surgery and surgical and pathological anatomy.
In 1835 he resigned in order to rest from exhaust-
ing labors and repair his health by travel. He was
already recognized in Europe as one of the first
surgeons of the age. After a visit to London and
a tour on the continent, he returned to the United
States at the end of sixteen months. Finding that
his health was not fully restored, he returned to
Europe, and made annual excursions from Paris
into various countries till 1841, when he came back
to Xew York completely reinvigorated. In Paris
he spent much time in the hospitals, and became
interested in a new bi'anch of oi'thopedic surgery.
He intended to open an institution at Blooming-
dale for the treatment of orthopedic cases on his
return, but was dissuaded by his friends. When
visiting Constantinople he removed a tumor from
the head of the Sultan Abdul Medjid, and was in-
vested for this service with the order of the Med-
jidieh. He was the principal founder of the New
York university medical college, and became pro-
fessor of surgery and relative anatomy, and presi-
dent of the faculty on its establishment in 1841.
In 1850 his lectures were interrupted by a third
visit to Europe. From 1853 till his death he was
emeritus professor and lectured occasionally to
the classes every year. He never committed to
memory or wrote out his lectures, but spoke from
carefully digested notes, with the dissection be-
fore him. He drew his subject-matter and illus-
trations largely from his own experience, and paid
little attention to theories. After his return from
Europe in 1841 he was again surgeon to the New
York hospital till 1850. He was subsequently for
fifteen years senior consulting surgeon to Belle-
vue hospital, and for different periods served in
the same capacity for St. Luke's, the Hebrew,
St. Vincent's, and the Women's hospitals. Dr.
Mott early gained a world-wide reputation for
boldness and origmality as an operative surgeon.
Through life it was his constant practice before
every novel or important operation first to per-
form it upon the cadaver. When but thirty-three
years of age he was the first to place a ligature
around the innominate artery for aneurism of the
right subclavian artery. The neighboring arteries
became involved, and the patient died from second-
ary hfemorrhage, due to ulceration on the twenty-
third day. Dr. von G-raefe, of Berlin, repeated the
operation three years later, with the same result,
and it was not till 1864 that Dr. Andrew W.
Smyth performed it and insured the recovery of
the patient by tying also the common carotid and
the vertebral arteries. In 1821 Dr. Mott excised
the right side of the lower jaw for osteo-sarcoma,
having first ligated the primitive carotid artery in
order to prevent hiemorrhage, and afterward he
thrice removed the bone at the temporo-maxillary
articulation. He performed a successful amputa-
tion at the hip-joint in 1824. In 1827 he ligated
the common iliac artery for a large aneurism of
the external iliac artery, placing the ligature within
half an inch of the aorta. The artery had been
secured once before for the arrest of haamorrhage,
with a fatal result, but never for the cure of aneu-
rism. Another of his original operations was cut-
ting out two inches of the deep jugular vein, which
was imbedded in a tumor. He was also the first
surgeon to tie both ends of that vein, and the first
to close with fine ligatures longitudinal or trans-
verse wounds in large veins, even when slices had
been cut out. He tied the common carotid artery
iorty-six times. In 1828 he removed the right
•clavicle, on which a large sarcomatous tumor had
formed that had contracted adhesions with impor-
tant structures on every side. In this, his '• Water-
loo operation." as he called it, he tied the jugular
vein in two places and not less than forty arteries.
Although the patient recovered, it was thirty years
before any surgeon had sufficient confidence in his
dexterity, strength, and knowledge of surgical
anatomy to attempt a similar operation. In 1830
he effected a cure for hydrorachitis or cleft spine,
removing a tumor in the lower part of the back,
and later performed the same operation at the
neck. From an early period in his practice he was
remarkably successful in rhinoplastic operations,
and in many instances restored the form of cheeks
and lips that had been badly mutilated through
the excessive use of mercury. Immobility of the
lower jaw, caused by the same practice, engaged
his attention soon after his settlement in New
York city, and he finally devised an instrument
on the screw and lever principle for prying open
the jaw, after a preliminary operation with the
scalpel, which he put into use in 1822. He was
the first to remove the lower jaw for necrosis.
He was one of the foremost lithotomists of his
day, operating by the lateral method with the
bistoury. He removed one stone that weighed
more than seventeen ounces, and operated 165
times altogether, losing only one patient in tw^enty-
seven. His amputations numbered nearly a thou-
sand. Dr. Mott possessed all the qualifications for
a great operator. His keenness of sight, steadiness
of nerve, and physical vigor were extraordinary.
He could cut with one hand almost as well as with
the other, and developed a dexterity in the use of
the knife that has never been surpassed. He culti-
vated and refreshed his knowledge of surgical and
pathological anatomy by constant dissections and
post-mortem examinations, and collected a large
museum of morbid specimens, at a period when the
law obstructed these practical methods of study
that are now allowed and protected. Although the
most intrepid operator of his age, performing, as
said Sir Astley Cooper, '• more of the great opera-
tions than any man living, or that ever did live,"
yet he was a friend and advocate of conservative
surgery, and never pei'formed an operation withoixt
weighing the question of its necessity with much
deliberation. His success in capital operations
was due not simply to his sui'gieal knowledge and
skill, but in a large measure to his care in the after-
treatment of the patient and to a knowledge of
therapeutics that brilliant operators rarely possess.
In addition to his surgical practice, Dr. Mott's ser-
vices as a physician were often sought. He in-
vented many admirable surgical and obstetrical
implements, and till the end of his life was eager
to adopt in practice the inventions and improve-
ments of others in surgery or medicine. The intro-
duction of anaesthetics was facilitated by his early
and frequent use of them. His health and vigor
lasted till the end of his life, and in his old age he
was still able to perform difficult surgical opera-
tions. In 1864 he went with other physicians to
Annapolis to investigate and report on the condi-
tion of prisoners of war released from Confederate
jails. Dr. Mott received the honorary degree of
M. D. from the University of Edinburgh, and in
1851 that of LL. D. from the regents of the New
York state university. The medical societies of
several states of the Union, the Imperial academy
of medicine of Paris, the Paris clinical society, and
the medical and chirurgical societies of London
and Brussels each made him a fellow, as well as
King's and Queen's college of physicians of Ireland,
which has elected only twenty new members within
two hundred years. He was for a long period
Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/482
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MOTT
MOTT