ABSTRACT
Valentine Mott had a uniquely privileged medical and surgical education. His father, Henry Mott (1757-1840), was a well-respected Quaker physician of Long Island with prominent medical connec tions in New York, particularly his association with Samuel Bard (1742-1821), an influential medical educator at Columbia Kings College. Henry Mott saw that his son acquired elementary classical teachings at a private seminary. Further studies in secondary educa tion proceeded until 1804 when Valentine Mott began an appren ticeship in the office of his cousin, Valentine Seaman (1770-1817), a distinguished surgeon in New York City.2'9
During Valentine Mott s early medical career under the direct tu telage of his cousin, surgery occupied the most important interest of his young mind. While working in practical matters with Dr. Sea man, he attended a complete course of medical school lectures at Columbia Medical College. In 1806, he received his medical doctor degree with special distinction. Particularly remarkable is that his thesis did not show “an active predilection for a future career in sur gery,” as indicated by his noted medical biographer, surgeon and his torian Ira Rutkow.5 Valentine Mott rather referred to the chemical and medical properties of the Statice Limonium o f Linnaeus, a drug sometimes used for the treatment of diarrhea,6 as the central subject of his thesis.
