Santa Fe weekly gazette. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1864-1869, 1865-06-03
Valentine Mot.

The first surgeon Of America is dead
Valentine Mott expired last evening, at
his residence in Gramorcy Park, in the
eightiQth year Of his age. To his immense
fame he leaves no heir on this continent
scarcely n rival even in Europe. Beyond
question tho most original genius in sur
gerry who spoke the English tongue, since
John Hunter died, it is doubtful whether
even tho great Frenchman who in the last
half century has made Paris tho school of
tho world in surgical scionce, possessed
greater powers Of mind or more daring
invention, or more delicately taught
hand, than Valentine Mott. Pupils in
America ho has many, but tho greatest Of
them bowed before the supremacy Of his
masters talent. Not Carnochan, nor Sym
mes, nor Pancoast; nor Warren; not tho
sunningost anatomists of Philadelphia, or
Now York, or Boston, ever thought Of
reaching tho first place in their profession
till Mott had relinqushod it. But to-day
the field Ia open to all comors.
VALENTINO Mott was born at Glen Cove,
Long Island, August 20, 1885. lIo was
graduated NJ, D. at Columbia College in
1906, then studied two years in London,
under Abomothy, Ashley Cooper and Cline.
llo went thence to Edinburg, where ho
spent a year. From 1909 to 1878, ho was
Professor of Surgery in Columbia College,
and thereafter, till 1862, held the same
chair in the College OF Physicians and
Surgeons. With an interval offour years
service in tho short-livcd Rutgers Medical
College, he returned to the College Of
Physicians and Surgeons, passing thence
to The University, Medical College, Of
which he was founder, as Professor Of
Surgery, and Relative Anatomy. OF the
latter science, immeasurably important to
surgery, hc is declared tho author. "But
his brilliant reputation" says high au-
thorty, "is mainly duo to his original op-
orations rs surgeon. AS early as 1873,
DR.. Mott placed a ligaturo around tho
brachooc0phalic trunk, or artoria innomi.
nata, only two inches from tho heart, for
anOurism Of the right subclavian artery,
for tho first time in tho history Of surgery.
The patient survived the operation twenty.
six days, indicating the feasibility of SO
dangerous an undertaking. llO exsectod
the entire right clavicle, formalignant dis
ease OF that bone, whoro it was necessary
to apply forty igatures, an operation which
DIR. Mott himself asserts to bo the most
dangerous and difficult that can bo per-
formed upon the human body. Tho patti
ontis still living, and enjoys perfect health.
DR.. Mott was the first to tic tho primitive
! lilac artery for anourism. llo hos tied tho
common carotid forty-six times, cut for
stone l6j times, and amputOted nearly
1909 limbs. lie early introduced his ori
ginal operation for immobility of tho low
or jaw, and succeeded, after many eminent
surgoonshNd failed. In 1921 he performed
the first operation for osteo-sarcoma of the
lower jaw. lIo was tho first surgeon who
removed the lower Jaw for necrosis"
OF DR.. Mott the great Sir Ashley Cooper
said: "lIo has performed more OF the great
operations than any man living, or hat
ever didlivs." lie translated and published
in four volumes SVo. Velpeau's Operative
| Surgery, then and now leading work, and
numerous papers and reports Of his have
been printed both in America and Europe.
His single name and fame have more than
all others contributed to give celebrity in
Europe to American surgical science, and
what iS an infinitely higher oulogy, he has,
by bis own hands and by those of his pu-
pills, conferred an incalculablo benefit upon
American surgery, and so wrought s!sadi.
| " for humanity and for tho alienation Of
human ills. There are few, il any, noblor
spheres Of action than that Of the surgeon;
thorO are few, if any surgOonsin the worlds
history who have done their boneGcont
work better than Valentine Mott.-LN. Y.
Tribune, 9th April,