Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/950

POTT the operation, as I was then quite young. To this wish I cheerfully acceded, but lost thus the chance of gaining a surgical laurel for my brow—the operation never having been performed in this country before, and but once in Europe, and then unsuccessfully, by its first projector, Mr. Ramsden, of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London. This is now, happily, a well recognized surgical procedure, which six times I have successfully performed. In this operation, the American needle for the ligature of deep-seated arteries was first used in New York, and it belonged to me.

"He married Miss Bailey of New York in 1790. After a career of forty years as a professor of anatomy, he retired into private professional life, in which he continued active, with occasional intervals of ill health, until his death, in the sixty-fourth year of his age. He died on the fourteenth of June, 1828, at Throg's Neck, New York, universally esteemed, deeply regretted, and leaving a good posterity."



Pott, John (1652)

Dr. John Pott being ordained by the London Court to succeed (q. v.) as physician to the colony of Virginia, sailed with his wife Elizabeth on the George and landed at Jamestown in 1620. Having succeeded to the Council in Virginia it seems natural that Pott should covet the former official's station and emoluments—that of physician-general to the Colony, with five hundred acres of land and twenty tenants. The minutes of the London Company for the sixteenth of July, 1621, show that he was recommended for the position by Dr. William Gulston: "For so much as the physicians place to the company was now become voyde by reason of the untimely death of Dr. Bohune, slain in the fight with two Spanish shipps of Warr the nineteenth of March last, Dr. Gulstone did now take occasion to recommend unto the company for the said place one Mr. Potts, a Mr. of Artes, well practised in Chirurgerie and Physique, and expert also in distillinge of waters, and that he had many other ingenious devices so as he supposed his service would be of great use unto the colony in Virginia."

The Council ordered that "If Mr. Pott would accept of the place upon the same conditions as Dr. Bohune did, he should be entertained and for his better content should be specially recommended to the Governor to be well accommodated and should have a chest of Physique £20 charge unto the company, and all things thereunto apertaining together with £10 in books of Physique which should always belonge unto the company, which chest of Physique and Books Dr. Gulstone was desired to by, and seeing he intended to carry over with him his wife a man and a maid they should have their transporte freed, and if one or more Chirurgions could be got they likewise should have their passage freed which conditions Mr. Pott having accepted of was refferred to the committees to be further treated and concluded with."

Dr. Theodore Gulstone, graduate of Oxford, died in 1632, bequeathing $1,000 for founding the Gulstonian chair of anatomy in the London College of Surgeons, a lectureship which is still continued.

Dr. Pott became a member of the Council by royal selection on May 24, 1625, and governor by election of the Council on March 5, 1628. After little more than a year as chief executive he was succeeded by Sir John Harvey. Hardly had the latter assumed the reins of government before Dr. Pott's enemies sought his disgrace, charging him with having pardoned and restored the privileges of a wilful murderer, and with holding some cattle not his own. Harvey confiscated his property and ordered him to remain under arrest at his home until the General Court of July 9, 1630, when he was arraigned before a jury of thirteen on the charge of "felony." The doctor declared the evidence against him hypocritical and unreliable but the jury found against him. Gov. Harvey withheld sentence until he could learn the wishes of the King, writing him that the prisoner "was the only physician in the Colony skilled in epidemical diseases," pleaded for his pardon, and the restoration of his estate because of his lengthy residence and valuable service. Mrs. Pott took ship for England to importune the King in person.

Charles appointed a commission to determine the matter, which reported that the condemning of Dr. Pott "for felony" upon superficial evidence was drastic and very erroneous. The King signed his pardon restoring all rights and privileges on July 25, 1631, most particularly for the reason that he was "the only physician in the Colony."

After his pardon by the King, Dr. Pott retired from public life and devoted his time to his profession. He had acquired a grant of three acres on Jamestown Island in 1624, which was increased to twelve acres in 1628,