he was in sole charge of the General Hospital till his retirement thirty years later. His two elder brothers, Archibald and Robert, had preceded him to China, where the former was well known as a traveller and writer on that country, and the latter was for many years editor of the *North China Herald*. None the less, his acceptance of the distant post was a speculation. He rapidly gained the leading surgical practice in his new sphere. Despite his strenuous life, he indulged in intellectual recreations; he founded an observatory at Shanghai, where he photographed the transit of Venus, and in conjunction with Mr Tainter, of the Imperial Maritime Customs, settled for the first time the longitude of Shanghai. In recognition of this work the Royal Astronomical Society elected him a Fellow. On his retirement from China he travelled home via Australia and South Africa. The Boer War was in progress, and he volunteered his services, and for three months was in charge of the surgical beds in No 9 Hospital, Bloemfontein. His health then failing, he returned to England, where he settled at Whitehill, Bletchingley. He was awarded the South African Medal. He gave evidence before the South African Commission appointed after the war in 1900-1901 to inquire into the shortage, etc, of hospital accommodation in Bloemfontein during the typhoid epidemic. His health during his closing years was ruined by the effects of an early infection with syphilis contracted during an operation, and by the effects of an attack of sprue. He was rigorously treated, but tabes could not be staved off. Throughout his life books had always been to him a great resource, and with increasing feebleness and diminishing powers of locomotion they became still more a means of comfort and solace. He died at Bletchingley on Oct 4th, 1911. He married Rosetta Anne, a daughter of Dr R Miller, Physician to the London Hospital, who survived him with an only child, Rear-Admiral C J C Little, CB, Director of the Naval Staff College at Greenwich. Publications: A busy life apparently prevented Little from publishing much, and his bibliography has yet to be written. His paper on abscess of the liver, published in the medical journal of the French Navy, excited much attention and bears witness to the importance of his researches when in the East.