Dr. Valentine Mott: Not Quite the Exalted Father of American Vascular Surgery'?

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Although he was referred to as the "father of American vascular surgery," it is apparent that Dr. Valentine Mott was not so universally liked and respected ("Valentine Mott and the Innominate Artery," Vascular Surgery Chronicles, May/June 2007, p. 20).

In fact, he was probably a pompous horse's posterior in addition to being a good surgeon. I am fortunate to possess volume 1 of the New York Lancet, January-June 1842, a journal published in New York City which incorporated reviews, lectures from distinguished professors in medicine, mortality reports, and letters. At the time, Dr. Mott was a professor at the Stuyvesant Institute of Medicine.

Here are a few tidbits:

Dr. Mott published a book in 1842, reviewed in the New York Lancet, titled, "Travels in Europe and the East ... in the years 1834, '35, '36, '37, '38, '39, '40, and '41." The five-page review ended with this summary: "In operative surgery, Dr. Mott, the world knows, is a hero--but in syntax, he is a very dunce: In the domains of 'surgery with surgical and pathological anatomy,' he is, to use his own simile, a Napoleon--in the fair fields of literature he is the very incarnation of Dullness. On glandular swellings and burrowing fistulas he gazes with a master's eye--on the face of Nature, and the scenery of the moral world, he looks with the interesting ignorance of a blubbering boy. Long may Dr. Mott live to bless us with his surgical dexterity, but never, oh! Never let him again visit our sins with a book!"
A letter to the editor: "Dear Sir: In the Lancet of the 26th inst. I noticed the following remarks by Dr. Mott, in his lecture on the removal of the parotid gland: 'This gentleman (Dr. Bushe) asserted, after some years practice, that he had twice performed this operation. With both cases I am familiar, and in neither was the gland extirpated.' I herewith send you the January 1832 number of the Medico-Chirurgical Bulletin, in which will be found reported three cases of the successful removal of the parotid gland by Dr. Bushe. At one of those (the case of Mrs. B) I was present, and assisted in the operation. I am certain the parotid gland was extirpated in that case. I am equally certain Dr. Mott was not present. The operation was successful; I visited the patient frequently after it. Very respectfully yours, J.B. Craft, M.D., New York, February 28, 1842."
Finally, although there are several more illuminations of the man, there is this excerpt from his long description of an excision of a facial tumor, given in one of his lectures: " ... I said to one of the assistants, 'Hold on to his head,' and I was determined to give him a monstrous tug; and with both hands in this way, I gave one wrench, and away it all came, and staid away till this day. He is perfectly well. Little or no bleeding followed, and the wound was carefully closed with stitches, and healed by the first intention. Now this is a new operation, and as such, I claim it for myself and for my country. Somebody told me that it was done in London, and that the case is given in the first volume of the London Medical Gazette. But no, I have read that, and it's not like mine. The patient perished ... "

Although we all have our warts, my impression of Dr. Mott is not that of the "father of American vascular surgery," but more like that obnoxious uncle you wish would go away.

Harold J. Welch, M.D.
Burlington, Mass.

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