Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/483

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MOTT
MOTT
443


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 <3onsumed. 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 Mott memorial, which was incoi-- porated in 1866. and is now under the special care of his son. Prof. Alexander B. Mott. It contains 3, library of nearly 4,000 volumes, exclusively on medical and surgical topics, and is free to all medical students and physicians on application. Dr. Mott 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 Eu- rope 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 illus- trated with numerous drawings. Literary compo- sition 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 Surgi- cal Register," which was intended to chronicle the more important cases, on the model of the " Dub- lin 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 pref- ace and copious notes and illustrations from his published cases and reports, filling several hun- dred pages. The curvilinear incision in resections of the bones and operations on the jaws, to which Prof. Velpeau attached much importance, was mainly originated by Dr. Mott, though not credited to him in the French treatise. In 1863 he pre- pared, at the request of the U. S. sanitary commis- sion, a paper on the iise 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 pro- fessional papers were published in the '• Transac- tions " of the New York academy of medicine, and one was presented to the Royal medical and chi- rurgical society of London, treating of a rare con- genital 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 Clin- iques," being an abstract of his later clinical lec- tures (New York, 1860). See " Memoir of the Life and Character of Mott, Facile Princeps," by Sam- uel 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, b. in New York city, 22 July, 1822 ; d. in New Orleans, La., 20 Sept., 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 be- coming impaired, he went to Palermo, Sicily, where he was the first to introduce chloroform and ether in connection with operations in surgery, and at- tained 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. — Another son of Valentine, Alexander Brown, surgeon, b. in New York city, 31 March, 1826; d. near Yonkers, N. Y., 12 Aug., 1889, received a classical education during five years' residence abroad with his family. Visiting Europe again in 1842, he travelled for five years and underwent many adventures. Returning to New York city, he studied medicine in his father's office and in the University medical college, and afterward at the Vermont academy of medicine in Castleton, whei-e he was graduated in 1850. He began practice in New York city, and at the same time attended lec- tures in the New York medical college, from which he received a diploma in 1851. In 1850 he was ap- pointed surgeon to the New York dispensary. He also became in 1853 visiting surgeon to St. Vin- cent's hospital, which he had assisted in founding in 1849, was attending surgeon in the Jewish hospi- tal in 1855-63, and for fourteen years was surgeon to the Charity hospital. In 1857 he obtained the de- gree of M. D. from the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania. In 1859 he was ap- pointed attending surgeon at Bellevue hospital, and subsequently consulting surgeon to the Bureau of medical and surgical relief to the outdoor poor in New York city. In April, 1861, he undertook the organization of the medical corps of the mili- tia regiments that were sent to the seat of war, sub- sequently acted as medical director in New York, and founded, with the co-operation of patriotic ladies, the U. S. army general hospital in New York, of which he was made surgeon in charge, re- ceiving on 7 Nov., 1862, the commission of surgeon of U. S. volunteers, with the rank of major. Toward the close of 1864 he was made medical in- spector of the Department of Virginia, and attached to Gen. EdM'ard 0. C. Ord's staff. He was present at the conference between Gens. Grant and Lee where the terms of surrender were arranged. He was mustered out of the service on 27 July, 1865, with the brevet rank of colonel. Dr. Mott was one of the founders of Bellevue medical college, and was professor of surgical anatomy from its opening on 31 March, 1861, till 1872, and after that date he was professor of clinical and operative surgery. Among the important operations performed by Dr. Mott were the ligation of the common and internal carotid, the subclavian, the innominata, the com- mon, internal, and external iliac, and the femoral arteries; resection of the femur; two amputations at the hip-joint ; exsection of the ulna ; removal of the entire jaw for phosphor-necrosis twice ; and nu-