Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 1417

VALENTINE MOTT (1785-1865) An account of a case of osteo-sarcoma of the left clavicle, in which exsection of that bone was successfully performed. (In American journal of the medical sciences. Vol. 3 (1828), pp. 100-108.) 20.7 cm.

Mott (see also No. 1850), the most renowned surgeon of New York in the nineteenth century, received his early medical education under local apprenticeship but later traveled to London where he studied under Sir Astley Paston Cooper (see No. 1224 ff.). Mott returned to New York in 1809 and held various posts with Columbia College, Rutgers Medical College, and the College of Physicians and Surgeons. Mott's fame rests primarily on his investigations and achievements in vessel ligation, a subject about which he wrote extensively. In 1818 he became the first to ligate the innominate artery for aneurysm, and in 1821 he successfully ligated the common carotid. Mott was a highly skilled, ambidextrous surgeon who commented "that it is the duty of a surgeon to operate in every case which allows of a rational hope of success, either of improving the patient's condition, or of preserving his life" (p. 100). By far the majority of his operations were performed before the introduction of anesthesia and his operative speed, intimate knowledge of surgical anatomy, and ability in planning were of utmost value in his success as a surgeon. Mott's biographer, Gross (see No. 1678 ff.), considered the present operation to be "by far the very greatest of all Dr. Mott's operations, not excepting those upon the innominate and primitive iliac arteries" (Memoir of Valentine Mott. New York, 1868. p. 48). Mott himself commented that "This operation far surpassed in tediousness, difficulty, and danger any thing which I have ever witnessed or performed. It is impossible for any description which we are capable of giving, to convey an accurate idea of its formidable nature. The attachment of the morbid mass to the important structure of the neck and shoulder of the left side, and to so great an extent, is sufficient to indicate its magnitude and difficulty" (p. 107).

See Related Record(s): 1850 1224 1678

Cited references: Garrison-Morton 4452