Dr.
Valentine Mott, distinguished surgeon , who was born at Glen Cove, Oyster
Bay, Long Island, in New York on August 20, 1785. His father Dr. Henry
Mott, who was also a native of Long Island, and lived to be eighty-three,
was for many years engaged in the practice of the medical profession in the
City of New York. The family in Long Island were Quakers, and it was not
until Valentine had reached middle life that he laid aside altogether the
customary straight coat of the sect. His portrait, as a young man, painted
by Inman and engraved by Durdan, which represents him as he always was, of a
fine personal appearance, has a decided Quaker costume. Mott was instructed
in the classics by a private teacher at Newtown, Long Island, and at the age
of nineteen entered Columbia College, New York, to pursue the full course of
medical studies, while he became partially acquainted with the duties of the
profession by his attendance at the office of his relative Dr. Valentine
Seaman.
He
received his degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1806, when he visited Europe
for the purpose of availing himself of the ample opportunities of medical
and surgical study afforded by the hospital practice and eminent instructors
in the science in Great Britain. He frequented the great hospitals of
London over which John Abernethy, Sir Charles Bell, and Sir Astley Cooper
presided, and received particular instructions from the last mentioned, in
anatomy and surgery; while he was assisted in his medical attainments by
Currie and Haighton. He also took a course of study in the University of
Edinburgh, during his two years abroad. Mott returned to New York in 1809,
with the prestige of his foreign acquisitions and a good repute already
acquired for practical skill in his surgical operations. He was immediately
appointed Professor of Surgery in Columbia College; and when, after four
years, that medical school was merged in the College of Physicians and
Surgeons, he still continued his professorship until 1826. In 1826, he
resigned the college and with his friends, Doctors Hosack, Mitchell,
Francis, and others, established the short-lived Rutgers' Medical College,
which was broken up in 1830. Besides continuing as a lecturer, Mott gained
a high reputation in his general practice for his boldness and success in
the performance of difficult original operations.
In 1834,
Dr. Mott, suffering from a nervous system disorder, visited Europe for the
restoration of his health. During this six year visit to Europe, Mott
traveled through Great Britain, Central Europe, Greece, Egypt and Turkey,
and on his return published in New York, in 1842, a volume, descriptive of
his journey, entitled "Travels in Europe and the East." In 1849, Dr. Mott
was elected President of the New York Academy of Medicine, and on occasion
of his induction in that office was welcomed by an address from the retiring
President, Dr. John W. Francis. On the death of Dr. Francis,,, in 1861, Dr.
Mott delivered a eulogy or discourse on the life and character of that
friend and companion, Dr. Mott was chosen President of the Binghamton (New
York) State Inebriate Asylum, an institution founded in 1858, for which he
delivered an address, which has been printed. Dr. Mott, received a shock of
the assassination of President Lincoln's, from which he never recovered. On
Wednesday April 26, 1865, Dr. Mott passed away. Dr. Mott left behind him,
as a memorial of his labors and studies one of the most extensive and
valuable museums of relative anatomy - the occupation of his entire
professional life-ever brought together by a private individual. Unhappily
this vast collection, on the eve of being deposited in a suitable locality,
was utterly destroyed by fire in the disastrous conflagration in New York,
in May, 1866, which, beginning in the Academy of Music, spread to the
adjoining Medical College, where the Museum was temporarily placed.
MOTT, Valentine, surgeon, born in Glen Cove,
L.I., 20 August, 1785 ; died in New York city, 26 April, 1865. He was
descended from an English Quaker who settled on Long Island about 1660,
and was the son of Henry, a physician, who practised for many years in
New York city. The son received a classical education at a private
seminary at Newtown, L. I. and at the age of nineteen entered the office
of his kinsman, Dr. Valentine Seaman, under whose instructions he
remained till 1807, at the same time attending the medical lectures at
Columbia college, which gave him his degree in 1806. He then went to
London, became a pupil of Astley Cooper, studied practical anatomy by
the method of dissection, visited the hospitals, and attended the
lectures of the chief masters of surgery in that city, afterward
spending more than a year at Edinburgh under the instructions of eminent
teachers of the university. Returning to New York city in the autumn of
1809, he rapidly attained a reputation and practice. In the winter of
1810 he delivered a private course of lectures on surgery, and shortly
afterward he was made professor of surgery in Columbia college. In 1813
the medical faculty withdrew from connection with the college, and was
merged in the College of physicians and surgeons, and in 1826 the
trustees of this institution gave offence to Dr. Mort and his
associates, who formed a new school under the auspices of Rutgers
college, and subsequently connected themselves with the college at
Geneva, New York, but were compelled to close their institution in 1830
on account of a decision regarding the legal right to confer degrees.
Dr. Mott then returned to the College of physicians and surgeons, as
professor of operative surgery and surgical and pathological anatomy. In
1835 he resigned in order to rest from exhausting labors and repair his
health by travel. He was already recognized in Europe as one of the
first surgeons of the age. After a visit to London and a tour on the
continent, he returned to the United States at the end of sixteen
months. Finding that his health was not fully restored, he returned to
Europe, and made annual excursions from Paris into various countries
till 1841, when he came back to New York completely reinvigorated. In
Paris he spent much time in the hospitals, and became interested in a
new branch of orthopedic surgery. He intended to open an institution at
Blooming-dale for the treatment of orthopedic cases on his return, but
was dissuaded by his friends. When visiting Constantinople he removed a
tumor from the head of the Sultan Abdul Medjid, and was invested for
this service with the order of the Medjidieh, he was the principal
founder of the New York university medical college, and became professor
of surgery and relative anatomy, and president of the faculty on its
establishment in 1841. In 1850 his lectures were interrupted by a third
visit to Europe. From 1852 till his death he was emeritus professor and
lectured occasionally to the classes every year. He never committed to
memory or wrote out his lectures, but spoke from carefully digested
notes, with the dissection before him. He drew his subject-matter and
illustrations largely from his own experience, and paid little attention
to theories. After his return from Europe in 1841 he was again surgeon
to the New York hospital till 1850. He was subsequently for fifteen
years senior consulting surgeon to Belle-rue hospital, and for different
periods served in the same capacity for St. Luke's, the Hebrew, St.
Vincent's, and the Women's hospitals. Dr. Mort early gained a world-wide
reputation for boldness and originality as an operative surgeon. Through
life it was his constant practice before every novel or important
operation first to perform it upon the cadaver. When but thirty-three
years of age he was the first to place a ligature around the innominate
artery for aneurism of the right subclavian artery. The neighboring
arteries became involved, and the patient died from secondary
haemorrhage, due to ulceration on the twenty-third day. Dr. yon Graefe,
of Berlin, repeated the operation three years later, with the same
result, and it was not till 1861 that Dr. Andrew W. Smyth performed it
and insured the recovery of the patient by tying also the common carotid
and the vertebral arteries. In 1821 Dr. Mort excised the right side of
the lower jaw for osteo-sarcoma, having first ligated the primitive
carotid artery in order to prevent haemorrhage, and afterward he thrice
removed the bone at the temporo-maxillary articulation. He performed a
successful amputation at the hip-joint in 1824. In 1827 he ligated the
common iliac artery for a large aneurism of the external iliac artery,
placing the ligature within half an inch of the aorta. The artery had
been secured once before for the arrest of haemorrhage, with a fatal
result, but never for the cure of aneurism. Another of his original
operations was cutting out two inches of the deep jugular vein, which
was imbedded in a tumor. He was also the first surgeon to tie both ends
of that vein, and the first to close with fine ligatures longitudinal or
transverse wounds in large veins, even when slices had been cut out. He
tied the common carotid artery forty-six times. In 1828 he removed the
right clavicle, on which a large sarcomatous tumor had formed that had
contracted adhesions with important structures on every side. In this,
his "Waterloo operation." as he called it, he tied the jugular vein in
two places and not less than forty arteries. Although the patient
recovered, it was thirty years before any surgeon had sufficient
confidence in his dexterity, strength, and knowledge of surgical anatomy
to attempt a similar operation. In 1830 he effected a cure for
hydrorachitis or cleft spine, removing a tumor in the lower part of the
back, and later performed the same operation at the neck. From an early
period in his practice he was remarkably successful in rhinoplastic
operations, and in many instances restored the form of cheeks and lips
that had been badly mutilated through the excessive use of mercury.
Immobility of the lower jaw, caused by the same practice, engaged his
attention soon after his settlement in New York city, and he finally
devised an instrument on the screw and lever principle for prying open
the jaw, after a preliminary operation with the scalpel, which he put
into use in 1822. He was the first to remove the lower jaw for necrosis.
He was one of the foremost lithotomists of his day, operating by the
lateral method with the bistoury. He removed one stone that weighed more
than seventeen ounces, and operated 165 times altogether, losing only
one patient in twenty-seven. His amputations numbered nearly a thousand.
Dr. Mott possessed all the qualifications for a great operator. His
keenness of sight, steadiness of nerve, and physical vigor were
extraordinary. He could cut with one hand almost as well as with the
other, and developed a dexterity in the use of the knife that has never
been surpassed. He cultivated and refreshed his knowledge of surgical
and pathological anatomy by constant dissections and post-mortem
examinations, and collected a large museum of morbid specimens, at a
period when the law obstructed these practical methods of study that are
now allowed and protected. Although the most intrepid operator of his
age, performing, as said Sir Astley Cooper, "more of the great
operations than any man living, or that ever did live," yet he was a
friend and advocate of conservative surgery, and never performed an
operation without weighing the question of its necessity with much
deliberation. His success in capital operations was due not simply to
his surgical knowledge and skill, but in a large measure to his care in
the after-treatment of the patient and to a knowledge of therapeutics
that brilliant operators rarely possess. In addition to his surgical
practice, Dr. Mott's services as a physician were often sought. He
invented many admirable surgical and obstetrical implements, and till
the end of his life was eager to adopt in practice the inventions and
improvements of others in surgery or medicine. The introduction of
anaesthetics was facilitated by his early and frequent use of them. His
health and vigor lasted till the end of his life, and in his old age he
was still able to perform difficult surgical operations. In 1864 he went
with other physicians to Annapolis to investigate and report on the
condition of prisoners of war released from Confederate jails. Dr. Mott
received the honorary degree of M. D. from the University of Edinburgh,
and in 1851 that of LL.D. from the regents of the New York state
university. The medical societies of several states of the Union, the
Imperial academy of medicine of Paris, the Paris clinical society, and
the medical and chirurgical societies of London and Brussels each made
him a fellow, as well as King's and Queen's college of physicians of
Ireland, which has elected only twenty new members within two hundred
years. He was for a long period president of the New York academy of
medicine, and at the time of his death was president of the New York
inebriate asylum. Shortly after Dr. Mott's death his museum of
anatomical specimens was destroyed in the fire which consumed the
Medical college on 14th street, and many of his most valuable surgical
plates and preparations were consumed. His widow succeeded in gathering
some mementoes of his laborious life, and placed them in a building at
64 Madison avenue, now known as the Mort memorial, which was
incorporated in 1866, and is now under the special care of his son,
Professor Alexander B. Mort. It contains a library of nearly 4,000
volumes, exclusively on medical and surgical topics, and is free to all
medical students and physicians on application.P o . o Dr. Mort created
a trust in his will by virtue of which one gold, one silver, and one
copper medal are bestowed upon the three graduates of the New York
university medical college for the best dried anatomical specimens.
After returning from Europe in 1841 he published "Travels in Europe and
the East" (New York, 1842). His published papers on surgical topics
number only twenty-five, though some of them are of great length and
illustrated with numerous drawings. Literary composition was distasteful
to him. In 1818, with Drs. John Watts and Alexander H. Stevens, the
other professional attendants at the New York hospital, he established
the " New York Medical and Surgical Register," which was intended to
chronicle the more important cases, on the model of the "Dublin Hospital
Reports," but the publication was continued only for one year. He
supervised the translation by Dr. Peter S. Townsend of Alfred L. M.
Velpeau's " Surgical Anatomy," adding a preface and copious notes and
illustrations from his published cases and reports, filling several
hundred pages. The curvilinear incision in resections of the bones and
operations on the jaws, to which Professor Velpeau attached much
importance, was mainly originated by Dr. Mott, though not credited to
him in the French treatise. In 1862 he prepared, at the request of the
United States sanitary commission, a paper on the use of anaesthetics
for the use of army surgeons, and subsequently a tract on the means of
suppressing haemorrhage in gun-shot wounds, which was intended as a
guide for the use of soldiers on the battle-field. Several of his
professional papers were published in the "Transactions " of the New
York academy of medicine, and one was presented to the Royal medical and
chirurgical society of London, treating of a rare congenital tumor of
the skin called pachydermatocele, first described by him. He published a
" Sketch of the Life of Dr. Wright Post." His inaugural address as
president of the New York academy of medicine was printed; also an
address entitled "Reminiscences of Medical Teaching and Teachers in New
York" (New York, 1850); "Address before the Trustees of the New York
Inebriate Asylum at Binghamton";" Anniversary Discourse before the
Graduates of the University of New York" (1860); and a "Eulogy on John
W. Francis, M. D." (1861). Dr. Samuel W. Francis published "Mott's
Cliniques," being an abstract of his later clinical lectures (New York,
1860). See "Memoir of the Life and Character of Mort, Facile Princeps,"
by Samuel W. Francis (New York, 1865);" Eulogy on the Late Valentine
Mott," by Alfred C. Post (1865); and "Memoir of Valentine Mott," by
Samuel D. Gross (Philadelphia, 1868).--His son, Valentine, physician,
born in New York city, 22 July, 1822: died in New Orleans, Louisiana, 20
September, 1854, was graduated at the medical department of the
University of the city of New York in 1846 and then became his father's
assistant and prosector. His health becoming impaired, he went to
Palermo, Sicily, where he was the first to introduce chloroform and
ether in connection with operations in surgery, and attained to great
reputation. Subsequently he was identified with the rebellion in Sicily
and was made surgeon-general of the insurgent forces. Dr. Mott was also
active in the field as colonel of cavalry, and at one time, at the head
of 900 men, cut his way through a superior force of the regular troops,
reaching Palermo after losing one third of his soldiers. He opposed the
surrender of that city, and when its capitulation was decided upon he
escaped by means of an English vessel. On his return to the United
States he was elected professor of surgery in the Medical college of
Baltimore, and was the first to establish a public clinic in that city.
His health again compelled him to travel, and he sought relief in
California. There the news of the new insurrections in Italy reached
him, and he at once started for the field of action, but was stricken
with yellow fever while passing through New Orleans and there died.
_________________
From Bellevue Hospital:
1847 Mott,
Valentine 1865.
M. D., Columb., 1806; LL. D., elsewhere; Prof.
Surg., Columb., 1811-13 ; Coll. Phys. & Surg., 1813-26; Rutgers Med.
Coll., 1826-30; Prof. Op. Surg. & Surg. Anat., Coll. Phys. & Surg.,
1831-37; Pres. & Prof., Surg. Univ., City N. Y., 1841-50; Emeritus,
1852-65 ; Pres., N. Y. Acad. Med., 1849. In London and Edinburgh,
1806-9, at St. Thomas's, St.
Bartholomew's, & Guy's Hospitals, under Abernethy, Sir Charles Bell, and
Sir Astley Cooper. Ligated the arteria innominata two inches from the
heart for aneurism of the right sub-clavian, first time in history of
surgery, and patient lived 28 days, 1818; operated for osteosarcoma of
lower jaw, first time, and removed lower jaw for necrosis, 1821;
introduced his original operation for immobility of lower jaw, 1822;
exsected entire right clavicle for malignant disease, 1828 (patient
living in 1865); first to be successful in ligating primitive iliac for
aneurism; tied common carotid 46 times; exsected lower jaw in different
portions, cutting out two inches of the deep jugular vein inseparably
imbedded in a tumor, and tied both ends of the vein. Author of " Mott's
Velpeau," 4 vols., 820 pp., 8°, N. Y., and of the following papers:
"Relative Anatomy of Sub-clavian Artery with Scaleni Muscles"; " Memoirs
on Injuries of Skull and Brain," illustrated by cases; "Essay on
Pulsation in Epi- gastrio"; "Memoir on Tying the Arteria Innominata";
several papers on " Exsection of the Lower Jaw in Various Portions and
Articulation on one Side," with plates; " The Utility of Tying the
Common Carotid for safe Removal of Large Tumors," etc. ; "Removal of
Thyroid Body weighing Four pounds, with Entire Success"; " Original
Nasal Operation " (successful), with plates ; " Distal, Anticardial or
Bras- dorean Operation on the Right Carotid for Aneurism of the
Innominate "; " Successful Amputation of the Hip-joint," with plates;
"Papers on Ligatures of Carotids, Sub-clavian, External, and Internal
Iliacs"; "Successful Exsection of Clavicle for Enormous Osteosarcoma
Ulcerated and Bleeding"; " Memoirs on a Peculiar Tumor of the Skin,"
illustrated by drawings and cases; " Letters to Amussat on the Effects
of the Admission of Air into the Veins in Surgical Operations"; "Paper
on Tying the Left Sub-clavian under Scalenus Anticus, attended with
Peculiar Circulation, Recovery"; " Memoirs on the Removal of Enormous
Tumors in the Neck in Small Children," with cases and draw-ings; "
Treatment of Ununited Fractures." Died in N. Y.
City, 1865, .et. 79; cause, typho-malarial fever, followed
by gangrene of leg. Father of Alexander Brown Mott.
