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.
